Chapter 09 — New Beginnings

The universe is 13.8 billion years old.
A human life
lasts, on average, eighty years —
if that.

And yet,
some religions teach
that what you do in that brief span
determines your fate
for eternity.
No revision.
No learning.
No chance to change.

A universe this vast.
This old.
All of it,
just to judge a consciousness
still in development
and condemn it — or reward it — forever?

That doesn't sound like divine grandeur.
It sounds like the logic
of a system built by human minds
to exert control
through fear.

And fear works.
It always has.

But whoever was capable of architecting
the complexity of this universe
doesn't need eternal threats
to be obeyed.
That need
is human.
Not divine.