TSN—ME—What if

"…Is this the 'thing' you're talking about?" Eduardo asked hesitantly.

Mark nods.

Eduardo pulled back his wrist and rubbed it, and after the two of them got into the car, Mark grabbed his wrist again, mercilessly.

Mark stares at his red and purple wrist for a few seconds, then looks away indifferently, putting his hands in his trouser pockets, without apologizing.

"Are you serious?!" Eduardo looked around, although he couldn't figure it out, there was a hint of anger in his louder voice, "A church?! Are you playing with me?"

Mark was indifferent to Eduardo's anger, and walked forward, his pace was still the way Eduardo remembered, not regular, not vigorous, just looking at his back, he thought he was still that humble student at Harvard a few years ago.

Mark walked for a while, chose the middle seat and sat down.

There are no words or pauses.

The tall stone pillars lined up inside the church support the keystone of the double-vaulted roof falling in the middle of the horizontal direction, and the long windows of stained glass are painted with stories from the Bible. The whole space is quiet and spacious, and the strong religious atmosphere makes people dull.

Being left where he was, Eduardo licked his lips, his chest tight and his anger dissipated.

He doesn't know where this is, the driver is Mark's, and it took them almost an hour's drive to get to this place.

After hesitating for a while, he still lifted his foot and walked over.

There was no one in the church but them.

Eduardo chose to sit next to Mark, staring ahead, and after about half a minute, he turned to look at Mark.

Mark stares intently at the cross ahead of him, as if a great man is there giving a speech, and he's paying full attention.

Eduardo suddenly remembered the time when they listened to Bill Gates' speech together in the Harvard days, and at that time he also stared at Mark like this, and Mark looked at the front as intently as he did now and never noticed his gaze.

At that time, he probably knew that one day, one day, he and Mark would be separated.

Eduardo doesn't know Mark's purpose in bringing him here, and waits for the other to speak.

But Mark had no intention of speaking.

It took half an hour for Eduardo to learn the truth.

The air was so sticky that it was hard to breathe.

Eduardo finally asked, "Why are you here?"

Mark is an atheist, and Eduardo knows that better than anyone.

Mark doesn't believe in gods, thinks that's just a ridiculous way for people to find solace, they've argued over belief in such things.

"Faith is just a means created by those at a higher level to restrain the ignorant and ignorant at the bottom. Did there exist such things as faith at the beginning of human birth? No, evolved human beings only knew how to let themselves live at the beginning. Go on instead of living by beliefs that don't have any real effect." Mark who said this was holding a Coke in his hand at the time, with an indifferent attitude on his face.

The two walked side by side on the street. Many people speeded up their pace to reduce the irritability caused by the heat, but they were much more leisurely, holding ice-cola in their hands, and turning a blind eye to the rush of pedestrians.

If Eduardo was a Christian, he would have turned against his friends at the time. Fortunately, he was not, and he did not refute it because of the evolution theory. At that time, Eduardo had a novel attitude towards Mark's ideas.

"I don't deny that belief may be just a code of conduct, but it is precisely because of belief that people can be saved when they are in despair. This is more like a spiritual way of self-salvation. From this point of view, I don't think belief is without any Substantial things." Eduardo was not angry, and seriously refuted the other party.

"Unsteady losers need to believe in that kind of thing." Mark sarcastically.

"Everyone's personality is different, so there are differences. If everyone in the world is a determined person, then the world will be difficult, and it will definitely be a mess."

"What is difference? There is no truth in this world from the very beginning, and there are no lies, only the facts that exist. People divide all the things that exist in this world into 'facts' that are beneficial to them and live, and then divide those things that are not beneficial to them. In the final analysis, it is nothing but people's self-talk. But what is the truth? It is just what most people think, and the conclusions people get after explaining it."

"But even if we think so much, we still have to live for the so-called facts, because the world is planned." Eduardo retorted, "It's not that we know that something is cruel and choose to ignore it, on the contrary, it's because we know that we still have to Choose to face it, because humans are complex creatures, aren't they?"

"But no one is at the top from the start. The basis of what we say, what we think is the truth is just the decision of the guys who have worked hard to get to the top."

"That's right."

"...I mean, why choose to believe it when it's obviously fake?" Mark frowned.

"It can be called the rules of this world." Eduardo thought for a while and said, "People can't do everything according to their own preferences, because the rules of this world are like this."

"Those who reached the top did so because they didn't believe in the rules." Mark said in a low voice.

"What?" Eduardo didn't catch it.

"So you still think that belief is necessary?" Mark circled back to the original proposition.

Eduardo nodded: "Just like the difference between you and me, you think that faith is not necessary because you are strong-willed, and I think faith is necessary because there are still people with weak will in this world, so yes. "

Mark turned his head to look at his friend, and said nothing.

Eduardo, who didn't get a response, asked: "Why didn't you speak? Did you agree with my point of view?"

Mark shook his head and took a sip of Coke: "No, I just don't think there is any need to argue. You don't agree with me, and I don't agree with you."

Eduardo laughs. "That's nice, maybe we're both right. That's the beauty of the difference, it makes people worth arguing."

"..." Mark frowned again, "You think this is just a debate?"

"Otherwise?" Eduardo was a little amused, "Mark, do you want to change the world? Like those great men standing on top?"

"You think I can't do it?"

Eduardo was stopped by the question, and after a few seconds of consideration, he said, "It's not a question of whether we can do it or not."

"You don't believe I can do it." Mark concluded to himself, "Are you happy with who you are now?"

"What?" Eduardo wondered.

"You never thought that maybe the world shouldn't be like this, and you never thought about being promoted to a higher level. Very well, I know our differences." Mark spoke mercilessly.

Eduardo hissed, not wanting to dwell on the issue, and asked, "Are we talking about faith?"

"We're talking about beliefs, and we're talking about differences, Wardo, should I understand that you're belittling my language by changing the subject now?"

Eduardo wiped the sweat from his nose with his fingertips, and shook his head at Mark: "I didn't underestimate your language, but I just don't think it's necessary to go into it."

"why?"

"We are friends, I can help you solve troubles, we can do friends things together, but we think differently about some things, so we have to make it look the same, which violates the freedom of opinion." Eduardo patiently said to each other Explain, "I think your non-belief is cool, people more or less miss things because they're not strong-willed, and I'm the same, but you're strong-willed and believe that belief is something that doesn't matter, and I think that's Very cool."

Mark stares at him and says, "It's not about being cool."

Eduardo shrugged disapprovingly: "For me."

"..."

So Mark caught the words in his throat that he was going to blurt out.