Cups

Contributed by Bob Dobbs

Hello, wonderful audience.

Please allow me to have a moment of your time.

It will not take long.

Here, a billion years can pass in but a sentence.

Let us go on a journey.

Let us visit a cloud in space.

The matter in this cloud begins to fall together by the force of gravity.

Some of this material falls straight into the center.

The pressure becomes so great that the individual atoms begin to be forced together, igniting a fusion reaction.

As this nuclear light erupts into the cosmos, a child star is born.

Some of this material is not pulled in enough and drifts away.

Some of this material falls past the center and spins into space.

Some of this material is perfectly balanced between these extremes.

It begins to orbit the child star.

This material forms a child world.

Let us visit this child world.

Initially, this world is formed by the impacts of many meteorites.

It is very hot.

As it cools, it continues to experience other energetic activities.

It is bombarded by ultraviolet light from its star.

It is bathed in lightning.

It is rocked by geothermal vents under its oceans and volcanoes on its lands.

These forms of energy, over billions of years, knock molecules together in many forms.

One day, a new molecule appears.

One that is special.

This molecule can do something that has never been seen on this world.

It can make copies of itself.

It looks like a microscopic, styrofoam cup.

It is very simple in its shape.

It just accidentally has an opposite charge on the inside of itself than on the outside.

Opposite charges attract one another.

This makes the outside of the cup attract stuff to stick to it.

Stuff like on the inside of the cup.

This continues to happen, over and over.

Soon, there is a line of cups.

On occasion, one of the many cups breaks off.

It drifts away, still forming copies.

Eventually, the planet is seeded with growths of these microscopic cups.

These growths get so large as to no longer be microscopic.

The process is not perfect.

On occasion, one of the cups is copied wrong.

Usually this produces a sterile, inert cup.

It just sits there, unable to copy itself, until some catastrophe breaks it up.

Then, another cup scavenges the pieces to make its own children.

Rarely, the mutant cup is better than its parent.

When these new forms of cups start to appear, they do not completely replace all of the other cups.

In different parts of the world, the cups slowly mutate into new forms.

They no longer look the same.

Some are chalices that swim in the ocean.

Some are flutes that fly in the sky.

Some are mugs that dig in the soil.

Some even develop teeth to tear apart other types of cups in order to make more children like themselves.

This makes the world even more dangerous.

In response, some of the cups begin to form cities.

They work together in order to protect one another.

Some cups form skin to keep other cups out of their societies.

Some form neural tissue to process information about the world.

Some form eyes to gain information about distant places.

Over time, these cities become more and more aware.

They become aware enough to avoid predators and seek prey.

They become aware enough of their surroundings to seek mates.

Eventually, they become aware of their awareness.

This new consciousness is painful.

They realize that they exist.

They realize, by seeing others die, that they will die.

“What happens to me when I die?

I can’t just STOP EXISTING.

That is more than I can bear.”

So they make up stories.

They tell one another that death is not real.

This soothes the pain of their awareness.

So the idea spreads.

Just as the original cups had spread.

And, just as the original cups had mutated, these ideas mutate.

Different groups form with slightly different ideas about what happens when they die.

Different groups form with slightly different ideas about what they should do while they live.

Since these ideas are based on hearsay, rather than evidence, no one can test if any of the ideas are correct.

This results in endless, bitter arguments.

As the arguments go on they become more heated.

And, just as the original cups had done, these idea learn to kill those unlike themselves.

The cup cities begin their religious wars.

But on occasion, some of the cup cities notice inconsistencies in the ideas that they are told.

They want to see how their world really works.

These individuals use microscopes to see that they are not really one creature with an immortal soul, but are in fact a city of living creatures.

These individuals use telescopes to see that they are not the center of the universe, but merely members of a choir of stars.

These scientific ideas are even more foreign than the differences between the religions.

So the religious hate these individuals even more than they hate one another.

The unfaithful are first ignored.

The unfaithful are then ostracized.

Eventually the unfaithful are destroyed.

But not before they are used to create fantastic weapons.

Every different religious group knows that their view of God is the correct one.

Every different religious group knows that they will survive to be cherished by God in the afterlife.

Every different religious group knows that their quest to purge the world of other ideas of God is just.

So they use these weapons.

Their world is quiet now.

There is no one left to argue about God.

All of their voices, and the voices of their children, have been silenced.

The cities no longer exist.

Please allow me to return you to your own world.

Thank you for our time together.

Before I leave you, please allow me to ask you a question.

Would you like something better for your children?