Things Don't Go to Plan... Even for God

A couple of stories in David Eagleman’s collection of (very) short stories, Sum: Tales from the Afterlives, have a wicked sense of humour wrt God.

 

One such tale is titled “Mary”. As in Mary Shelly, the author of the famous Frankenstein’s Monster. It turns out that’s God’s favourite book!

“The first time He read Frankenstein, He criticized it the whole way through for its oversimplification of the processes involved. But when He reached the end, He was won over. For the first time, someone understood Him.”

Let’s understand that last part. Apparently, God’s “medical career” started with yeast and bacteria and went on to beetles and dolphins:

“But then, unwittingly, He crossed His Rubicon. He created Man.”

Before long, man’s savagery and destructive capabilities were out of control. Even God’s control. Hence His fascination with Frankenstein:

“All creation necessarily ends in this: Creators, powerless, fleeing from the things they have wrought.”

 

Another tale starts with what spiritual people will tell you about God:

“She is the elephant described by blind men: all partial descriptions with no understanding of the whole.”

And God likes things to be that way!

“Deep down She was afraid that an especially clear-thinking theologian would guess the answer. All the clues were there, and only people’s personal backgrounds got in the way.”

Yes, She likes religious folks better than the atheists, but not for the reason you thought:

“She likes them because they are intellectually non-adventurous and will be sure to get the answer just a bit wrong.”

But when those folks arrive in the afterlife, She finds Her plan had a flaw:

“The truth does not convince. The newly arrived Loyals have an imperturbable capacity to hold the beliefs with which they arrived, a deep reluctance to consider evidence that separates them from their lifelong context.”

The very apt title of this story? “Apostasy”.