“Shard – tell me. Are you planning to suggest that everyone renounce the world? Is that where you think you are going with this?”

“Not at all,” Shard laughed. “We’re only asking a simple question which could be answered in the blink of an eye.”

“You’re not just recruiting sadhus?”

“Sadhus are the outriders of society – there can only ever be a few. They live in denial – surviving on our outer spiritual rim. We’re not suggesting people go there. Why would we? Such a suggestion would be hopeless. Half the people on the planet don’t even believe in God. And the others, the believers, don’t see God as an entity that could be contacted at will.”

“That’s right!”

So in reality…

What hope is there?

“Even after seeing the film,” Shard added. “Most people could never be convinced to renounce. But, as I say, it won’t be necessary.”

The film… just inserted into the conversation…

As if you know all about it.

“Man on Earth is a story,” Shard continued. “And at the end of that story… in the very last days, those who do not believe will tolerate those who do, and those who do believe will tolerate those who don’t. Only in this richly ambivalent atmosphere will the wheel of evolution be free to make its final turn. Only then will the question be finally asked, and we believe, answered.”

“I need time to consider this rationally,” the President said, already aware of conflicting emotions.