Anomaly

by Peter Cawdron

They come from a kaleidoscope of social backgrounds, and he loves their diversity. The world should be more child-like. Kids don’t care about the color of someone’s skin or the style of clothing they wear.

In their innocence, they haven’t learned to separate into religious or social cliques. And the reason is clear, they all have one thing in common, their excitement for life.

“I think patience is a sign of higher intelligence.

Nature is brutal. Nature is indifferent to cruelty, but to be civilized is to be civil, to be courteous and kind.

“Science is the discipline to investigate the world without regard to any preconceived ideas, be they religious or traditional beliefs. Science looks for reasons. And it asks but one question. Why? In this case, the technology is beyond our understanding, but that does not mean it is beyond all understanding.”

This is not a discussion, as it should be, about the prospect of talking to an alien race. This is about the religious distrust of science.”

“And I suppose the fact our Buddhist monk here does not believe in any kind of god at all is of no relevance? Doesn’t that make him an atheist? Ah, but he’s sincere in his religious convictions so you’ll tolerate him.”

“And I suppose your refusal to acknowledge the Hindu gods also has no relevance? Even though, from their perspective, it is you that’s the atheist!”

“To be fair,” Cathy says, interrupting, “I think there is a valid point here. Religion is, by definition, exclusive. If I believe in God according to your definition, then I’m an infidel according to everyone else at this table. To believe in one religion is to exclude the others.”

“I am ashamed of you,” the Reverend Johnson says, cutting into the argument in defense of Teller and Cathy. “You’re obsessed by this. You’ve got to put everyone in your little, fundamentalist box. You just don’t get it, do you? This is an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to explore, an opportunity to grow, but you’d rather descend back into the Dark Ages where your faith is unchallenged.”

“It’s the opportunity for a new beginning.” “And that’s blasphemy,” the Reverend Stark counters. “The only new beginning will come when Christ returns as the King of Kings to start his reign of a thousand years.” Teller responds instantly, without missing a beat, almost jumping out of his seat. “And that’s blasphemy to him, him, him and him,” he says, pointing at the Hindu, the Buddhist monk, the imam and the rabbi.

“When you get in an airplane,” Cathy says, turning the topic around quite innocently, “Do you care about the religious beliefs of the person that built it? Or do you care about the science behind flight?”

Ding ding ding ding ding .. Cathy gets it !

“And these days,” he says, picking up on her logic, “most planes are held together with little more than glue. There are few welds. There’s not a pop-rivet or a nut and bolt in sight, and yet we trust them. But why? Neither you nor I have read the scientific reviews, we haven’t studied the methodology or even seen the test results. And yet we inherently trust the science behind an airplane. Why? Because we trust progress. We trust the rigor of scientific expertise constantly refining and correcting itself.

“If we spend our time fighting each other, we’re failing to understand each other. Is that what Christ would want?”

Teller leans down toward George saying, “Those aliens sent out probes for the same reason your granddad opened the door to a bunch of scary strangers lying on the pavement all covered in blood, because that’s what intelligent life does. Life cares.”

We’re doing this to ourselves. I just want the world to come to a halt. I want the madness to stop. Why is it like this? It doesn’t have to be this way. Why can’t we get along?”

“They don’t trust us because we’re different. We don’t trust them because they’re different. Oh, if only we could see how similar we are.”

Elements make up molecules. Molecules make up DNA. DNA makes up life.

“Where’s Charles Darwin when you need him?”

He says, “I guess we’ve all had nightmares about being chased by monsters.” Trissa nods, looking at the anomaly rather than him. “It’s silly,” he says. “But that’s human nature. Fear is stronger than reason.”

“Madness is a matter of perspective, my friend.

The alien has even adopted his light skin tone, subtly putting to rest the irrational tribalism that haunts the races of Homo sapiens, where suspicions arise over nothing more than skin pigment.

Humans need to get past , get over, their petty arbitrary and meaningless biases toward each other

Homo sapiens, who so often act as though humanity stands independent of the animal kingdom, when humanity is just one tiny twig on the Tree of Life.

“And we’re not there yet, are we?”

“Your species is in its formative years,”

“You have much that is admirable, much that has emerged from your scientific exploration, but you still cling to the superstitions, a...

Violence is the antithesis of civilization.

the main character is a bumbling teacher that loves inspiring his kids to love learning. We all need heroes like that.

Sagan’s Contact helped inspire this novel, and not just because of its proposed contact with an advanced alien civilization, but for its mastery in stirring up intellectual conflicts and the juxtaposition of religious faith with scientific rationalism. This is something I’ve tried to capture in both the U.N. debate and the interfaith religious meeting within Anomaly.

Loved the way the author wrote this section.

How would we communicate with an alien intelligence? We can’t even effectively communicate with other intelligent species on our own planet, let alone an intelligence from another world.

People need to learn to speak properly, myself included. I try very hard to be clear when I speak and even more so when writing emails or texting