ZAP!!!! The girl jumped as the shock from the believometer sent a jolt of electricity through her body. Two burn marks appeared on her shoulder as the man with the believeometer handed it off to the panel to be analyzed for results. It was said that there was a way to beat the believeometer. That one could manipulate their own thoughts and beliefs to convince themselves that they believed even if they didn’t. Yet in the last 5 months since the believeometer had been invented, Jason had only heard of one person who had beaten it. Even then he wasn’t 100% positive if he had beaten it or if he had simply conditioned his mind over and over again to the point where he actually did believe. Those who told the story of this mystery man, who ever he was, conflicted amongst one another on that. Some believe that he had truly beaten the believeometer and some believed that he hadn’t.
The panel continued to analyze the results as the girl trembled as she looked around. When she made eye contact with Jason, he could tell that she was mortified. He knew it was for one of two reasons. She was either a non-believer who like many non-believers tried to condition themselves to believe or she was a believer who was terrified that the results may come back as, “Non-Believer.” The panel assured everyone that the believeometer was never wrong, but Jason knew of a few cases of people who swore to be believers, who ended up being classified as non-believers.
On the day of his own judgment, he had been judged along with 24 other people in District 66-IA at 8:00 a.m. It was a day that he’ll never forget. He stood in line waiting to be judged, as he kept reassuring himself that he was fine and that the believeometer would register that he was a believer. There was no reason to doubt otherwise. He had been going to church and praying and reading the Bible ever since he could remember. There was no way that the believeometer would classify him as a “Non-Believer.”
Yet when the pastor from his church, who stood directly in front of him, had his reading come back as, “Non-believer” a sudden panic came over him. What if he only thought he believed? What if subconsciously he didn’t? If a pastor, who had gone to seminary and gave sermons every Sunday could show up as a “non-believer”, couldn’t anyone? Jason couldn’t believe it as members of the panel grabbed his pastor by the arms and began to take him away. One of two things happened to, “Non-believers” and all Jason could think about when he was shocked with the believeometer was what was going to happen to him if his reading came back as, “Non-believer.” Would he be one of the “lucky” ones (as they were now referred to) who would be exterminated or would he be one of the ones that was brought into slavery to be worked like a mule for 15 hours a day?
“Believer!” One of the panel members shouted as the girl collapsed onto the floor and began to sob with relief. It was nearly the same reaction that he had felt when his results had come back as “believer.” She was helped up by one of the panel members and shown out the door. Jason looked on as the next person stood in line already in tears as he slowly walked to the middle of the room to be judged by the believeometer.
As the believeometer shocked him, he jolted in pain and fell to his knees. His face was a mixture of colors as the veins in his neck and head flowed blue, the red of his upper face and forehead burned red and the two came together to make purple. He knew the judgment that awaited him long before the believeometer and the panel were finished analyzing his results.
Jason had to turn his attention away from the man. He couldn’t bear to look at him. He wanted to help the man. He wanted to be able to have the power and the strength to fight off the panel, and anyone else he would have to, in order to save the man. He didn’t think it was right. He knew it wasn’t right, but he also knew the consequences that awaited anyone who opposed the panel.
Jason closed his eyes for a few moments and then turned his head to the left. As he opened his eyes he saw Craig Fowler, starring at the man. Craig had been the only person in District 66-IA to have challenged the panel. Jason wondered if other believers felt the same way that Craig did, but didn’t have the courage to stand up to the panel.
“This isn’t right,” Craig said before the panel on the day he was judged a “believer”, “You cannot do this to people. It is God’s place to judge these people, not ours!”
“Mr. Fowler!” the panel answered him, “As a believer, how dare you question us! We are God’s children. We choose to believe in him and as a result we have a right to cleanse the earth of retched Non-believers.”
“The God I believe in would not approve of this,” Craig said as he held his ground, “The God I believe in does not approve of this.”
“Really Mr. Fowler?” the panel once again answered him, “Do you know the only way into the
“Yes,” Craig answered, “I do.”
“Yes, I do”
“Good”, the Panel answered, “Then you know that non-believers end up in Hell!”
“That is God’s right to decide that!” Craig shouted back at them, “Not yours!!”
“Get him out of here!!!” the panel shouted, as members grabbed him by the arms and dragged him away.
“You are wrong!!” Craig shouted, “What you are doing is wrong! You all know it! Everyone one of you! Why won’t someone help me?! Why won’t someone do something!?! You all know this is wrong!!”
Jason stood there that day wanting to stand up to the panel and help Craig out, the same way that he wanted to help out the man who had just been judged by the believeometer today. Yet, his reaction was no different then, that what it was today. He just stood there, paralyzed in fear. Terrified of what might happen to him if he did.
Jason remembered that after Craig had been taken away that the panel began to talk to the rest of the audience convincing them that Craig was wrong and that what they were doing was actually right.
“Atheist, agnostics, Muslims, Buddhist, Hindus and Wiccans” the panel explained, “We all know that they are what’s wrong with the world today. They are the evil of the world. They are why there is war. They are why we live in fear of our children being shot at schools. Do you really want to live in that kind of a world anymore?”
The audience of District 66-IA began to discuss amongst themselves as the panel continued.
“We all know that if everyone in this country was a believer that we would live in complete peace and harmony amongst one another as God’s children.”
The audience members began to nod their head in agreement.
“To Hell with Non-believers!!” the panel shouted
“To Hell with Non-believers” the audience shouted back.
Jason was glad that it was extraordinarily crowded that day because no one had seen that he hadn’t said that. As far as he knew, he was the only one there that day that hadn’t.
Craig had been forced to work amongst the non-believers as a slave for an entire week, before he was brought before the panel to apologize for his actions. He stood before them and the people of district 66-IA, and renounced what he had said two days prior.
Jason had no idea what the working conditions of the slaves were. None of the “believers” of district 66-IA did. Craig Fowler was the only believer in their district that had ever experienced it.
“It was Hell” was all Craig said to him one day when Jason got him alone and asked him what it had been like during the week he had been a slave. Jason knew that it would have had to have been, there is no other way that Craig would have denounced what he had said, unless it had been.
“Non-believer!” the panel shouted as the man began to sob even louder. Members of the panel came and grabbed him as he went limp begging for mercy.
“Please!” the man cried, “I’ll do anything you ask of me. Please, I beg of you.”
The head member of the panel held up his hand for the other members who were dragging the man away to stop for a second. Jason looked on with a glimmer of hope that the panel may show the man some compassion.
The head member smiled slightly and then said, “You should have believed.”
The other panel members began taking him away again as he closed his eyes and went completely limp with exhaustion. He could not fight to get away anymore.
The crowd cheered and clapped as they shouted praise towards the panel, praise to God and obscenities at the man. Jason just looked on as he turned his attention towards Craig. Craig wasn’t clapping. He wasn’t cheering either. He just looked on with a noticeable sorrow in his eyes, as the panel members dragged the man out of site.
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