Takil sat next to Liam and thrust his computer at him. “What do the humans hope to communicate with these decorations?”
Liam blinked for a moment, and then set his own computer aside, but not before locking the screen. Takil felt pride that his Liam felt the need to guard his trades against Takil. The day would come when Takil was smart enough to steal more than meat from their table. He had already stolen a deal they were discussing. Takil had made good profit defining Rownt food staples, and he had worked for a fraction of the price Liam would have charged. It had been a good deal for everyone involved, except for Liam who had lost his profits.
After studying the computer, Liam handed it back to Takil. “They are not communicating anything in particular. They are decorating in a way that makes them happy.”
“Are they normally unhappy?”
Ondry’s eyes tightened, but he didn’t comment, not even when Liam glanced at him. “Humans tend to have more variation in how they feel,” Liam explained. “They are not constantly happy, but that does not imply unhappiness. But this time of year, they often wish to maximize the joy.”
That inspired an entirely new set of questions. “What is the significance of the calendar to the pursuit of joy?”
Liam leaned back. “Well for many people in this part of Earth, Christmas is a time to traditionally seek the company of family and maximize joy. The decorations are a visual reminder of the goals of the season.”
Takil was more confused than ever. Green and blue and red did not correlate to family or joy in any stories he had read, and he knew many, many Earth stories. “I thought Christmas was a time to celebrate the birth of a religious leader who may or may not be a god.” On the point of Christ’s godhood, Takil was most confused. And the more he read, the more confused he got. Ondry insisted that humans were logical if one considered them through the right perspective. Sometimes Takil did not feel capable of finding that perspective and his Liam did not guide him in that because Liam was never illogical.
“That's true as well. But for many people, thinking of that religious leader gives them joy.”
Takil opened his eyes as far as they could go. “Why?”
“Because they wish to reflect on the ways that God has improved their lives.”
“How can a god improve their lives?”
Liam pressed his lips together, but the upward curve at the edges suggested amusement rather than disgust. “Well, they believe God puts opportunities in front of them and goes out of his way to provide for them. It gives them joy to thank God for this and to celebrate the birthday of his son.”
“How could one creature go out of his way for all humans?” Takil shook his head as if trying to shake the ridiculous idea out. He knew he shouldn’t. It was rude to treat human beliefs so disrespectfully, but that made no sense.
“Not all humans believe in this god, Takil. You know full well thatWolfand her people have very different beliefs, as do many on Earth.” Takil paled. Of course he knew that. He had been speaking in exaggeration. His Liam did that all the time.
Even to his own ears, Takil sounded petulant as he pointed out, “Even if only a small percentage of humans believed in this god, that would be far too many individual interests for a creature to balance.” This god would have to be a nutu trader greater than any Rownt who ever lived. He would have to be greater than every nutu trader in history combined to balance so many needs.
“People believe him a god, not an individual,” Liam said. “An individual may not be capable of such things, but God would not have limitations on his abilities.”
Takil understood that theoretically gods had powers that no individual could claim. One story had Goaganglit confronting a hundred kawt who had united to defeat him. Of course Goaganglit had defeated them because he was the god of hunters. But Takil was almost certain that any creature confronted by a hundred kawt would die, divine or not.
“Do you believe in this human god?” Takil asked. He trusted his Liam to explain things in a way that made sense. Sometimes he got frustrated that his Liam’s explanations went into the sort of detail that one might offer an eggling, but his Ondry’s insistence that he find his own answers grew annoying. If his Liam and Ondry had an answer, it felt like a waste of his time for him to search for it, and he did not want to search for answers about human gods. Humans wrote too much on the subject to find answers.
Liam huffed and rested a hand on Takil’s arm. Takil had a small urge to push off the touch of a parent, but Liam was palteia, and they were more tactile than other Rownt. Takil reminded himself that Liam touched due to his own nature and not because he considered Takil too immature to control himself without that contact. Besides, this was not a conversation that was likely to inspire strong emotions, at least not outside of confusion.
“I was not raised religiously. My mother was quite religious, but religion is typically communicated most strongly on Sundays, and she struggled with her trade and did not have the time to devote to communicating her beliefs as she would have liked.”
“Does that mean you do not believe in this God?”
Liam blew out a breath. “I also cannot say that. I will say that I am ignorant of the truth, and I therefore choose to refrain from taking a position.”
“But it is illogical to assume there is a creature that could act as nutu for the universe.” That meant it was logical to deny the existence of such a creature. That was why Rownt rejected their own gods, even if they made the best stories. Takil liked to think of a giant smacking kawt with his tail and throwing them across the horizon. But enjoying the story was not the same as believing that one should hunt kawt with one’s tail.
“But it is also illogical to assume that pieces of a puzzle will fall together on their own. If I were to take a jigsaw puzzle and shake the pieces randomly, would the puzzle ever assemble itself?”
“No.” The thought was so impossible that it amused Takil. His Liam remained silent, so Takil elaborated on his answer. “Statistically, any given motion would have a low probability of bringing together two matching pieces, but each time you shook again, you would disturb that connection with no guarantee of creating a new correct pairing.” Takil wondered at the mathematics behind such an endeavor. The actual odds would depend on how many puzzle pieces existed and the size of the container in which one shook them, it would be an interesting calculation, although Takil doubted he could follow the math beyond calculating the probability of obtaining one match. “What does this have to do with human gods?”
“Among humans, true palteia are rare.”
Takil tilted his head and watched his Liam, waiting for him to continue. Sometimes Liam would do this. He would present a series of facts, and then discuss possible, probable or necessary consequences of those facts.
“The vast majority of Rownt do not consider the needs of their trading partners.”
Again, Takil could not debate that truth.
