That sounded awful. “So why does God allow it?”
Alcy glanced at Beez. “I think this one is your area.”
Beez leaned forward, his tail curling over his shoulder, providing a huge distraction. “First off, we don’t call them God. There is a Supreme deity, but they’re neither male nor female. Nor are they of any race. You’ve heard tell of tales of Odin, of Thor, Apollo, and the rest? Each of those beings is an aspect of the Supreme. The biggest issue here is that people—humans, I mean—assign aspects of their own foibles to the Supreme. War, plague, pestilence. None of those is the Supreme’s doing. It’s humans, who are so sure of their righteousness that their vision of a god or gods oddly coincides with their beliefs.”
“It’s why they can commit atrocities, and then say their god demanded it,” Alcy observed. “That’s never true. Supreme only wants people to love each other. You heard of Moses coming down with the stone tablets emblazoned with the Ten Commandments?” Alcy shook his head. “Yeah, that one underwent an edit. There wasonetablet, and one Commandment. Love each other. Period. That’s it. Butnooo, humans had to add new rules. The Supreme doesn’t care who you worship, they only care that you love.”
“The world would be a lot better off,” Beez added, “if humans could simply cut through the crap and turn away from the divisive hatred that surrounds them. Those who call themselves holy, but preach hate?Notthe Supreme’s favorite people, I can tell you.”
Carter blinked. “But free will is a thing, right? That’s why God… I mean Supreme, doesn’t step in.”
Alcy gave him a kind smile. “Not exactly. See, despite what you’ve heard, Supreme is not omnipotent.”
Wait—what?
“It’s like humans who create a child. They can do their best, but ultimately the child decides on their path in life. Could Supreme cure world hunger, eradicate disease, or fix any number of things people complain about? Honestly, I’m not sure.” Alcy gave a shrug. “Maybe? And just suppose they did. What will humans learn from that? That they can be as horrible as they want, because the Supreme will take care of everything? No. It hurts the Supreme when people ignore the issues they should be dealing with, and instead focus on spreading hate. For instance, look at the Earth. Left to their own devices, humans have turned it into a cesspool. They’re poisoning the world and themselves, and they still continue to chase that dollar over the well-being of the people.”
Carter had to admit, Alcy had a point.
Alcy let out a heartfelt sigh. “You know what would happen if folks would simply follow that one commandment? There would be no wars, and they could focus on what’s important. And then Earth would become a place where all are welcome, and everyone would know they are cared for.”
“But why not step up and say ‘hey, listen’?”
Beez grunted. “Most humans are notoriously self-centered. Even if Supreme were to appear on Earth, and tell them to love each other, period, there will always be those who are led astray by hatred and bigotry. It’s a crappy thing, but it’s true. Supreme wants humans to come together and deal with problems, but they keep making new ones. It’s… frustrating.”
“The good thing?” Alcy countered. “There are people born all the time that will live in a happy family, growing up and raising a new family, and instilling in them the tenets of love. Eventually—though it will take time—love will push out hatred, and Earth will become a paradise.”
Beez rolled his eyes. “Assuming humans don’t nuke the whole damn thing.”
This flew in the face of everything Carter had ever been taught. “I always thought God was all-powerful.”
Alcy chuckled. “Only in the fairy tales created by humans. Supreme is more like a parent. They’ve given life to everyone. They’ve done their best to instill the whole love thy neighbor thing. All that’s left is to hope the kids will make good decisions.”
“And you see how that’s going, right?” Beez added.
“What about Noah and the flood?”
“Never happened. In fact, most things you’ve heard are parables. Tales that are meant to teach a lesson. Sadly, they were written by men who had an agenda of their own. Some noble, but many not. Same thing with the bible. Everyone claims it’s the literal word of God.” Beez waved a hand. “Nah. Like we told you, humans corrupt everything. Words that meant something two thousand years ago were changed to suit the hatred of certain people. Humans ruin too many things for people.”
Carter couldn’t argue that. It really sounded like Grandpa had the right idea about what religion should be. Respect, love, and doing for others. Could religion really be that simple?
Alcy was right. Humans were capable of great love, but also of horrifying acts that they blamed on God. Or Supreme. He’d only been with these guys for an hour, and they’d already changed his worldview.
Carter’s gaze strayed back to Beez, who sprawled on the couch, his hard on still evident.I shouldn’t even be thinking such things.Lustful thoughts when Beez and Alcy were talking about the creator of the universe? That just felt wrong.
Carter had to wonder what else he was going to be learning.
Chapter Five
Alcy did his best not to grumble when Beez pulled Carter down onto his lap. It was going to be the Netherlands all over again. The boy there had been lonely. He’d prayed for someone to be his friend. It was a simple request, and not at all a problem. In fact, it was one of those missions Alcy enjoyed immensely. Normally, he would find out his charge’s interests, work with him to hone them, then encourage him to step out into the world and use his new skills to find other friends. Once that happened, Alcy would fade into the background, before disappearing completely.
Everything had been fine until the night Beez showed up. To this day, Alcy had no clue what had brought him there. He certainly hadn’t been summoned, and when he got there, he reversed all of Alcy’s efforts in one night. He took the kid out drinking, something the boy had never done before, then got him onto the dance floor, where a throng of people gyrated against them. The boy—Daan—found the excitement far more intoxicating than chess and philately. Then when Daan and Beez disappeared, only to return a short time later, Daan with his clothes askew and a huge smile, Alcy knew the truth. Beez had taken him into the alley and done his thing, which completely turned the boy to the dark side.
No way would he lose Carter to Beez.
“Carter? What do you like to do for fun?”
A lazy smile greeted Alcy when Carter turned toward him. He had one arm around Beez’s shoulder, and seemed to be pressing against him. He blinked several times, before he was finally able to focus. “Hm? Oh. When I’m not studying, which is pretty much all the time, I like to watch anime, read comic books, you know, that sort of thing.”