“You exist?”
“In the flesh, so to speak.” A chuckle.
“But, but…”
“You were the greatest physicist born of humankind and you’re surprised?”
“Now what?”
“Asking that question, answers the question; I gave you free will, all the physical, mental, and spiritual tools you needed, My Word, I sent to you Messiah, and, still, you reject me?”
“Free will means I can change my mind, right?”
“Indeed. Repent now, without condition.”
“Unconditionally? Why? Where?”
“A new heaven, and a new earth; created for those choosing, without preconditions, to live, joyfully, in my presence, forever.”
“The alternative?”
“Remain on Old Earth in the company of your peers.”
“For eternity?”
“As you understand ‘eternity.’”
“No word games. Be clear.”
“Your understanding of time is irrelevant outside this small thing you call ‘the universe;’ a stumbling block you refused to contemplate in life; no Creator, no Creation!
Sarcasm. “So, you’re telling me, ‘The End’ is near?”
God chuckled. “Good one! To me, an instant; to you, tens of billions of years.”
“Then I’ll” stay. “Reason will serve me.”
“Done.”
Stumbling along behind a platoon of sweating, farting, cursing soldiers, pike in hand, the physicist muttered, “Where in hell am I?”
The sting of a lash, “Keep up, dammit. We’re late for today’s battles!”
“I need time to think! I’m a physicist, not a soldier!”
Crack!
“Shut up soldier! We don’t have forever you know!”
“But…”
Whispered voices.
“I was a Pope.”
“I, a rationalist.”
“Now we just pray, to God, for eternity’s end.’”
