Theology plays with truth the way a cat plays with a mouse. Paul Valéry
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Kevin was taken by force to a secure facility far from his family, the aim being to protect him. He who, in this new era of portals and monsters, had died and come back to life, putting theological questions back on the world's table.
Theology is, literally, rational discourse about the divine or divinity, about the existence of God or of gods.
Through a window, a bearded man in a lab coat was watching Kevin, who was sitting in a large white room. Many people were bustling around him. They were measuring his heart rate, his temperature and all his vital functions.
They had brought him here to protect him, but that was really just a pretext. More than protecting him, they wanted to study him: that was their true intention. As soon as he arrived, they put him through several basic examinations.
The man in the white coat watched Kevin impassively. He analyzed him from head to toe: a handsome young boy with caramel skin, black hair and piercing brown eyes. The boy didn't seem to want to be here; he had even complained several times. He kept saying he wanted to see his family and that he had no business being here.
But they didn't care; they weren't there to listen to his complaints, they wanted to study him as soon as possible. Another man came over:
"We finally have him, Professor Juda, the miracle," said the man impatiently.
All these men dreamed of only one thing when they looked at Kevin: unlocking the secrets of human existence through resurrection. For resurrection means defying death, which leads to immortality.
Never, anywhere, had such a miracle occurred, except in religious texts.
"With this boy, we are touching on the concept of the resurrection of the dead, deeply rooted in the eschatologies of the three Abrahamic monotheisms. Belief in resurrection rests on the central affirmation of Israel's faith in God, master of life and death. The God of the Quran, like the God of the Bible, is the one who gives life and causes death."
"You seem to know a lot about religion, Professor."
"I'm a believer myself. My mother also named me after one of those characters—and not the most commendable one, at that."
"That's true. But can you explain what you just said?"
"The term 'Abrahamic religions' refers to the three monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—that claim the heritage of Abraham. In the Christian religion, resurrection concerns above all Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and came back to life on the third day, according to the Scriptures—that is, on Easter morning."
"And what does eschatology mean?"
"Eschatology is the body of doctrines and beliefs concerning the ultimate fate of man after death and that of the universe after its end. More precisely, eschatology is the discourse on the end of the world or the end of time. It belongs to theology and philosophy concerned with the last times, the last events in the history of the world or the ultimate destiny of humankind, also commonly called the Apocalypse. In many religions, it is a future event prophesied in sacred texts or folklore. More broadly, eschatology can embrace related concepts, such as the Messiah or messianic times, the afterlife and the soul."
He watched Kevin grimace as several blood samples were taken from him and stored in different vials.
"Do you remember the Great Night, when the sun vanished, plunging humanity into darkness, out of which came monsters brought by portals all over the world? At that moment, most people believed it was the end of the world, that the apocalypse had begun and that all men were going to be judged."
"How could I forget?" the man shivered.
"In a world where monsters appear, where men can shoot lightning from their hands, we thought we had seen everything: an awakened can heal anyone, even in the most pitiful state. But in the end, however powerful he may be, he cannot bring anyone back to life. And yet today, a young boy has conquered death and come back like the Messiah of the Bible, Jesus Christ."
"You mean this child could be some kind of chosen one?"
"Who knows? It could just as well be a new awakened power," he said thoughtfully.
"That would be incredible, an awakened who can bring the dead back to life."
"Let's not get carried away. For now, let's start our tests," he declared, touching the window in front of him, behind which Kevin sat.
The man entered the room, as white as snow, and calmly approached Kevin.
"Hello, my name is Juda. I'm the scientist in charge of this place," he said with a smile.
"If you're in charge of this place, send me back to my family."
"Unfortunately, you have to understand that, for your safety, we can't do that."
"For my safety? If people like you hadn't been so curious and hadn't turned everyone against my family, I would have been safe! You have no idea what people like you have put my family through," Kevin shot back, showing strong hostility.
Juda fell silent for a moment before answering with a small smile.
"You're right, but isn't it a blessing in disguise? You have no idea what you represent, kid."
"And you have no idea what I represent to my family. A blessing in disguise? You made them suffer!"
"You know, sometimes the end justifies the means."
"You're a damn utilitarian who, to satisfy his sick curiosity, separates a child from his family, makes them look like monsters, uses the common good as an excuse, and so denies individual freedom for the good of the collective."
"You seem like a very intelligent boy."
"When you're stuck in a hospital bed waiting to die, you have a lot of time to kill."
"A great reader, then. You surely know Philippa Foot's trolley problem, since you're talking about utilitarianism."
"The train experiment."
"Exactly. It's a thought experiment often used in ethics. It goes like this: a train is out of control and comes to a fork with two separate tracks. On one of them, a man is working; on the second, there are five men. You're standing next to the lever that can change the train's direction. What would you choose?"
"Logic would say I should save the five men."
"Then you're a utilitarian too, because that philosophy holds that you must choose the track with only one man on it. Because it's the best moral option, and it's within that framework that we separated you from your family. You represent what men have always sought: coming back from the dead, immortality."
"I don't care about any of that! And I didn't answer your question. I only said that logic would say I should save those five men."
"Then what's your answer?" he asked, intrigued.
"I'll answer you by turning the question back on you. Now imagine that the one and only person on that track is your mother. Who would you choose to save, your mother or those five men?"
The man looked at Kevin, perplexed; he hadn't expected that and was caught off guard. Disconcerted, he finally decided to answer after a few brief seconds.
"I would still choose to save the five men."
"I would pull the lever without the slightest hesitation to kill those five men and save my mother," Kevin said coldly.
A slight shiver ran through the scientist's body as he looked into the boy's eyes, which showed not the slightest emotion. He was certain that what the boy had just said, he would do without the slightest remorse.
"That would be pure selfishness."
"You're talking about selfishness? Isn't it you, with your utilitarian vision and your thirst for answers, who separated me from my family? Isn't that pure selfishness? The truth is, you're a hypocrite and an idiot who thinks he's figured out everything about life."
"I…"
"If I had been your child, would you have tolerated someone taking me far away from you? Honestly, for this experiment, I prefer the objectivist philosophy developed by Ayn Rand. It offers a precise moral interpretation of this situation, based on the non-aggression principle, a fundamental principle of libertarianism. This principle establishes as a moral foundation that no individual has the right to violate the physical integrity of another innocent person."
"The freedom of a single individual must not take precedence over the collective. If an individual, by sacrificing himself, can save several lives, he has a duty to do so."
"Oh, really? And who decided that? You? The right to dispose of one's life as one sees fit belongs to oneself alone. Would you be ready to sacrifice your own life for others?"
Juda was overwhelmed by his words; he hadn't expected this child to answer him so accurately and intelligently. So much so that he was crushed and answered honestly:
"I have a little girl, and I would never have let anyone take her away from me, or tell me that my life had to be sacrificed."
"Then why did you do it to me? Simply because I'm not your child and my fate doesn't affect you directly. Then you can justify your actions by telling yourself it's for the common good. But in reality, your utilitarian vision is nothing but hypocritical selfishness in disguise, asking others for things you would never accept yourself."
A black shadow appeared in the room behind Kevin, but no one noticed it. Juda had just lost all credibility, his curiosity and selfishness laid bare.
He looked at Kevin: his brown eyes had turned a deep black, so deep that the man lost himself in them, like a sailor lost at sea in a storm.
"And what if it were your daughter I put on those tracks? Would you dare tell me you'd save those five men?"
Goosebumps covered Juda's skin, large drops of sweat running down his face. In Kevin's eyes, strangely, he could see his daughter; she was tied to the tracks. She was crying, calling for help, and the ground began to shake: it was the train. The young girl screamed her father's name for him to pull the lever to save her and, in doing so, kill the five men.
Juda, without the slightest hesitation, was about to pull the lever to save his daughter; he no longer cared about those men's lives. But just as he was about to pull the lever, a black shadow stopped his hand. A giant, terrifying shadow covered him, completely preventing him from moving, paralyzed with fear. The shadow blocked the lever, and the train headed toward his daughter.
On the shadow, a kind of sick, terrifying smile appeared. Juda now wanted only one thing: for this nightmare to stop. Alas, the real nightmare was watching the train inexorably closing in on his daughter. He tried to scream, but the shadow covered his mouth, preventing the slightest syllable from escaping and almost preventing him from breathing.
The train crushed his daughter with a harsh, dull sound, so horrible it could have woken the dead: the sound of a body crushed beneath the wheels, pieces breaking off and flying in every direction, spattering blood everywhere. The head landed at Juda's feet, and he stared at his daughter's bloody face and bulging eyes.
"AHHHHHHH!" he screamed.
Juda, who was facing Kevin, fell backward, terrified, his body bathed in sweat. He had witnessed such a horrible spectacle that he began to vomit on the white floor.
The other scientists were about to come in to help him, but he stopped them with a wave of his hand, then got up and left the room after a few seconds that allowed him to collect himself.
When he found himself in front of his team of scientists, he told them:
"We start tomorrow."
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"Our virtues are most often nothing but disguised vices, and hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, with all vices that are fashionable passing for virtues." Molière / François de La Rochefoucauld