The Future: Part I

Thousands of years into our future, a highly advanced civilization flourished. However, over time, it began to divide into two key parts. One was dogmatically atheistic: the other, zealously religious. For many years it seemed as if culture would curve in either direction. But atheism, slowly but surely, grew into the majority. The religious zealots, growing desperate as their following dwindled, devised a bold plan at overcoming their eminent defeat. Through deceit and means of dubious legality, the theists commandeered the government. But it didn’t halt the growing majority of atheists among the common people and, soon, violent revolution was underfoot. The atheists overthrew the government and set up leaders that they wanted to follow. The theists, banned from society, went into hiding.

            Many of the theists, who had believed so strongly in their religion, now felt incomplete and discouraged. For several years, various leaders rose up with new teachings and potential solutions to corruption, but all fell short and their followings ended in schisms and violence. After a hundred years of secrecy, a new group of leaders arose with a new moral perspective. They believed that mankind was incapable of shedding the influences of society. Because of their history and interactions, they believed, it would be impossible to attain perfect morality. This bleak outlook offered little consolation to the broken religion but, soon, a new hope was offered. If history could be erased, and newborns completely isolated from those tainted by society, a generation of perfect humans could be attained. Research was commenced and the project grew to an incredibly complex level. The theists, though now more atheistic, had never been more united. They created underground research facilities to fine tune their techniques. Several species of animal were found to be more accurate trainers of morality than robots were. These were employed as parents to give the children a state of moral perfection. A drug was developed that gave the next generations immortality, enabling a physical state of perfection—aging would stop at 17 years for boys and 15 years for girls. Only one problem remained—the preceding generations.

            Another drug was developed, secret from the majority, that quickly and painlessly ended life. With the initiation of ten of the purist embryos, a chosen member eliminated the entire culture, disposed of the bodies, and then ended his own life. The ten youths would awake in 15 years to a pure, unadulterated future. But the theists were wrong.

            After only a couple years of youthful life, the ten awakened teens had divided and commenced fighting with one another. Their ancestors had succeeded in proving a fundamental part of human nature: evil is born from within a person, not from without. In an effort to gain an upper hand, one group of youths began to utilize the technology developed by their parents. Inadvertently, they learned of their parent’s past and, ironically, the darkness of their history opened their eyes to the light. They desperately tried to stop the fighting, but it was too late. The few that did accept their message only found themselves continuing to fight against those who did not. They were defeated by the darkness of ignorance and only two remained who knew the power of history. Reluctantly, as a last effort, they utilized the killing drug to halt the violence, but only the two of them remained.

            Unable to grow old and die, they lived with the horror of their past, never maturing from the mind of a teenager, for hundreds of years. Slowly, they learned to know peace, but a shadow remained in their sober faces.