Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media book Club, book Club, book Club, Boo Club.
Speaker 1: I'm a good singer. Hi. This is Margare Kiljoy and
Speaker 1: you are listening to Cool Zone Media book Club, the
Speaker 1: only book club that you don't have to do the
Speaker 1: reading for because I do the reading for you. And
Speaker 1: this week I'm going to keep reading you Tolstoy, because
Speaker 1: I'm on a kick where I want to read you
Speaker 1: the stories from old revolutionaries, and Tolstoy is one of
Speaker 1: the ones who actually knows how to write. I've got
Speaker 1: two stories for you that you might like, then, I
Speaker 1: feel like, are kind of interesting ways to write radical fiction.
Speaker 1: The first one is called The Two Brothers and the Gold,
Speaker 1: and I feel like this story more than anything else,
Speaker 1: is like, Yeah, tot is kind of seen as the
Speaker 1: founder of Christian anarchism, and I cannot imagine a story
Speaker 1: that more directly presents Christian anti capitalism than this particular story,
Speaker 1: The Two Brothers and the Gold. Once upon a time,
Speaker 1: in the days long since gone by, there dwelt at
Speaker 1: Jerusalem two brothers. The name of the elder was Athensius,
Speaker 1: the name of the younger John. They dwelt on a
Speaker 1: hill not far from the town, and lived upon what
Speaker 1: people gave to them. Every day the brothers went out
Speaker 1: to work. They worked not for themselves, but for the poor.
Speaker 1: Wherever the over worked the sick were to be found,
Speaker 1: wherever there were widows and orphans, Thither went the brothers,
Speaker 1: and there they worked and spent their time, taking no payment.
Speaker 1: Thus the brothers went about separately the whole week, and
Speaker 1: only met together in the evening of the Zabbath at
Speaker 1: their own dwelling. Only on Sunday did they remain at home,
Speaker 1: praying and conversing together, and the Angel of the Lord
Speaker 1: came down to them and blessed them. On the Monday,
Speaker 1: they separated again, each going his own way. Thus did
Speaker 1: the brothers live for many years, and every week the
Speaker 1: Angel of the Lord came down to them and blessed them.
Speaker 1: One Monday, when the brothers had gone forth to work
Speaker 1: and had parted their several ways, the elder brother, Ephensius
Speaker 1: felt sorry at having had to part from his beloved brother,
Speaker 1: and he stood still and glanced after him. John was
Speaker 1: walking with his bent head, and he did not look back.
Speaker 1: But suddenly John also stopped, as if he perceived something,
Speaker 1: and continued to gaze fixedly at it. Presently he drew
Speaker 1: near to that which he had been looking upon, and
Speaker 1: then suddenly leapt aside, and, not stopping for another instant,
Speaker 1: ran towards the mountain and up the mountain, right away
Speaker 1: from the place, just as if some savage beast were
Speaker 1: suing him. Athensius was astonished and turned back to the
Speaker 1: place to find out what his brother had been so
Speaker 1: afraid of. At last he approached the spot, and then
Speaker 1: he saw something glistening in the sun. He drew nearer.
Speaker 1: On the grass, as if poured out from a measure,
Speaker 1: lay a heap of gold. And Athensius was still more astonished,
Speaker 1: both at the sight of the gold and at the
Speaker 1: leaping aside of his brother. What was he afraid of?
Speaker 1: What did he run away from? Thought Athensius, there is
Speaker 1: no sin in gold. Sin is in man. You may
Speaker 1: do ill with gold, but you may also do good.
Speaker 1: How many widows and orphans might not be fed therewith,
Speaker 1: how many naked ones might not be clothed, How many
Speaker 1: poor and sick might not be cared for and cured
Speaker 1: by means of this gold. No, indeed, we minister to people,
Speaker 1: but our ministration is but little, because our power is
Speaker 1: so small, and with this gold we might minister to
Speaker 1: people much more than we do now, thus thought Ethhensius,
Speaker 1: and would have said so to his brother, But John
Speaker 1: was by this time out of hearing, and looked no
Speaker 1: bigger than a cockschafer on the farther mountain. And Ethhensius
Speaker 1: took off his garment, shoveled as much gold into it
Speaker 1: as he was able to carry, threw it over his shoulder,
Speaker 1: and went into the town. He went to an inn,
Speaker 1: gave the gold to the innkeeper, and then went off
Speaker 1: to fetch the rest of it. And when he had
Speaker 1: brought in all the gold, he went to the merchants,
Speaker 1: bought land in that town, bought stones, wood, hired laborers,
Speaker 1: and set about building three houses. And Ethensius abode in
Speaker 1: the town three months and built the three houses in
Speaker 1: that town. One of the houses was an asylum for
Speaker 1: widows and orphans, the second house was a hospital for
Speaker 1: the sick, and the third house was a hospice for
Speaker 1: the poor and the pilgrims. And Ethhensius sought him out
Speaker 1: three god fearing elders, and the first elder he placed
Speaker 1: over the refuge, the second over the hospital, and the
Speaker 1: third over the hospice for pilgrims, and Athensius had three
Speaker 1: thousand gold pieces still left, and he gave a thousand
Speaker 1: to each of the elders that they might have wherewith
Speaker 1: to distribute among the poor. And all three houses began
Speaker 1: to be filled with people, and the people began to
Speaker 1: praise Ofthensius for all that he had done, and Ethensius
Speaker 1: rejoiced thereat, so that he had no desire to depart
Speaker 1: from the town. But Ethhensius loved his brother, and taking
Speaker 1: leave of the people, and not keeping for himself a
Speaker 1: single coin of all this money, he went back to
Speaker 1: his dwelling in the self same old garment in which
Speaker 1: he had come to town. Othensius was drawing nearer to
Speaker 1: his mountain, and he thought to himself, my brother judged
Speaker 1: wrongly when he leapt aside from the gold and ran
Speaker 1: away from it. Haven't I done much better? And Ethensius
Speaker 1: had no sooner thought this than suddenly he beheld standing
Speaker 1: in his path the angel, who had been sent to
Speaker 1: bless him, but now looked threateningly upon him. And Athensius
Speaker 1: was aghast and could only say, wherefore, my lord? And
Speaker 1: the angel opened his mouth and said, thou art not
Speaker 1: worthy to dwell with thy brother, that one leap aside
Speaker 1: of thy brothers was worth more than all thou hast
Speaker 1: done with thy gold. Athensius began to talk of how
Speaker 1: many poor and how many pilgrims he had fed, of
Speaker 1: how many orphans he had cared for, And the Angel
Speaker 1: said to him that same devil who placed the gold
Speaker 1: there in order to corrupt thee hath also put these
Speaker 1: big words into thy mouth. And then the conscience of
Speaker 1: Althensius upbraided him, and he understood what he had done
Speaker 1: was not for God, and he wept and began to repent.
Speaker 1: Then the angel stepped aside from the road and left
Speaker 1: free for him in which John was already standing awaiting
Speaker 1: his brother. And from thenceforth Offensius yielded no more to
Speaker 1: the wiles of the devil which strewn the gold in
Speaker 1: his path. And he understood that not by gold, but
Speaker 1: by good works only could he render service to God.
Speaker 1: And his fellow man and the brethren dwelt together as
Speaker 1: before and like I read this, and I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not on the same page theologically as Tolstoy. I never
Speaker 1: thought I was. It's just so interesting to me because
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I don't know, he might have done
Speaker 1: better by like setting up all those you know, charities
Speaker 1: or whatever, or maybe there's other things he could have
Speaker 1: done with it instead. But this is internally consistent, and
Speaker 1: it is interesting to think about how You're like, well,
Speaker 1: you can create these institutions and try to have them
Speaker 1: be good, and very often when we create institutions, they
Speaker 1: do not do good. I would actually like to claim
Speaker 1: that the Catholic Church is a prime example of this.
Speaker 1: And you can argue with me or believe whatever you
Speaker 1: want about this, but the idea of creating these institutions,
Speaker 1: you know, power corrupts and Authentsius wasn't corrupted. He kept
Speaker 1: nothing for himself. But if you look at the history
Speaker 1: of the church, you see this, you know, thing that
Speaker 1: theoretically was probably created for what felt like charitable purposes
Speaker 1: and has done a lot of really destructive things by
Speaker 1: means of institutional power. And so perhaps setting up these things,
Speaker 1: I don't know, that's probably not what the story is
Speaker 1: really about. It probably is just literally about gold and
Speaker 1: that just trying to be good is more important. But
Speaker 1: I'm like, I also think it's important to try and
Speaker 1: do good at scale and just do it in a
Speaker 1: way where like maybe the problem is those just him
Speaker 1: deciding exactly what it's got to be done with the gold,
Speaker 1: whether he takes some for himself or not. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe I have all these opinions because this podcast is
Speaker 1: brought to you by ads and that feels out of
Speaker 1: character to what we just read. But here they are
Speaker 1: and we're back. Okay, I have a second story for you.
Speaker 1: It's also by Tolstoi. I didn't introduce him last time.
Speaker 1: Leo Tolstoi was a nineteenth century Russian author, one of
Speaker 1: the most famous authors in literature history, and he wrote
Speaker 1: War and Piece, I guess most famously, and he wrote
Speaker 1: a lot of stories, and he's seen as the the
Speaker 1: sort of father of Christian anarchism. And yeah, he has
Speaker 1: like good quotes about like the anarchists are right and
Speaker 1: everything except the idea that bombs are how you bring
Speaker 1: about good things. I'm not only paraphrasing, I'm just repeating
Speaker 1: from memory badly. This story is called the Coffeehouse of
Speaker 1: Sarat and warning for outdated language. And you know whatever,
Speaker 1: I'm reading a story from the nineteenth century is not
Speaker 1: the way that I would recommend people write about certain
Speaker 1: ideas now, But y'all can understand that in the town
Speaker 1: of Sarat in India, there was a coffee house where
Speaker 1: many travelers and foreigners from all parts of the world
Speaker 1: met and conversed. One day, a learned Persian theologian visited
Speaker 1: this coffee house. He was a man who had spent
Speaker 1: his life studying the nature of deity and reading and
Speaker 1: writing books on the subject. He had thought, read and
Speaker 1: written so much about God that eventually he lost his wits,
Speaker 1: became quite confused, and ceased even to believe in the
Speaker 1: existence of a God. The Shah, hearing of this, had
Speaker 1: banished him from Persia. After having argued all his life
Speaker 1: about the first cause, this unfortunate theologian had ended by
Speaker 1: quite perplexing himself, and instead of understanding that he had
Speaker 1: lost his own reason, he began to think there was
Speaker 1: no higher reason controlling the universe. This man had an
Speaker 1: African slave who followed him everywhere. When the theologian entered
Speaker 1: the coffee house, the slave remained outside near the door,
Speaker 1: sitting on a stone in the glare of the sun
Speaker 1: and driving away the flies that buzzed around him. The Persian,
Speaker 1: having settled down on a divan in the coffee house,
Speaker 1: ordered himself a cup of opium. When he had drunk it,
Speaker 1: and the opium had begun to quicken the workings of
Speaker 1: his brain, he addressed his slave through the open door,
Speaker 1: Tell me, wretched, slave, said he. Do you think there
Speaker 1: is a god or not? Of course there is, said
Speaker 1: the slave, and immediately drew from under his girdle a
Speaker 1: small idol of wood. There, said he. That is the
Speaker 1: God who has guarded me from the day of my birth.
Speaker 1: Everyone in our country worships the fetish tree, from the
Speaker 1: wood of which this God was made. This conversation between
Speaker 1: the theologian and his slave was listened to with surprise
Speaker 1: by the other guests in the coffee house. They were
Speaker 1: astonished at the master's question, and yet more so at
Speaker 1: the slave's reply. One of them, a Brahmin, on hearing
Speaker 1: the words spoken by the slave, turned to him and said, miserable, fool,
Speaker 1: is it possible that you believe God can be carried
Speaker 1: under a man's girdle. There is only one God, Brahma,
Speaker 1: and he is greater than the whole world, for he
Speaker 1: created it. Brahma is the one, the mighty God, and
Speaker 1: in his honor are built the temples on the Ganges
Speaker 1: banks where his true priests, the Brahmans, worship him. They
Speaker 1: know the True God, and none but they. A thousand
Speaker 1: score of years have passed, and yet through revolution after revolution,
Speaker 1: these priests have held their sway because Brahma, the One
Speaker 1: True God, has protected them. So I spoke the Brahman,
Speaker 1: thinking to convince everyone. But a Jewish broker who is present,
Speaker 1: replied to him and said, no, the temple of the
Speaker 1: True God is not in India. Neither does God protect
Speaker 1: the Brahman cats. The True God is not the God
Speaker 1: of the Brahmins, but of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. None
Speaker 1: does he protect but his chosen people, the Israelites. From
Speaker 1: the commencement of the world, our nation has been beloved
Speaker 1: of Him and ours alone. If we are now scattered
Speaker 1: over the whole earth, it is but to try us.
Speaker 1: For God has promised that he will one day gather
Speaker 1: his people together in Jerusalem. Then, with the Temple of
Speaker 1: Jerusalem the wonder of the ancient world restored to its splendor,
Speaker 1: shall Israel be established a ruler over all nations. So
Speaker 1: spoke the jew and burst into tears. He wished to
Speaker 1: say more. But an Italian missionary who was there interrupted him.
Speaker 1: What you are saying is untrue, he said to the
Speaker 1: jew you attribute injustice to God. He cannot love your
Speaker 1: nation above the rest. Nay, Rather, even if it be
Speaker 1: true that of old he favored the Israelites, it is
Speaker 1: now nineteen hundred years since they angered him and caused
Speaker 1: him to destroy their nation and scatter them over the earth,
Speaker 1: so that the faith makes no converts and has died
Speaker 1: out except here and there. God shows preference to no nation,
Speaker 1: but calls all who wish to be saved to the
Speaker 1: bosom of the Catholic Church of Rome, the one outside
Speaker 1: whose borders no salvation can be found, so spoke the Italian.
Speaker 1: But a Protestant minister, who happened to be present, growing pale,
Speaker 1: turned to the Catholic missionary and exclaimed, how can you
Speaker 1: say that salvation belongs to your religion? Those only will
Speaker 1: be saved who serve God according to the Gospel, in
Speaker 1: spirit and in truth, as bidden by the Word of Christ.
Speaker 1: Then a turk An office holder in the custom house
Speaker 1: at Surat, who was sitting in the coffee house smoking
Speaker 1: a pipe, turned with an air of superiority to both
Speaker 1: the Christians. Your belief in the Roman religion is vain,
Speaker 1: said he. It was superseded twelve hundred years ago by
Speaker 1: the true faith, that of Mohammed. You cannot but observe
Speaker 1: how the true Mohammedan faith continues to spread, both in
Speaker 1: Europe and Asia, and even the enlightened country of China.
Speaker 1: You say yourselves that God has rejected the Jews, and
Speaker 1: as proof you quote the fact that the Jews are
Speaker 1: humiliated and their faith does not spread. Confess, then the
Speaker 1: truth of Mohammedism, for it is triumphant and spreads far
Speaker 1: and wide. None will be saved but the followers of Mohammed,
Speaker 1: God's last prophet, and of them only the followers of Omar,
Speaker 1: and not of Ali, for the latter are false to
Speaker 1: the faith. To this, the Persian theologian, who was of
Speaker 1: the sect of Ali, wished to reply, But by this
Speaker 1: time a great dispute had arisen among all the strangers
Speaker 1: of different faiths and creeds. Present. There were Abyssian Christians,
Speaker 1: Lamas from tibet Ismailians and fire worshipers. They all argued
Speaker 1: about the nature of God and how He should be worshiped.
Speaker 1: Each of them asserted that in his country alone was
Speaker 1: the true God known and rightly worshiped. Everyone argued and shouted,
Speaker 1: except a chinaman, a student of Confucius, quietly in one
Speaker 1: corner of the coffee house, not joining the dispute. He
Speaker 1: sat there, drinking tea and listening to what the others said,
Speaker 1: but did not speak himself. The Turk noticed him sitting
Speaker 1: there and appealed to him, saying, you can confirm what
Speaker 1: I say, my good chinaman, But if you spoke, I
Speaker 1: know you would uphold my opinion. Traitors from your country
Speaker 1: who come to me for assistance, tell me that though
Speaker 1: many religions have been introduced into China, you Chinese consider
Speaker 1: Mohammedism the best of all and adopt it. Willingly confirm then,
Speaker 1: my words, and tell us your opinion of the One
Speaker 1: True God and his prophet. Yes, yes, said the rest,
Speaker 1: turning to the Chinaman. Let us hear what you think
Speaker 1: of the subject. The Chinaman, the student of Confucius, closed
Speaker 1: his eyes and thought, awhile. Then he opened them again, and,
Speaker 1: drawing his hands out of the wide sleeves of his garment,
Speaker 1: folding them on his breast, he spoke as follows, in
Speaker 1: a calm and quiet voice. Maybe the One True God
Speaker 1: his ads. That's not what he said. That's what I said.
Speaker 1: That's not part of the story. It's just ads, and
Speaker 1: we're back. He spoke as follows, in a calm and
Speaker 1: quiet voice, Sirs. It seems to me that it is
Speaker 1: chiefly pride that prevents men agreeing from one another on
Speaker 1: matters of faith. If you care to listen to me,
Speaker 1: I will tell you a story which we'll explain this
Speaker 1: by an example. I came here from China on an
Speaker 1: English steamer which had been round the world. We stopped
Speaker 1: for fresh water and landed on the east coast of
Speaker 1: the island of Sumetra. It was midday, and some of us,
Speaker 1: having landed, sat in the shade of some coconut palms
Speaker 1: by the seashore, not far from a native village. We
Speaker 1: were a party of men of different nationalities. As we
Speaker 1: sat there, a blind man approached us. We learned afterwards
Speaker 1: that he had gone blind from gay too long and
Speaker 1: too persistently at the sun, trying to find out what
Speaker 1: it is in order to seize its light. He strove
Speaker 1: a long time to accomplish this, constantly looking at the sun,
Speaker 1: but the only result was that his eyes were injured
Speaker 1: by its brightness, and he became blind. Then he said
Speaker 1: to himself, the light of the sun is not a liquid,
Speaker 1: for if it were a liquid, it would be possible
Speaker 1: to pour it from one vessel into another, and it
Speaker 1: would be moved like water by the wind. Neither is
Speaker 1: it fire, for if it were fire, water would extinguish it.
Speaker 1: Neither is light a spirit, for it is seen by
Speaker 1: the eye. Nor is it matter, for it cannot be moved. Therefore,
Speaker 1: as the light of the sun is neither liquid, nor fire,
Speaker 1: nor spirit nor matter, it is nothing, so he argued,
Speaker 1: And as a result of always looking at the sun
Speaker 1: and always thinking about it, he lost both his sight
Speaker 1: and his reason, and when he went quite blind, he
Speaker 1: became fully convinced that the sun did not exist. With
Speaker 1: this blind man came a slave who, after placing his
Speaker 1: master in the shade of a cocoanut tree, picked up
Speaker 1: a cocoanut from the ground and began making it into
Speaker 1: a night light. He twisted a wick from the fiber
Speaker 1: of the cocoanut, squeezed oil from the nut into the shell,
Speaker 1: and soaked the wick in it. And as the slave
Speaker 1: sat doing this, the blind man sighed and said to him, well, slave,
Speaker 1: was I not right when I told you there is
Speaker 1: no sun? Do you not see how dark it is? Yet?
Speaker 1: People say there is a sun. But if so, what
Speaker 1: is it. I do not know what the sun is,
Speaker 1: said the slave. That is no business of mine. But
Speaker 1: I know what light is here. I have made a
Speaker 1: night light, by the help of which I can serve
Speaker 1: you and find anything I want in the hut. And
Speaker 1: the slave picked up the cocoanut shell, saying, this is
Speaker 1: my son. A lame man with crutches, who was sitting
Speaker 1: near by, heard these words and laughed. You have evidently
Speaker 1: been blind all your life, he said, to the blind man,
Speaker 1: not to know what the sun is, I will tell
Speaker 1: you what it is. The sun is a ball of
Speaker 1: fire which rises every morning out of the sea and
Speaker 1: goes down among the mountains of our island each evening.
Speaker 1: We have all seen this, and if you had your eyesight,
Speaker 1: you too would have seen it. A fisherman who had
Speaker 1: been listening to the conversation, said, it is plain enough
Speaker 1: that you have never been beyond our own island. If
Speaker 1: you were not lame, and if you had been out
Speaker 1: as I have been in a fishing boat, you would
Speaker 1: know that the sun does not set among the mountains
Speaker 1: of our island, but as it rises from the ocean
Speaker 1: every morning, so it sets again in the sea every night.
Speaker 1: What I am telling you is true, for I have
Speaker 1: seen it every day with my own eyes. Then an
Speaker 1: Indian who is of our party, interrupted him by saying,
Speaker 1: I am astonished that a reasonable man could talk such
Speaker 1: a nonsense. How can a ball of fire possibly descend
Speaker 1: into the water and not be extinguished. The sun is
Speaker 1: not a ball of fire. It is the deity named Deva,
Speaker 1: who rides forever in a chariot round the golden mount
Speaker 1: mountained Marou. Sometimes the evil serpents Ragu and Ketu attack
Speaker 1: Deva and swallow him, and then the earth is dark.
Speaker 1: But our priests pray that the deity may be released,
Speaker 1: and then he is set free. Only such ignorant men
Speaker 1: as you, who have never been beyond their own island,
Speaker 1: can imagine that the sun shines for their country alone.
Speaker 1: Then the master of an Egyptian vessel, who was present,
Speaker 1: spoke in his turn, No, said he, you are also wrong.
Speaker 1: The sun is not a deity and does not move
Speaker 1: only round India and its golden mountain. I have sailed
Speaker 1: much on the Black Sea and along the coasts of Arabia,
Speaker 1: and have been to Madagascar, into the Philippines. The sun
Speaker 1: lights the whole earth, and not India alone. It does
Speaker 1: not circle round one mountain, but rises far in the east,
Speaker 1: beyond the isles of Japan, and sets far far in
Speaker 1: the west, beyond the islands of England. That is why
Speaker 1: the Japanese call their country Napon. That is the birth
Speaker 1: of the Sun. I know this well, for I have
Speaker 1: myself seen much and heard more from my grandfather, who
Speaker 1: sailed to the very ends of the sea. He would
Speaker 1: have gone on, but an English sailor from our ship
Speaker 1: interrupted him. There is no country he said where people
Speaker 1: know so much about the sun's movements as in England.
Speaker 1: The sun, as everyone in England knows, rises and sets nowhere.
Speaker 1: It is always moving round the earth. We can be
Speaker 1: sure of this, for we have just been round the
Speaker 1: world ourselves, and nowhere knocked up against the sun. Wherever
Speaker 1: we went, the sun showed itself in the morning and
Speaker 1: hid itself at night, just as it does here. And
Speaker 1: the Englishman took a stick and, drawing circles in the sand,
Speaker 1: tried to explain how the sun moves in the heavens
Speaker 1: and goes round the world. But he was unable to
Speaker 1: explain it clearly, and, pointing to the ship's pilot, said,
Speaker 1: this man knows more about it than I do. He
Speaker 1: can explain it properly. The pilot, who was an intelligent man,
Speaker 1: had listened in silence to the talk till he was
Speaker 1: asked to speak. Now everyone turned to him, and he said,
Speaker 1: you are all misleading one another, and are yourselves deceived.
Speaker 1: The Sun does not go round the Earth, but the
Speaker 1: Earth goes round the Sun, revolving as it goes and
Speaker 1: turning towards the Sun in the course of each twenty
Speaker 1: four hours. Not only Japan and the Philippines and Sumatra
Speaker 1: where we are now, but Africa and Europe and America
Speaker 1: and many lands besides. The sun does not shine for
Speaker 1: some one mountain, or for some one island, or for
Speaker 1: some one sea, or even for one Earth alone, but
Speaker 1: for other planets as well as our earth. If you
Speaker 1: would only look up at the heavens instead of at
Speaker 1: the ground beneath your own feet, you might understand this,
Speaker 1: and would then no longer suppose that the sun shines
Speaker 1: for you and for your country alone. Thus spoke the
Speaker 1: wise pilot, who had voyaged much around the world and
Speaker 1: had gazed much upon the heavens above. So on matters
Speaker 1: of faith, continued the Chinaman, the student of Confucius. It
Speaker 1: is pride that causes error and discord among men. As
Speaker 1: with the sun, so it is with God. Each man
Speaker 1: wants to have a special God of his own, or
Speaker 1: at least a special God for his native land. Each
Speaker 1: nation wishes to confine in its own temples hymn who
Speaker 1: the world cannot contain? Can any temple compare with that
Speaker 1: which God himself has built to unite all men in
Speaker 1: one faith and one religion. All human temples are built
Speaker 1: on the model of this temple, which is God's own world.
Speaker 1: Every temple has its fonts, its vaulted roof, its lamps,
Speaker 1: its pictures or sculptures, its inscriptions, its books of the law,
Speaker 1: its offerings, its altars, and its priests. But in what
Speaker 1: temple is there such a font as the ocean, such
Speaker 1: a vault as that of the heavens, such lamps as
Speaker 1: the sun, moon and stars, or any figures to be
Speaker 1: compared with living, loving, mutually helpful men. Where are there
Speaker 1: any records of God's goodness? So easy to understand as
Speaker 1: the blessings which God has strown abroad for man's happiness.
Speaker 1: Where is there any book of the law so clear
Speaker 1: to each man that it is written in his heart.
Speaker 1: What sacrifices equal the self denials which loving men and
Speaker 1: women make for one another? And what altar can be
Speaker 1: compared with the heart of a good man on which
Speaker 1: God himself accepts the sacrifice. The higher a man's conception
Speaker 1: of God, the better we will know him, And the
Speaker 1: better he knows God, the nearer will he draw to Him,
Speaker 1: imitating his goodness, his mercy, and his love of man. Therefore,
Speaker 1: let him who sees the sun's whole light filling the
Speaker 1: world refrain from blaming or despising the superstitious man, who,
Speaker 1: in his own idol sees one ray of that same light.
Speaker 1: Let him not despise even the unbeliever, who is blind
Speaker 1: and cannot see the sun at all. So spoke the Chinaman,
Speaker 1: the student of Confucius, and all who are present in
Speaker 1: the coffee house were silent and disputed no more as
Speaker 1: to whose faith was the best. The end. I'm not
Speaker 1: reading these stories to be like and this is totally
Speaker 1: what you should believe or how we should talk about
Speaker 1: these things. I think you know me by now well enough,
Speaker 1: unless it is the first episode you've listened to that Instead,
Speaker 1: I just find it interesting the way that different people
Speaker 1: with radical conceptions around freedom will talk about these things.
Speaker 1: You know, what is this second story? But I'll like
Speaker 1: claim against nationalism and saying like, but it's not wrong
Speaker 1: that people like see what they can see based on
Speaker 1: where they are, but that when we look at all
Speaker 1: humanity together we get a very different picture, and you know,
Speaker 1: we each see this image of the truth. I just
Speaker 1: like it. It's complicated, but I like it. And next
Speaker 1: week I'll read you more stuff that I probably like
Speaker 1: and or probably feel complicated about, and if you want
Speaker 1: to read some other stuff. I wrote a couple books.
Speaker 1: One of the books just came out, and it's called
Speaker 1: The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice, and it's a reflection
Speaker 1: on death but in no way where I talk about
Speaker 1: trolls and murder elves and things like that, set in
Speaker 1: the modern world. And it's out from Strangers in the
Speaker 1: Tangled Wilderness, which is a collectively run anarchist publisher of fiction,
Speaker 1: and you can check it out. It just came out,
Speaker 1: thanks everyone who supported it on Kickstarter. That means an
Speaker 1: awful lot to me. And there was also another book
Speaker 1: that was also kickstarted that I had a lot to
Speaker 1: do with, which is called Defenders of the Wild, and
Speaker 1: it is both a board game and a companion Almanac.
Speaker 1: And the Companion Almanac it's about animal people defending against
Speaker 1: machines that are destroying everything. And it's a board game,
Speaker 1: but it's also a tabletop role playing game. And I
Speaker 1: didn't write the rules for either, but I got to
Speaker 1: play around a lot with world building and writing a
Speaker 1: lot of the sort of fiction and flavor text that
Speaker 1: goes along with that. So you might like those things.
Speaker 1: They don't really have anything to do with when I
Speaker 1: just read you, but I don't know whatever, whatever you want, bye.
Speaker 1: It could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
Speaker 1: coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can
Speaker 1: find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at
Speaker 1: Coolzonmedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening,