The Parable of the Preacher and the Writer

Once upon a time there was a town filled with religious fervor. A man did not believe, until one day he had a religious conversion. He spoke with such passion and certainty, that the believers around him took a liking to him. He rose up the ranks and became a preacher, and was adorned with praise, money, and popularity. The Preacher was a fool, but he found it easy to manipulate the greater fools around him, and he lived in luxury for it. The Preacher died peacefully in his sleep at the age of fifty, unaware of the falsity of his beliefs and teachings.

 

Meanwhile, another man who had been devoutly religious started asking questions. These questions turned into arguments. These arguments turned into knowledge: This man, The Writer, came to know that the religion he was surrounded by was false. He wrote a massive book detailing all the mistakes the believers made, all the arguments against their beliefs, all the possible rebuttals to those arguments, and all the problems with those rebuttals. Living alone in poverty, he spent years and years thinking, reading, writing, re-thinking, re-reading, re-writing, struggling and delighting in his quest for truth, all until his book was complete. He had done it; he had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the religion was false.

 

The Writer assumed that those around him loved truth. After all, they spoke about truth as if they cared about it more than anything. In his excitement, and naivety, he shared his findings with his community. They will see the logic of the arguments and change their minds, and they will delight in the logic itself and the knowledge it gives us, just as I have, he thought. The Writer projected his joy onto others, but it was the comforting false beliefs, not truth, that brought them joy. He was met with nastiness, accusations, and hatred. He was outcast and thrown into the wilderness where he died at the age of fifty from exposure.

 

Who would you rather get to be? If someone's answer is different from yours, are they in any sense mistaken?