The Light and the Dark

Wednesday, September 27, 2019

“I am Arhiziel, Messenger to the Light and Servant of The One,” said Geeky Dude. “You guys were there, is that what you heard?”

The usual cast of characters was gathered around the TV set. I admit that I enjoyed The Preacher’s company, and I could even put up with Born Again, but Geeky Dude gets on my nerves. He seems to exist in some kind of science fiction fantasy land and he has the annoying habit of making comparisons to scifi science. Born Again and Geeky Dude routinely go off on tangents – fighting over religion and science fiction, which in a way seems to be Geeky Dude’s religion. They’re both nuts, if you ask me, but they’re regular paying customers so John puts up with them.

Geeky Dude’s question sounded like the beginning of more of the same.

“What do you mean?” asked The Preacher.

“Well, it’s kind of odd phrasing don’t you think?”

I hadn’t given it much thought, but since he brought it up – yeah it was kind’ve odd, but then again it really didn’t sound much different from the phrasing attributed to most ‘messages from on high.’ And I said as much.

“No,” Geeky Dude said. “Look at the sentence structure.” He had a copy of the Tribune laid out on the table. Arhiziel’s message has been reprinted dozens of times in the last month, along with the messages from the Angels in Kansas and New York. From what I can tell, they are all pretty much the same.

“What are you getting at?”

“Look – ‘Messenger to the Light. To the Light, not of the Light.”

“Translation error,” John said.

“That’s why I asked, what did you hear? You were there.”

We all looked at each other, John, The Preacher, and me.

“To,” I said. “That’s what I heard.” The others nodded agreement.

“Translation error,” John said, again. “Look, I’m more convinced now than ever that there is nothing ‘divine’ about these creatures. They’re carbon based lifeforms, just like us. Their technology is so advanced that it looked like magic to a bunch of Iron Age sheepherders the last time they were here, but we’ve come a ways since then. And, Clarke’s Law aside, their technology has limits…”

“Sorry, no,” said The Preacher.

Anybody else, John might have slapped them down right there. But the three of us are becoming friends. I suspect that The Preacher is former military, though not Army, and while we don’t see to eye to eye on a lot of things he seems to respect both of our opinions. Respect earns respect, so John just raised an eyebrow at the interruption.

“Leaving aside your unsupported assumption that they’re carbon based for a moment, look at the rest of it, the message,” The Preacher said. “It’s stilted, sure. And there are some minor differences in the transcriptions depending on which source you read, but that part is always the same. I think the angel meant exactly what he said.”

“So, what’s it mean then?”

“Dark Matter,” said Geeky Dude.

“What?”

“Dark Matter,” continued Geeky Dude, he was getting exited. “Look, if you read that literally, Arhiziel is claiming to be a messenger for something else, The One, he said.”

“God,” Born Again said, somewhat predictably I thought.

“Sure, OK, whatever. But by definition God in indefinable, right? And so is Dark Matter or Dark Energy. Despite our best efforts we have never seen it, never detected it, yet supposedly it makes up 60% of the universe – we know it must be there, we can see its effects even if we can’t see it. Isn’t that exactly how you Christians see God? In science, Dark Matter is a matter of faith.”

“So you’re saying that the Angels are made of Dark Matter?”

“No. The Angels themselves said they are merely messengers in the service of something else. It seems to me that if that something else could interfere in the affairs of man directly, it would. Instead, it has dispatched servants who can. This doesn’t contradict anything in your bible, in fact – there are dozens of references to the Light and the Dark, aren’t there? What if they are literal, not allegorical?

I was sure that The Preacher would have something to say, instead he just looked thoughtful. Geeky Dude and Born Again went off on some tangent at this point. John sent me to inventory the storeroom; we haven’t been getting our regular supplies. But the farmer’s market is supposed to open tomorrow and we’re going down to stock up if we can.

I thought about what Geeky Dude said, and frankly I don’t see how it matters (heh) one way or the other. We are in the hands of powerful creatures, and I don’t see what we can do about it other than to cooperate.

Posted by VanDerDecken at 10:02 PM