Do you believe in life after delivery?

1.    In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other, “Do you believe in life after delivery?”

2.    The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. It seems we are obviously here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later and that we have capacities that are meant for something greater than here.”

3.    “Nonsense!” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What makes you think there is?”

4.    The second said, “Well, I am going to suppose that since we have eyes and legs and mouths that there is a world outside that has more light than here so that we can see, and where will walk about with our legs, and eat with our mouths. I mean, why would we have legs if we weren’t ever going to walk, or eyes if we weren’t ever going to have light and see?  Maybe there will be many other things that we can’t understand now.”

5.    The first replied, “That is absurd. You are just engaging in wishful thinking and hoping that things will get better. This is all there is. Who needs to walk? And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. And since the umbilical cord is so short, life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”

6.    The second insisted, “Well I think there is something more than this, outside and beyond this womb. Some sort of longing is in my heart to see and walk freely and to eat and enjoy things. I mean, why would we have these legs and eyes and mouth and hands? And where did we get the longing to use them if we weren’t meant for something more? Indeed, maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

7.    The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one has ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”

8.    “No,” said the second, “Surely we will meet our mother and she will take care of us.”

9.    The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in a mother? That’s laughable. If a mother exists then where is she now?”

10.  The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are from her and it is in her that we now live. Without her this world we are in now would not exist.”

11.  Said the first, “Well I don’t see her, so it is only logical that she doesn’t exist.”

12.  To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when I am in silence and I focus and really listen, I can perceive her presence, and hear her loving voice, calling down from above.”

Not a bad analogy in parable form (remember, no analogy is perfect)! 

http://blog.adw.org/2015/06/a-powerful-parable-against-the-premises-of-unbelief/