This blog contains material I wrote and posted on multiply.com between the years 2005 and 2011 only. It does not contain any new material. For newer writing, please check my main blog (Bill the Butcher).


Friday 12 October 2012

Christallnacht

When the fire burned out they returned to the church.

“It’s a pity,” said the Priest, looking at the heap of ashes.  “It was a good church.”

“God’s place of residence?” asked the Atheist, smiling slightly, even at this time. “Then why did God allow it to be burned down?”

 “God moves in mysterious ways,” said the Priest with a sigh. “It’s not our place to question His wisdom.”

“Then you should be glad the place was burned down, shouldn’t you?” teased the Atheist. “Since it was God’s will and all. In fact,” he teased, “even evil must be God’s will, since nothing can exist without God’s will, am I right?”

“It is not your place, or mine,” intoned the Priest, “to question the Will of God. He brings forth His own wonders in His actions.”

“Tell that to the nun they killed,” said the Atheist viciously. “Ask her ghost, if you can, if she told herself, as she was being raped and burned, that it was all the Will of God.”

“You blaspheme,” said the Priest.

“No,” said the Atheist, “you blaspheme. Just as those did who came here, killed, raped and burned, and said it was the will of their god.”

“Their God is a stone,” said the Priest. “A stone.”

“And your God is a…?” The Atheist looked up at what was left of the crucified Jesus on the wall. “That?”

“God is in that, but God is much more than that.”

“And their God, does he approve of what they did to your God?”

“Their God does not exist. Mine does.”

“And your God likes being burned? Does He also like His followers to be burned?”

“God,” said the Priest, “has His reasons. It is not for us to judge Him.”

“Do you think,” said the Atheist, looking at the charred corpse of the nun, “that the Vatican will make her a saint, a few years from now?”    

The Priest did not reply.

In the end, they both survived - for which the Priest thanked God.

The nun was dead, anyway.





Copyright B Purkayastha 2008

 

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