05/17/2023
Here's Another Chapter from My Next Book - ONCE UPON A TIME ...IN HEAVEN
MEETING OF THE MIND
It’s good to have a curious mind when you are in Heaven, otherwise, you are simply observing other spirits moving about endlessly. Knowing that I can meet just about anyone by simply wishing for it gives me endless possibilities. I met up with several old friends who had gone before me. Unfortunately, all of them wanted the same thing - to reminisce about the old days rather than do something new. Surprisingly they were not as interesting as I thought they would be. Some of them were downright dull and boring. After my fifth encounter, I decided to stop looking for more. Instead, I decided to seek interesting characters from history.
It took me a while to decide with whom I wanted to connect. I finally decided to take a leap of faith and wished to meet Solomon, the Prophet. He has always been known to be wise and knowledgeable. Maybe I can learn something new and interesting from him.
Surprisingly, I finally met him in front of the Control Bureau just as I was leaving the building after one of my visits. We looked at each other and smiled. I was a little taken aback as we looked about the same age. He doesn’t look anything like a king or a wise man the way he was always portrayed in Biblical stories. He was clean-cut and without a beard just like I was. He wears a long white robe.
“Are you really King Solomon?”
“Yes, I am!” He responded.
“King Solomon, THE Prophet whom many people considered to be the wisest person ever?” I asked, again, not quite believing that this is the person I had wished to meet.
He laughed after hearing my description of him. “Really? Many people considered me very wise?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, there are many anecdotes that many religious people often attributed to you!” I said while thinking, though I couldn’t think of any of them.
“They even considered me a prophet, really?” he questioned me further while laughing.
“Yes, Your Majesty, you are a prophet, aren’t you?” now it’s my turn to be puzzled by his reaction.
“I was a king, but I never knew that I was a prophet too!” he said clarifying his record.
“Well, Your Majesty, frankly, we called many people who were prominently mentioned in our Holy Books, including you, prophets!” I said trying to clarify what I meant by the word prophet.
“What do you mean by Holy Book?” he asked, looking somewhat puzzled.
“I guess is akin to your Torah!” I said naming the Jewish Holy Book.
“Oh, really; I have seen the priest with that book. I thought it only contained prayers and the history of our people, the Israelites. But you say that I was mentioned in the Torah? I guess they must have added materials to that book; since I was not in it when I was alive!” He said while shaking his head in disbelief.
“Yes, Your Majesty. It says that you were the wisest person to had ever lived!” I elaborated again.
“Whom are the other prophets mentioned in your Holy Book?” he asked further curiously.
“Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, to name but a few, Your Majesty!” I named some prophets whom I remembered off hand.
“Oh, I have heard of all of those people!” he answered while shaking his head.
“Why are you shaking your head? Don’t you approve of some of them, Your Majesty?” I asked curiously.
“No, it’s not that. Adam was the first man and Noah was known for the flood, right?” he said as if trying to validate his answer.
“Yes, Your Majesty, Adam was the first man, and Noah was known for the flood! Have you met either of them by any chance?”
“Just like you, I was curious about them too once! So, I sought them out too just to satisfy my curiosity!” He said while nodding his head.
“That’s how we met. I simply wished to meet you and there you are!” I said clarifying how we met with a smile on my face.
“Well, yes; that’s how I met them as well, by simply wishing to meet them!” He said recollecting his experience.
“Funny you should ask about them, in my opinion, both of them are quite strange characters!” he laughed heartily.
“What do you mean by strange characters, Your Majesty?” I was perplexed by his answer.
“Well, they are just strange characters! I don’t know how else to describe them!” he chuckled.
“In what ways are they strange, Your Majesty?” I try to understand why he would laugh at those two major prophets.
“Well, they are strange in every way you can think of. For example, Adam doesn’t like to be with anyone. I think it’s because he was the first man and there were no other men with him for a long time. In fact, he is always up on a tree somewhere preferring to be alone. Noah also preferred to be alone as well. However, he prefers to be around animals!”
“Really, Your Majesty, Adam likes to spend his time up a tree? That’s interesting. As for Noah, I can understand, I guessed he felt responsible for having saved a whole lot of those animals from extinction during the big flood!” I commented.
“Possibly, possibly!” He nodded his head over and over. “I still think that they are very strange though!”
“How about Abraham and Moses, Your Majesty? Have you met them as well?” I further inquire.
“Oh, those two,” he started before stopping to recollect his thought.
“Yes, I had also wished to meet them. Abraham because he was considered the father of the Israelites and Moses because he delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians. Maybe because of their importance to the Israelites, I sought them out. Curiously, I found them living close to each other. Funny thing, though, they quarreled with each other all the time, especially about whom the Lord loves best!” he said again shaking his head.
“Abraham and Moses competing with one another over whom the Lord loves best, Your Majesty? That sounds like a joke to me! How do you measure the Lord’s love?” I asked somewhat puzzled by what I was hearing.
“Good question! Moses claimed that he met the Lord five times while Abraham had only met Him three times. So, because of that, Moses feels that the Lord loves him more!” he chuckled soon after revealing those ridiculous claims.
“That is so childish of Moses. I am so surprised by that. I thought that Moses would be wiser than that and not dwell on something trivial like the number of meetings he had with the Lord,” I was totally shocked by that revelation.
“I know. What’s even worse was that they argued all the time. The last time I saw them Moses cruelly told Abraham that he must have been so ugly that he could only marry his own sister and his slave! I was so shocked that such words actually came out of Moses’ mouth!” He said while shaking his head repeatedly.
“Geez, I thought all prophets are wise and civilized; not comical. I never thought that they could be that mean to one another. Though as I remember it from reading the Holy Books, if I am not mistaken, his wife, Sara, who was the mother of Isaacs, was his sister from a different mother; while Hagar, who was the mother of Ishmael, was his slave. So, did Abraham retaliate after that cruel jest?”
“Yes! In fact, Abraham was so mad for being told that. I guessed he was sensitive about his look. He retaliated by telling Moses that at least his parents loved him, and they raised him like a normal child. Unlike Moses whose parents were so afraid of being discovered by the Egyptian authority for having a child that they tried to save him by floating him down the river in a reef basket. Of course, he was eventually rescued and raised by an Egyptian slave who happened to work for the Pharaoh of Egypt!”
“I never realized how hilarious some of these prophets turned out to be. Abraham and Moses who would ever think!” I laughed while shaking my head in disbelief.
“By the way, did you also get to meet Eve, Adam’s wife?” I asked him further.
“No, I didn’t see her! I often wondered if she ever ascended to Heaven!” he said while shaking his head.
“What? Eve, the first woman, did not make it to Heaven?” I was shocked by what I heard.
“Well, haven’t you ever heard the term original sin?” he asked seriously.
“Well, of course, I had, Your Majesty!” I answered while trying to recall the story of creation in the Holy Book.
“She committed that, that’s why she is not in Heaven!” he said with a straight face.
“Really! But, according to the Holy Book, if I am not mistaken, all she did was took a bite of the apple!”
“Which Lord Himself had forbidden her NOT to do!” he said emphasizing the sin Eve had committed.
I was really taken aback by what he said. I have to admit that it is a shocking revelation. I personally thought it was unfair since Eve was the first woman hence there was no precedence for what will happen to you should you disobey God.
“It is possible that she was somewhere else in Heaven, while I met Adam!” he further said after taking a long sigh.
I nodded my agreement.
“By the way, Your Majesty, I thought I would find you together with Sheba, the lovely queen with whom you were supposedly romantically involved according to the Holy Book,” I said trying to move on to a new topic.
“True, I was very much in love with her. I did meet her here in Heaven. Unfortunately, since I am no longer a king, she is no longer interested in me. She told me that she had in fact met her first love, which happened to be her true love!” he said while sighing deeply.
“Well, I have to admit that first love is always hard to beat. He must be quite a guy for her to leave a wise king like you! Do you happen to know what her first love used to do, Your Majesty?” I asked curiously.
“Yes, I was so shocked after she told me that he was none other than the stable boy who took care of her father’s horses!” he said with a grin on his face.
“What? You, a king, lost out to a stable boy!” I shrieked in amazement.
“Yes, that’s what she said; that he was a stable boy!” he said with a grin on his face, but no trace of anger whatsoever.
“You were not angry or even insulted when you heard that she prefers the stable boy over you, Your Majesty?” I asked, trying to coax more responses from him as I found the revelation quite hilarious.
“No, not really. Once in Heaven, we are all of the same ranks. I was a king in my previous life because my father was a king before me. But that advantage ended on earth when I died. He may have been the stable boy on earth, but he is now just like me. Just another soul!” he said before taking a deep sigh.
I didn’t expect that kind of answer from someone who was a king and a prophet, but he was right. We are now of equal rank in Heaven. Just like the stable boy, I am also of equal rank with Solomon. Just like that, my admiration for Solomon grew.
“By the way, I would appreciate it if you would stop addressing me as Your Majesty. As I said, we are all equal here, just souls!” he said sounding somewhat embarrassed.
“If you insist! How should I address you then?” I responded.
“Just call me by my name, Solomon!” he said calmly.
“You can call me Harry,” I said reciprocating.
“How about you, Harry? Did you have a wife?” he asked.
I laughed as I would have never expected Prophet Solomon to ask me such a question.
“Actually, I was married to a beautiful woman named Jill!”
“So, what happened to you? How did you die?” he asked curiously.
“Well, one night, as I was entering a store, someone shot me point blank on my head! I didn’t know what had happened to me even long after I was in Heaven. I had to ask an Angel what had happened to me and why I am in Heaven. He touched my head and then everything became clear to me!” I explained.
“Really, so you didn’t know what had happened to you and that’s how you found out, by having the Angel simply touch your head? That’s interesting!” He was obviously curious and impressed with what had happened to me.
“Yes, my memory of everything that happened to me before that event was intact, but I had no recollection of how I died! The Angel then told me that I had to go back to resolve the situation I left behind.”
“Excuse me? The Angel wanted you to go back to earth after you were already in Heaven?” He looked dumbfounded.
“The Angel told me that everyone, meaning all the other Angels were all busy, that was why I had to do it myself!”
“So, did you go?” he asked curiously.
“What choice did I have?” I answered.
I then started telling Solomon all I did while back on earth. I then briefly mentioned the fact that I saw many lost souls of people who had died but had yet transcended to either Heaven or hell. He was very captivated by that, but I told him that I don’t know any more than what I had just told him. I mentioned the fact that the Angel didn’t seem to know anything about it either. I told him that think they don’t know because those souls have not entered their sphere of influence.
“I tried to reconnect with some of the people I used to know who had preceded me while I was still alive but wasn’t able to. Someone like my father David and my grandfather Saul, I wondered if that’s what happened to them?”
“Or maybe they just didn’t end up in this part of Heaven!” I retorted.
He looked at me somewhat annoyed by my remark. Those people must have been important to him; especially David, his father.
“Sorry! I didn’t mean to belittle them!” I said as an apology for my remark.
“I have to admit that I never know anyone who was asked to go back to settle his or her own life. The Angel must have trusted you enough to let you do that!” he said while shaking his head.
“By the way, Harry, why is it that you dress differently than everyone else in Heaven?” he asked.
“Frankly, this is what I used to wear while alive. I feel comfortable in this outfit!”
“I thought so, but by doing so you are actually drawing attention to yourself,” he said earnestly.
“Should I change?” I asked.
“It is up to you, I guess,” he sounded noncommittal.
“As I said, I am comfortable wearing this outfit. So, I am going to continue wearing them!” I answered showing my true hard-headed character.
“If you are comfortable with them, I guess they are fine. Sorry for bringing it up. It’s been a while since I have had good conversations with someone! I would appreciate it if we can keep each other company!” he said almost begging.
“That’s good to hear. I am also enjoying our conversation!” I’ll be happy to stay. I am sure I’ll have many more questions I like to ask you!”
“Likewise, I want to know more about your time!” He expressed his desire for our friendship.
“I’ll be happy to tell you anything you want to know!” I responded.
“Oh, by the way, you were saying before about Abraham and Moses arguing about the number of times, they each had met the Lord. Have you yourself met Him; the Lord, I mean?” I asked curiously.
He started laughing. “No, I have not met Him. Have you?”
“Of course not! I just got here, and I am not an important person, but you were an important person!” I answered somewhat defensively.
I guessed the Lord doesn’t show Himself up so freely to everyone. Not even a prophet like Solomon was privileged enough to meet Him. After a while, we decided to stop by a place where we could eat and drink. At this place, we can order anything we wish for. This place faces a beautiful, lush valley. I don’t remember seeing this lush valley the last time I went to the Control Bureau; Solomon must have wished for that scenery to be there. I ordered a fruit salad and orange juice whereas Solomon ordered dry meat and wine. I was somewhat taken aback by his order. With anything at all at your disposal, why dry meat?
“Dry meat? Really?” I thought to myself. That must have been his favorite staple when he was still alive on earth.
He kept on eyeing my fruit salad, so I offered him a taste. He picked up a piece of the pineapple and quickly put it in his mouth. He was surprised at how much he liked the tart taste of that fruit.
“I have never seen or heard, let alone taste this fruit before. I really like it!” He admitted while taking another piece of pineapple from my plate.
Seeing how much he likes it I ordered a plate full of pineapple just for him.
“Well, the pineapple was originally from Central America, a land which was finally discovered by the Europeans during the Sixteenth Century!” I said calmly.
“I am not sure I understand what you just said. What do you mean by Central America, Europeans, and Sixteenth Century?” He asked.
His simple question made me quickly realize that as someone from a totally different era, there are many things that are new. His world was totally different from mine, and I needed to explain everything to him; I mean everything.
I looked at him and then I started telling him, “You know, Solomon, I lived many centuries after you. Of course, the world had changed somewhat from the one you lived in. Let me first begin by telling you that the world we live in is actually shaped like a sphere. During your time everyone probably believes that the world is flat! Am I right?”
“The earth is flat!” he insisted.
“No, it isn’t! The world is spherical just like the sun and the moon! It just feels flat from where we are standing!” I tried to convince him by using examples that I am sure he knows.
“If it is spherical then don’t you fall off when you go too far?”
“No because gravity will keep you on the earth’s surface!” I emphasized.
“Oh, I see! So, this gravity character keeps everything stay on the surface! Is this gravity like a God, then?” he asked innocently.
I laughed when I heard what he said before I quickly apologized. “No, gravity is not a being of any kind. It is a force of nature that keeps everything attracted to the earth’s surface!” I tried to explain the best I could.
“If the world is indeed spherical don’t people on the other side of the sphere see everything upside down?”
“No, to everyone on the surface of the earth, wherever he/she is, the earth looks and feels flat, even though it is actually spherical! Just take my word for it for now. I have been to the other side of the world, and I can tell you that everything looks and feels the same!” I said after realizing our different perspectives of cosmology.
“All right, how about Central America, Europeans, and the Sixteenth Century?” He clearly wants to get back to his original question.
“Well, Central America is located way on the other side of the world. Europeans are what we called the people like the Romans and the Greeks during your time. As for the Sixteenth Century, let me explain. As I said I lived approximately twenty-nine hundred years after you did. One hundred years is called a century. Nine centuries after your time, they decided to restart the calendar from year one again. That was in honor of Jesus. So, when I said the Sixteenth Century, it was sixteen hundred years after the time of Jesus!”
“Oh, Jesus, yes, I heard of him! I also had seen him once,” he said after recognizing the name immediately.
“Oh, you did, did you? He was one of the major prophets mentioned in the Holly Books!” I elaborated.
“Oh, really?” He was surprised.
“I happened to pass a group of people who were surrounding someone, whom later I learned was Jesus. He was telling everyone not to call him the Son of God, because everyone actually is also a son of God, for He created everyone! Jesus kept on insisting!” He related his experience.
“Yes, Jesus was a prophet too, but many of his followers do consider him more than that. They consider him the true Son of God! His followers started a new religion called Christianity, which became one of the major religions in the world!” I said elaborating on who Jesus was.
“Later on, after that gathering, I heard from one of the people who were there that Jesus was, in fact, a Jewish rabbi. So, he must have been a follower of Judaism, then!”
“Yes, you’d heard that right, Jesus was a rabbi, thus a follower of Judaism!” I said confirming his deduction.
“Then Christianity is a part of Judaism?”
“I guess you can say that, though most Christians refused to acknowledge that reality!” I concurred with him while hinting on the reluctance of many Christians to admit to that lineage.
“Were there other prophets who had a large number of followers, like Jesus?” He asked further, trying to know more about what happened after his time.
“Yes, there was Muhammad, and the religion he founded is called Islam, which means submission to God!” I said further.
“Surprisingly I had not met him. But, then again, Heaven is a very large place. He may be in another part of Heaven that I haven’t been to. Is his religion, Islam, a totally new religion or is it like Christianity also a continuation of Judaism?” asked Solomon further.
“Yes, Islam is also a continuation of Judaism just like Christianity! Both of the Christian and Muslim Holly Books are filled with stories about the Israelites!” I affirmed.
“So, the believers of Islam also believe in the same prophets as the Jews and the Christians then?”
“Yes, they believe in most of the same prophets!” I concurred with him.
“Since all the prophets since Adam were all Israelites, if Muhammad was also a prophet, then Muhammad must be an Israelite too, then!” he concluded by deduction.
“Most followers of Islam would rather say that all the prophets since Adam were Muslims, that’s what they call followers of Islam!” I said resounding one of the more popular beliefs among many Muslims.
“Well, whatever they were they must have followed the same way of thinking be it Judaism or Islam!” said Solomon immediately, quickly arriving at his conclusion.
“Since you were an Israelite, then you must have been a follower of Judaism, then? I asked a rhetorical question.
“As I said before, I was an Israelite! Everyone in my kingdom followed Abraham’s teaching. We have many rabbis who administered religious processions for the kingdom. As a king, I was involved in several of the major celebrations, though not all of them,” he clarified.
“As I mentioned, the Christians and the Muslims consider you to be one of the wisest of all prophets!” I repeated what I have already said earlier.
“During my time there was no Holy Book to speak of. The Rabbis kept the tradition orally and only discussed what was in it amongst themselves. Those of us who are not in the religious order don’t know much about what’s in it. The Chief Rabbi of my kingdom told me once that it basically contains the history of our people and our ways of doing things and how to celebrate holidays!
As a king, I was more privileged than most of the people in my kingdom, the Chief Rabbi often told me some of those stories and clarified the meaning of some of those celebrations. That’s why I am familiar with some of the people who were mentioned in our history. I guess most people don’t even know a tenth of what I do!” he said proudly.
“Well, you are right! Each of those Holy Books I mentioned also contains a history of your people, the Israelites. In the Al Qur’an, the Holy Book of Islam, for example, one of the books, which is called Al Baqarah described the time when the Israelites were led by Moses out of Egypt. In the Bible, the Holy Book of the Christians, one part is called the Exodus and that part deals primarily with the history of the Israelites leaving Egypt as well!”
“So, what you are saying is that the followers of Jesus and the followers of Muhammad prolonged the history of the Israelites?” he asked.
“Well, that’s one way of putting it, though things have become more complicated!” I sighed.
“What do you mean by more complicated?” he asked out loud wanting to know more.
“Well, Christianity and Islam have spread well beyond your domain, or should we say the ‘old world’. During your time your religion and culture were one and the same. Israelites and Judaism were one and the same. After the death of Jesus, Christianity flourished outside of the old world. In fact, it flourished even more after it was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire by one of their Emperors, Justinian.
Islam, on the other hand, was started by Muhammad in the Arabian Peninsula, the large land area between Israel and the old Canaan. The Lord God gave him inspiration about Islam. Muhammad was an Arab, that’s what we call those people from that part of that area. The Romans and the Arabs are not Israelites, so even though the religion may have come from the same root, the cultures in which the religion has developed are totally different! So, obviously many differences have developed between those two religions!” I elaborated.
“So, what are you telling me?” He wondered while scratching his head.
“Well, what I am telling you is that the world now is a lot larger than it was during your time. Many time larger, in fact! There are now over one hundred different nations on earth. In addition to all of those nations, we now also have different religions, cultures, ideologies, and races to contend with. Also, the same religions may be practiced differently by different cultures because cultural mores predate the religion that was brought in!”
“During my time our religion and our culture are one and the same; thus, Judaism is both the culture and the religion of the Israelites. So, we don’t have that problem you mentioned,” he said comprehending what I was telling him.
“As you can see, once a religion is adopted by a culture, many of its rules replaced similar cultural rules and ways of doing things which often are already long in place. Many people are reluctant to replace old cultural ways of doing things with something that the new religion brought in. In many cases they ended up doing both or neither,” I tried to clarify.
“I didn’t know that there are that many nations now. During my time, we have Israel, Egypt, Persia, Abyssinia, Greece, and Rome. There were others, but they weren’t large enough to be considered nations. So, what are some of the larger nations now?” he asked while shaking his head in amazement.
“Well, surprisingly, some of the nations you mentioned are still around, but they are now relatively small in comparison to newer countries like China, Russia, the United States of America, India, Indonesia, etc.!”
“I think I might have heard of China and India from some dessert traders, but the others I have not!” He acknowledged.
“Well, the others are relatively new, but they are big nevertheless!” I concluded.
“Are all of the nations on earth live peacefully with one another?” he asked curiously.
“No, there are always conflicts among one another. If it isn’t about one thing, then it is about another!” I said, trying to generalize the problem.
“Oh, Lord!” He said while shaking his head.
“Yes, we had many armed conflicts. Some of the conflicts were not only one nation against another, often we had what we termed civil war, which is a war between groups in the same nation. On occasions, other countries would side with one side in the civil war. Thus, further complicating the situation!”
“Why would one group in the same nation fight another?” He questioned while scratching his head.
“Well, for example, one group in the same nation could have a different religion. One could be Christian and the other could be Muslim. One group could be white-skinned and the other could be black-skinned. One could be for the aristocracy and the other for democracy!” I said enumerating the endless possibilities that are too common in the modern world.
“There does seem to be an endless number of possibilities for conflict!” he acknowledged while nodding his head.
“So, as you can see, things are more complicated now than ever before,” I said trying to clarify the situation.
Considering Solomon lived some two-thousand years before I was, I find interacting with him extremely refreshing. He is very bright. He can immediately grasp the complexities of modern human relationships which were absent during his life. His questions often took me by surprise, not only because they are logical, but often because they are incisive and to the point.
Having a companion to talk to in Heaven is definitely a plus. Having someone like Solomon is even better. As Solomon turned out to be full of information that I find extremely interesting. I keep on asking him about his time, especially whether what has been written in the history book is true. Based on his recollection, it turned out that most of them are pretty accurate.
I asked him what he thought of the saying by Winston Churchill, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
He thought about it for a while then he said, “That’s a very true statement. Though there were many rulers who kept on trying to duplicate the achievements of their predecessors!”
“Did you try to do something similar to what your father, King David, had done, for example?” I asked boldly.
“Well, my father was a great warrior, but I wasn’t. As the result, I only managed to control part of his kingdom!” he said matter-of-factly.
“Did you or your father conquer territories to enlarge his kingdom?” I asked curiously.
“Well, occasionally he did, but in most cases, he simply did that to state our hegemony! To show others that we are a power to be reckoned with!”
“Did you try converting the people of the land you conquered?
“What do you mean by converting?
“Did you try to make them believe in what you believe? Did you try to make them believe in Judaism?”
“Well, frankly, to us, the Israelites, Judaism is our way of life. So, how can we convert the people that we conquered, who are non-Israelites to believe in Judaism? That could never be!”
“So, what you are telling me is that to the Israelites, Judaism is its culture and non-Israelites couldn’t possibly believe in Judaism. However, by the time Christianity and Islam came around that kind of belief is no longer subscribed to. Many new lands were conquered, and their people were converted to the conqueror’s belief. In many cases, that’s how Christianity and Islam expanded.
“What an incredible situation!” he sighed.
Solomon readily sees the difference immediately. I really like his open-mindedness and I find him thoroughly enjoyable. He kept on wanting to know how life was in the “modern” era, so I kept on telling him about all of the technological advancements which seemed to fascinate him to no end. He was especially taken by the fact that people in my era could simply hop in on an airplane to go someplace farther than someone in his lifetime can ever imagine.
“It’s almost like going somewhere by simply wishing as we do here in Heaven!” he said comparing the two realities.
“Well, during my time people have even gone to the Moon and back,” I said.
“Really, to the Moon and back? That’s amazing. How did they do that?”
“We sent them to the Moon on a rocket ship!”
“Did some decide to stay on the Moon permanently?”
“Well, unfortunately, there is no air to breathe on the Moon. So, they can only stay for a short time. They had also sent a probe to Mars, the Red Planet!” I said further to increase his curiosity.
“Mankind has really gone far ahead technologically. If there were people on Mars, I wonder if they believe in God the Almighty the same way we do?” he wondered.
I smiled as I remembered having posed the same question before; only to myself, though! As it was then, I am also left with no answer.
“Remember when we talked about Adam being the first man created by God!” I said changing the topic of our conversation.
“Yes, what about it?” he asked.
“Well, there is a field of knowledge called archeology which studies human existence in the past. There had been many discoveries of human remains which pointed out that humans had been around on earth for a very long time – a lot longer than Adam would have been as described in our Holy Books,” I said.
“How do they determine when those people actually lived?” asked Solomon curiously.
“Well, they have a method which they call ‘carbon dating’ by which they can tell how old the remains are. There had been cases where the remains are thought to be thousands of years old, which far predated Adam’s supposed lifetime!” I clarified.
“That’s very interesting. If that was true, then God couldn’t possibly have created mankind!” He said while looking up.
