The Two Trees I-3

Act I, Scene 3

Nabal: Ok, I'll humor you, what is the Bible about, other than shepherds and camel traders?

Abel: The Bible is an amazing historical document. It proves that God exists and that Judaism was His revealed religion before Christ came and that Christianity is His revealed religion after.

Nabal: Why would God, if He is so great and almighty, care about petty human religion? And why would one of many religions be any better than the others when they are all the same?

Abel: All those other religions aren't God's revealed religion. It's His will that we follow His revealed religion...Stewart, you said you read the Bible, isn't that God's will?

Stewart: The Bible does talk about God's will, but I think His will is mainly related to Christ.

Abel: See Nabal, Stewart's right, and Christ revealed that Christianity is God's religion that we should follow so that we can go to heaven when we die. Right Stewart?

Stewart: Uhh...

Abel: Maybe it will help if we explain the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Brian: Yeah, I've always wondered why there are two parts to the Bible. And why are they called "Testaments"?

Stewart: A testament is like a will—various accomplishments bequeathed to the inheritors.

Abel: Right, and in the New Testament, God gave us Christianity and the way to go to heaven, and in the Old Testament, God gave us Judaism and the Law, which was replaced by Christianity, and certain facts about creation and the world.

Nabal: Certain facts? Like what?

Abel: Well, the Law tells us about good and evil...

Nabal: Those are just societal constructs to keep us from behaving in antisocial ways.

Brian: Are you dating a sociology major? Where did you learn that psychobabble?

Nabal: She's just a friend...it's not my fault she's not into the hard sciences.

Abel: ...and Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament tells us that the earth is 6,000 years old.

Nabal: Come on! Everything we've studied and everything we know shows the earth is older than that, by several orders of magnitude... next you're going to tell me the earth is flat too.

Abel: When it comes to the Bible versus science, I'll take the Bible, since it is infallible. Every word in the Bible is accurate and precise, and the Bible explicitly says the earth is only 6,000 years old. Evolution is...

Brian: Speaking of science, even if you don't believe it, we're going to be tested on neuroscience tomorrow and might want to finish up our studying before the library closes.

Stewart: All we had left was the electrophysiology chapter. Can we maybe go over how an action potential works and call it a day?

Brian: So, I think there are two main types of ions involved in the membrane voltage changes during an action potential, sodium and potassium...

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