Stranger in a Strange Land

the universe, the purpose of life, the purpose of the universe-these are paramount questions Ben; they can never be trivial. Science can't, or hasn't, coped with any of them-and who am I to sneer at religions for trying to answer them, no matter how unconvincingly to me? Old Mumbo Jumbo may eat me yet; I can't rule Him out because He owns no fancy cathedrals. Nor can I rule out one godstruck boy leading a sex cult in an upholstered attic; he might be the Messiah. The only religious opinion that I feel sure of is this: self-awareness is not just a bunch of amino acids bumping together!"
                "Whew! Jubal, you should have been a preacher."
                "Missed it by only a razor's edge, my boy-and I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head. One more word in Mike's defense and I'll throw tüin on the mercy of the court. If be can show us a better way to run this fouled-up planet~his sex life is vindicated thereby, regardless of your taste or mine. Geniuses are notoriously indifferent to the sexual customs of the culture in which they find themselves, they make their own rules; this is not opinion, it was proved by ArmattOe 'way back in 1945. And Mike is a genius; he's shown it more ways than one. Re can therefore be expected to ignore Mrs. Grundy and diddle to suit himself. Geniuses are justifiably contemptuous of the opinions of their inferiors.
                "And from a religious standpoint Mike's sexual behavior IS as kosher as fish on Friday, as orthodox as Santa Claus. He preaches that all living creatures are collectively God . . . which makes him and his disciples the only self-aware gods in his pantheon hich rates him a union card by the rules for godding on this planet. Those rules always permit gods sexual freedom limited ouly by their own judgment; mortal rules never apply. Leda and the Swan? Europa and the Bull? Osiris, Isis, and Horus? The incredible incestuous games of the Norse gods? Of course . . . but why stop there? Take a hard look at the family relations of the Trinity~in~One of the most widely respected western religion (I won't cite eastern tellgions; their gods do things a mink breeder wouldn't put up with!). The only way in which the odd interrelations of the various aspects of what purportS to be a monotheos can be reconciled with the precepts of the religion thereto is by assuming that the rules in these matters for deity are not the rules for ordinary inortais. Of course most people don't think about it; they compartment it off in their minds and mark it: 'Holy-DO Not Disturb.'
                "But an outside referee is forced to allow Mike the same dispensation granted all other gods. There are rules for this game: one god alone splits into at least two parts~ male and fetnale-and breeds. Not just Jehovah-they all do it. Look it up. Contrariwise, a group of godS will breed like rabbits, every time, and with as little regard for human formalities. Once Mike entered the godding business, those orgies of his group were as logically certain as Sunday follows Saturday. So quit using the standards of Podunk and judge them only by Olympian morals-I think you will then find that they are showing unusual restraint. Furthermore, Ben, this 'growmg-closer' by sexual union, this unity~into-Pluralty and plurality-baCk-into-unity, cannot tolerate monogamy inside the god group. Any pairing that excluded the others would be immoral, obscene, under the postulated creed. And if such mutual, shared-by-all sexual congress is essential to their creed, as I grok it has to be, then why do you expect this holy union to be hidden behind a door? Your insistence that they should hide it would have turned a holy rite-which it was-into something obscene-which it was not You just plain did not understand what you were looking at."
                "Maybe I didn't," Ben said glumly.
                "I'm going to offer you one box-top premium, as an inducement. You wondered how Mike got rid of his clothes so quickly. I'll tell you how."
                "How?"
                "It was a miracle."
                "Oh, for God's sake!"
                "Could be. But one thousand dollars says that it was a miracle by the usual rules for miracles-outcome to be decided by you. Go back and ask Mike how he did it. Get him to show you. Then send me the money."
                "Hell, Jubal, I don't want to take your