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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Science Fiction
- Subject: Miracles / Wonders
- Published: 07/08/2018
On the Origin of Souls. A Theory of God.
Born 1951, M, from Wilmington NC, United States.jpeg)
Not since Charles Darwin had one man pissed off so many people with a Theory, or a book. Nicholas Defiant had duplicated that feat, with both a book and a Theory that pissed off even more folks. I was one of them. I am the Chief Science Writer for a highly technical Magazine meant only for Nerds called: Alpha/Omega. I hate pseudoscience. And I hate metaphysics with its sloppy language and poor cousin mathematically deprived half baked “theories.” To call me a critic of Nicholas Defiant would be a gentle understatement - just shy of calling me his nemesis.
Until…
I got the call about ten in the morning. My Editor put me on the speaker system and said:
“Mike, have you read this book everyone is talking about? On the Origin of Souls- by some guy named Nicholas Defiant?”
“Yeah, Harvey. I haven’t read it yet, but I get the gist.”
“Well, get more than the gist, read the damn book.”
“Why?”
“Because Nicholas Defiant is granting only one Interview with him. All the Networks, all the Papers, every single Media Conglomerate has tried to reach him since his book has beat even the Harry Potter Books for sales records. He is willing to talk to only one person about it- you.”
“Me? Why me?”
“I am going to quote him to tell you why you: “Mr. Seymour, your readership is the brightest in the world. Mike is the only one with a big enough Math background, Physics Background and Biology to fully understand my book- as a critic. When he has read it, call me at this number- please don’t give it to anyone else. I will grant him an interview- and you can even film it for later after your print his review. But only Mike. And only if you return my call in a week. Good bye.”
“He wants me to read that thing in a week? It is over seven hundred pages.“
“I told him that. He said half the book is Math and Physics equations and biological constructs, the other half is all words written so a ten year old could follow it. He figures you will breeze through both.”
“Harvey, I don’t even like the Title: On the Origin of Souls. You know I don’t believe we even have souls.”
Harvey chuckled over the speaker:
“I believe Mike, that is why he chose you. What harsher critic can there be than a guy who can spot: bad math, sloppy physics, correlations mistaken as causality and who is a determined Atheist to boot. And that, Mike, is you.“
I was steaming. I didn’t want to read a piece of masked Conspiracy minded Religious metaphysics masquerading as Science. From the way folks were gobbling up the book though, he must be saying something folks want to hear. And among the Nerds that make up our readership, well, me and Harvey might be the only two who haven’t read it yet. I sighed.
“Okay, but you have to tell Susan and Derrick to take over all my other assignments until I get the book read, and the Interview with Mr. Defiant done.”
“I already told them. They are so excited that you are going to meet Mr. Defiant that they offered to film the Interview- and not be paid a penny.“
That stopped me in my tracks. Those two wanted pay for every comma, colon, or period that put in an article. And Susan took her own Wedding Videos and then charged her new In-Laws full price. Derrick wasn’t any better, for he Edited it for her, and charged her premium rates. For free? They must have found something in that book to relate to. And I thought they were like me- Science not Religion. Evidence not revelation. Oh. Dear.
“Okay, where can I get a copy?”
“You can’t. They are backlogged over ten million copies as of today. But, Susan is giving you her copy - and she wants it back!”
I sighed out loud.
“Okay, Harvey. I will go to Susan’s Office and pick up her copy. Then I am going home. If I have to read this thing, I at least want hot cocoa, my recliner, and no interference.“
“Go. You have a week. I expect you to tell me to call him in less than that.”
“We will see. It might take longer, you know, to check his Math and stuff.”
“I don’t know Mike, I have a feeling about this.”
I know Harvey did that to stir me to higher effort, because he knows I hate “feelings’ almost as much as blind belief. After all, most of us “feel” what we think is right, is actually right, and we are wrong.
“Stuff it.” I said.
Harvey laughed, and I went off to get Susan’s Copy.
****************************
It didn’t take me a week. Harvey’s Feelings were correct. It took me exactly nine and a half hours. Harvey called Mr. Nicholas Defiant the next morning. Here is an edited version of our conversation. Netflix just made me a billionaire, buying the rights to my Interview with Mr. Defiant, after I wrote the Article about it in Alpha/Omega. Three Billion People - Three Billion! Subscribed to Netflix just so they could see the footage when it comes out. I should have asked for more.
****************************
“Mike, I am so glad you read my book. So instead of me talking, why don’t you tell me what you thought?”
I had just shaken Mr. Nicholas Defiant's hand, a normal hand shake, no power moves, or stud muffin grip. Just an ordinary guy shaking hands with another guy. I liked him immediately. Of course, I had already read his book and knew that he was going to be the Einstein of our Generation, maybe of all time. He was a genius. And I told him that.
“I now believe in Souls. And before I did not. Is that enough testimony about your book, Mr. Defiant?”
“Call me Nick, please. And yes, that is quite the testimony. I think I should have the PR people put that blurb on the New Cover, with your permission, if that would be okay?”
“Yes. You can put my name under it too. I am not afraid of what I said.”
Nick smiled at me. I could see the “Thanks buddy” in his eyes. It was the least I could do. After all, the man proved to me I had a soul.
This time I spoke first:
“Okay…Nick, suppose you give a Cliff Notes, or Blogger Attention Span summary for our readers and viewers. So they can see how you developed your Theory. Can you do that?”
“Oh, of course. I mean it is really simple (I raised my eyebrows at that, he caught the look and chuckled lightly). I mean the ideas are simple. The Math, Physics and Biology get a bit more complex.“
At that, I laughed out loud.
“A bit.” I agreed smiling.
Nick turned a bright red. Then began again:
“Okay, we all know that everything in the Universe is made out of Matter, or Energy, because really they are the same thing. (I nodded) Only one thing in the Universe is not made of matter at all, and has no “energy” either- a Black Hole.”
A Black Hole, as you know, is composed of only bent SpaceTime and nothing else.“
I interuppted Nick:
“That escaped most non Academics and the General Public, until you explained it in your book. I loved the elegant flow of the equations as you built the path to that conclusion. Simply elegant.”
Nick reached over and gave me a fist bump. I returned it with vigor. He returned to his summary.
“Okay, so we also know, thanks to Einstein, that time is faster the farther you get away from any significant mass. Even just syncing Atomic Clocks, with one at at sea level and taking one up the top of that Mountain in New Hampshire, showed that the Clock on the mountain top was moving faster. Time had sped up on the mountain.
“I know. I did my Doctorate on how to make GPS satellites account for that difference. If those satellites did not take their faster time into account, your car GPS would be off by about six miles- every day.”
This time it was Nick that fist nodded at me. He started up again:
“So Mike, we know that when you “die” something is not there. Because we cannot animate life, only recover it. Near Death Experiences are not reanimation. We can build all the chemical and biological building blocks of life, and it still won’t live. Or be alive. We aren’t even sure when life “begins” but we know - with the exception of virus’s - that life is animated. Something makes us alive, but what?”
I had read his book. So I knew.
As you know, my original work was in “thought”. What is a thought, how does it arise from a mere chemical or electro chemical stimulus? I discovered that thoughts more closely resembled black holes than they did any chemical reaction. For thoughts are some kind of effect outside the chemicals producing the action potential in a neuron. A burst of electric impulse amplified by nearby neurons firing en masse, and a thought is born: “Honey, I love you. I need bread. It is hot out here.” Just spikes of energy, that’s all.
“Nick, but tell them where that led you.”
“Oh. You mean that in our brains, some areas seem to “contain” ideas, memories, or bits and pieces of shapes, colors, etc, that form pictures of people we like or care bout. So memory exists where?”
“In the hippocampus , isn’t that what the neuroscientists were saying?”
“No, Mike. They said that the hippocampus and other “nodes” facilitate and track the trajectory of a memory, routing it to either short term or long term memory for storage. But Mike, where is the memory itself?”
“I didn’t know until I read your book. Why don’t you tell us?”
“The memories are not physical things anymore. Because the chemicals that produced them are gone. The neuron is there, but every single component of it has been replaced within minutes, hours for some, and at most, a few days. So how does a chemical reaction “remember” when it is reproduced? It can’t. That would be like turning on your kitchen tap, and the water remembered the last time it was in the sink it was soapy. So the water gets soapy and dirty - because well, it is water and it remembers its other reactions. It doesn’t though, does it?”
“No.” I said smiling.
“So why does your brain remember proteins it already disassembled to make more transmitters, or receptors?”
“It doesn’t.”
“Precisely. So that led me to believe that memory is just a small black hole at a quantum level. No longer a physical process, or maintaining any reality, it is separate from matter. Okay so now we have Black Holes that aren’t made of matter or energy, and thoughts that aren’t made of that stuff either. But…Black Holes need both matter and energy to form. Then they disappear from our Universe. Just like thoughts. Once the electro chemical process is over, thoughts are independent of matter or energy.“
Nick was gaining speed and excitement as he explained his Theory, and it was contagious. None of us interrupted him, letting his words stream forth and take over our minds.
“It was a small step from there, to think that evolution happens to every living thing- well what if evolution happens in those areas that aren’t either matter or energy? If time speeds up in the void, it must be very fast time for any living thing. If you wanted to live ‘longer” you would have to slow down. Anything living fast, would want more “time” to experience, savor, enjoy and experience living. Life in the slow lane is better.“
Everyone in the crew, myself included, laughed. We knew what was coming.
“Hawking and Kip Thorne proved that Black Holes disappear over long periods of Time. Roger Penrose started the idea of quantum tubules, he had the right idea, but was on the wrong track. Quantum Foam is nothing but a Black Hole. Thoughts, or Life living so fast, it winks in and out of existence."
And that (Nick leaned back smiling) is when I realized that Black Holes were birthing Souls for Fast Forms of life to slow down and interact with Matter and Energy. Animating every living thing on Earth. Our Souls, if you will, are just life wanting to live a bit longer- and since they aren’t made of matter or energy, Black Holes leak souls. Fast moving Life grabs them, slowing them down to the level of living matter. Simple.”
All of us were beaming. Nick had made it all sound so simple. But I had read the book, and the last line of it seemed so poetic, perfect and precise, I had him repeat it for us- verbatim:
“Nick, what was the last sentence in your book? Do you remember what you wrote?”
He winked at me.
“Yes, Mike, I do remember, for my thoughts are still mine. I said:
“Our bodies are made of Stardust, our Souls are made of Black Hole dust. One is of the physical world, the other exists outside of matter and energy. Together, they are alive. SpaceTime trapped in matter. Black Holes are God, we are their Children.“
No wonder so many folks hated Darwin, but most never read his book. Nick was hated by many, but everybody, and I mean Everybody has read, is reading, or will read, his book. After all, wouldn’t you want to know you had a soul? But folks don’t like the fact that there are many “gods” and we are part of them all. And they…are part of us.
On the Origin of Souls. A Theory of God.(Kevin Hughes)
Not since Charles Darwin had one man pissed off so many people with a Theory, or a book. Nicholas Defiant had duplicated that feat, with both a book and a Theory that pissed off even more folks. I was one of them. I am the Chief Science Writer for a highly technical Magazine meant only for Nerds called: Alpha/Omega. I hate pseudoscience. And I hate metaphysics with its sloppy language and poor cousin mathematically deprived half baked “theories.” To call me a critic of Nicholas Defiant would be a gentle understatement - just shy of calling me his nemesis.
Until…
I got the call about ten in the morning. My Editor put me on the speaker system and said:
“Mike, have you read this book everyone is talking about? On the Origin of Souls- by some guy named Nicholas Defiant?”
“Yeah, Harvey. I haven’t read it yet, but I get the gist.”
“Well, get more than the gist, read the damn book.”
“Why?”
“Because Nicholas Defiant is granting only one Interview with him. All the Networks, all the Papers, every single Media Conglomerate has tried to reach him since his book has beat even the Harry Potter Books for sales records. He is willing to talk to only one person about it- you.”
“Me? Why me?”
“I am going to quote him to tell you why you: “Mr. Seymour, your readership is the brightest in the world. Mike is the only one with a big enough Math background, Physics Background and Biology to fully understand my book- as a critic. When he has read it, call me at this number- please don’t give it to anyone else. I will grant him an interview- and you can even film it for later after your print his review. But only Mike. And only if you return my call in a week. Good bye.”
“He wants me to read that thing in a week? It is over seven hundred pages.“
“I told him that. He said half the book is Math and Physics equations and biological constructs, the other half is all words written so a ten year old could follow it. He figures you will breeze through both.”
“Harvey, I don’t even like the Title: On the Origin of Souls. You know I don’t believe we even have souls.”
Harvey chuckled over the speaker:
“I believe Mike, that is why he chose you. What harsher critic can there be than a guy who can spot: bad math, sloppy physics, correlations mistaken as causality and who is a determined Atheist to boot. And that, Mike, is you.“
I was steaming. I didn’t want to read a piece of masked Conspiracy minded Religious metaphysics masquerading as Science. From the way folks were gobbling up the book though, he must be saying something folks want to hear. And among the Nerds that make up our readership, well, me and Harvey might be the only two who haven’t read it yet. I sighed.
“Okay, but you have to tell Susan and Derrick to take over all my other assignments until I get the book read, and the Interview with Mr. Defiant done.”
“I already told them. They are so excited that you are going to meet Mr. Defiant that they offered to film the Interview- and not be paid a penny.“
That stopped me in my tracks. Those two wanted pay for every comma, colon, or period that put in an article. And Susan took her own Wedding Videos and then charged her new In-Laws full price. Derrick wasn’t any better, for he Edited it for her, and charged her premium rates. For free? They must have found something in that book to relate to. And I thought they were like me- Science not Religion. Evidence not revelation. Oh. Dear.
“Okay, where can I get a copy?”
“You can’t. They are backlogged over ten million copies as of today. But, Susan is giving you her copy - and she wants it back!”
I sighed out loud.
“Okay, Harvey. I will go to Susan’s Office and pick up her copy. Then I am going home. If I have to read this thing, I at least want hot cocoa, my recliner, and no interference.“
“Go. You have a week. I expect you to tell me to call him in less than that.”
“We will see. It might take longer, you know, to check his Math and stuff.”
“I don’t know Mike, I have a feeling about this.”
I know Harvey did that to stir me to higher effort, because he knows I hate “feelings’ almost as much as blind belief. After all, most of us “feel” what we think is right, is actually right, and we are wrong.
“Stuff it.” I said.
Harvey laughed, and I went off to get Susan’s Copy.
****************************
It didn’t take me a week. Harvey’s Feelings were correct. It took me exactly nine and a half hours. Harvey called Mr. Nicholas Defiant the next morning. Here is an edited version of our conversation. Netflix just made me a billionaire, buying the rights to my Interview with Mr. Defiant, after I wrote the Article about it in Alpha/Omega. Three Billion People - Three Billion! Subscribed to Netflix just so they could see the footage when it comes out. I should have asked for more.
****************************
“Mike, I am so glad you read my book. So instead of me talking, why don’t you tell me what you thought?”
I had just shaken Mr. Nicholas Defiant's hand, a normal hand shake, no power moves, or stud muffin grip. Just an ordinary guy shaking hands with another guy. I liked him immediately. Of course, I had already read his book and knew that he was going to be the Einstein of our Generation, maybe of all time. He was a genius. And I told him that.
“I now believe in Souls. And before I did not. Is that enough testimony about your book, Mr. Defiant?”
“Call me Nick, please. And yes, that is quite the testimony. I think I should have the PR people put that blurb on the New Cover, with your permission, if that would be okay?”
“Yes. You can put my name under it too. I am not afraid of what I said.”
Nick smiled at me. I could see the “Thanks buddy” in his eyes. It was the least I could do. After all, the man proved to me I had a soul.
This time I spoke first:
“Okay…Nick, suppose you give a Cliff Notes, or Blogger Attention Span summary for our readers and viewers. So they can see how you developed your Theory. Can you do that?”
“Oh, of course. I mean it is really simple (I raised my eyebrows at that, he caught the look and chuckled lightly). I mean the ideas are simple. The Math, Physics and Biology get a bit more complex.“
At that, I laughed out loud.
“A bit.” I agreed smiling.
Nick turned a bright red. Then began again:
“Okay, we all know that everything in the Universe is made out of Matter, or Energy, because really they are the same thing. (I nodded) Only one thing in the Universe is not made of matter at all, and has no “energy” either- a Black Hole.”
A Black Hole, as you know, is composed of only bent SpaceTime and nothing else.“
I interuppted Nick:
“That escaped most non Academics and the General Public, until you explained it in your book. I loved the elegant flow of the equations as you built the path to that conclusion. Simply elegant.”
Nick reached over and gave me a fist bump. I returned it with vigor. He returned to his summary.
“Okay, so we also know, thanks to Einstein, that time is faster the farther you get away from any significant mass. Even just syncing Atomic Clocks, with one at at sea level and taking one up the top of that Mountain in New Hampshire, showed that the Clock on the mountain top was moving faster. Time had sped up on the mountain.
“I know. I did my Doctorate on how to make GPS satellites account for that difference. If those satellites did not take their faster time into account, your car GPS would be off by about six miles- every day.”
This time it was Nick that fist nodded at me. He started up again:
“So Mike, we know that when you “die” something is not there. Because we cannot animate life, only recover it. Near Death Experiences are not reanimation. We can build all the chemical and biological building blocks of life, and it still won’t live. Or be alive. We aren’t even sure when life “begins” but we know - with the exception of virus’s - that life is animated. Something makes us alive, but what?”
I had read his book. So I knew.
As you know, my original work was in “thought”. What is a thought, how does it arise from a mere chemical or electro chemical stimulus? I discovered that thoughts more closely resembled black holes than they did any chemical reaction. For thoughts are some kind of effect outside the chemicals producing the action potential in a neuron. A burst of electric impulse amplified by nearby neurons firing en masse, and a thought is born: “Honey, I love you. I need bread. It is hot out here.” Just spikes of energy, that’s all.
“Nick, but tell them where that led you.”
“Oh. You mean that in our brains, some areas seem to “contain” ideas, memories, or bits and pieces of shapes, colors, etc, that form pictures of people we like or care bout. So memory exists where?”
“In the hippocampus , isn’t that what the neuroscientists were saying?”
“No, Mike. They said that the hippocampus and other “nodes” facilitate and track the trajectory of a memory, routing it to either short term or long term memory for storage. But Mike, where is the memory itself?”
“I didn’t know until I read your book. Why don’t you tell us?”
“The memories are not physical things anymore. Because the chemicals that produced them are gone. The neuron is there, but every single component of it has been replaced within minutes, hours for some, and at most, a few days. So how does a chemical reaction “remember” when it is reproduced? It can’t. That would be like turning on your kitchen tap, and the water remembered the last time it was in the sink it was soapy. So the water gets soapy and dirty - because well, it is water and it remembers its other reactions. It doesn’t though, does it?”
“No.” I said smiling.
“So why does your brain remember proteins it already disassembled to make more transmitters, or receptors?”
“It doesn’t.”
“Precisely. So that led me to believe that memory is just a small black hole at a quantum level. No longer a physical process, or maintaining any reality, it is separate from matter. Okay so now we have Black Holes that aren’t made of matter or energy, and thoughts that aren’t made of that stuff either. But…Black Holes need both matter and energy to form. Then they disappear from our Universe. Just like thoughts. Once the electro chemical process is over, thoughts are independent of matter or energy.“
Nick was gaining speed and excitement as he explained his Theory, and it was contagious. None of us interrupted him, letting his words stream forth and take over our minds.
“It was a small step from there, to think that evolution happens to every living thing- well what if evolution happens in those areas that aren’t either matter or energy? If time speeds up in the void, it must be very fast time for any living thing. If you wanted to live ‘longer” you would have to slow down. Anything living fast, would want more “time” to experience, savor, enjoy and experience living. Life in the slow lane is better.“
Everyone in the crew, myself included, laughed. We knew what was coming.
“Hawking and Kip Thorne proved that Black Holes disappear over long periods of Time. Roger Penrose started the idea of quantum tubules, he had the right idea, but was on the wrong track. Quantum Foam is nothing but a Black Hole. Thoughts, or Life living so fast, it winks in and out of existence."
And that (Nick leaned back smiling) is when I realized that Black Holes were birthing Souls for Fast Forms of life to slow down and interact with Matter and Energy. Animating every living thing on Earth. Our Souls, if you will, are just life wanting to live a bit longer- and since they aren’t made of matter or energy, Black Holes leak souls. Fast moving Life grabs them, slowing them down to the level of living matter. Simple.”
All of us were beaming. Nick had made it all sound so simple. But I had read the book, and the last line of it seemed so poetic, perfect and precise, I had him repeat it for us- verbatim:
“Nick, what was the last sentence in your book? Do you remember what you wrote?”
He winked at me.
“Yes, Mike, I do remember, for my thoughts are still mine. I said:
“Our bodies are made of Stardust, our Souls are made of Black Hole dust. One is of the physical world, the other exists outside of matter and energy. Together, they are alive. SpaceTime trapped in matter. Black Holes are God, we are their Children.“
No wonder so many folks hated Darwin, but most never read his book. Nick was hated by many, but everybody, and I mean Everybody has read, is reading, or will read, his book. After all, wouldn’t you want to know you had a soul? But folks don’t like the fact that there are many “gods” and we are part of them all. And they…are part of us.
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Gail Moore
07/13/2018Oh my goodness. What if?
I love this kind of story. You wrote it so well. This is just the kind of story that keeps me awake at night just thinking. What if.
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Kevin Hughes
07/13/2018Ah yes, "What if?" I think many good stories come from just those two words. Because I don't have a TV, nor do I do Social Media, I have time to think- and that leads to some strange things- and stories. Thanks for thinking so deeply that the story intrigued you. I expect you to produce a "What if?" Story soon! LOL Smiles, Kevin
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JD
07/10/2018This story pretty much goes over my head, theoretically, scientifically, and mathematically speaking, and I'm not sure if I like thinking of souls as a black hole, or God/gods as the black hole that gives birth to souls. But the story is ingeniously thought-provoking, interesting, intriguing, mind-blowing for those whose minds can embrace the theories involved, and definitely a GREAT read. Love the pic too! THANK YOU for sharing this HOLEY story on Storystar, Kevin! Another among the many of your stories well worthy of front page Stardom, as the Short Story STAR of the Week! :-)
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Kevin Hughes
07/10/2018Aloha Jd, mysteries are part of life, and pondering them is fun. Like memories? How can they be stored anywhere in the brain, when every molecule in our bodies is broken down over time? Things like that intrigue me, and black holes are no different. The thing they need to make them, isn't part of their world. And isn't that what we say about the Soul? Like Love, everyone knows it when they see it, but doggone if we can bottle it. My story might be full of holes, but Holey Cow, it was fun. LOL Smiles, Kevin
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Charles E.J. Moulton
07/09/2018Fantastic! Love it! Wonderful with the scientific proof and the story of the author. Beautiful.
Check out my own article here, A Universe of Possibilities, that was named Story Star of the week last week.
Ideas like these.
I have an author's website if you are interested:
https://cejm-author.weebly.com/
My trailer:
https://youtu.be/SPpXnwv4Ag0
Fabulous work.
Nice to find a kindred soul.
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Kevin Hughes
07/09/2018Aloha Charles! Thanks so much, and speaking of things in common: I was a Stand-Up Comedian for thirty years. My friend Steve Rawlings (a Juggler) you may have come across in Germany. He is British, but does his show in German, Spanish and French. I think he is only fluent in German though out of the other languages. Like you, he is a polymath too. Smiles, Kevin
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