Saturday, 9th November

While I remember, when we were talking to the professor last week I posed him this question:

"There's a caveman who is about to die. He is a very good caveman, has never done anything wrong – not even dragged his woman around by the hair. The only thing is, he has no concept of God. The idea simply never occurs to him. The question is this: when he dies, is there a place in Heaven for him?"

Not my own idea I'm afraid, but it was asked of me by my driving instructor, Roy, who was great for talking about weird and wonderful things. The professor replied with this story from Tolstoy:

'A Bishop was taking the Word out to some islands in his diocese, and found a village where they'd never heard of Jesus. In all his finery, the Bishop was taken to three men who to all intents and purposes were regarded as Holy Men. They listened with interest to his story and said,

"We have a God in whom we believe and who we believe to be the only God. So our God and your God must be the same." The Bishop asked,

"How do you pray?" The men looked confused, so the Bishop went on, "You must have a prayer to confirm your faith and ask forgiveness for your sins." Before they had the chance to say anything, he enthusiastically began to teach them the Creed.

'As time went on, the three Holy Men tried to learn the Creed, but as soon as they'd learned one part, they forgot another. When they got the beginning right, they forgot the end. When they remembered the end, they forgot the beginning. When they were right with the beginning and the end they missed out the middle. Eventually the Bishop decided to go back to the mainland and bring back some prayer books so they wouldn't have to learn the prayer by heart.

'So he set off across the sea back to the coast. As he proceeded, he saw a light coming from the island. It grew bigger, and he realised that something was approaching the boat! It appeared to be floating in the air above the water and as it drew nearer he found that he could make out three distinct shapes – humanoid, and yet bathed in some glorious light. He soon recognised them as the three Holy Men from the island! He stood up in amazement as they stopped by his boat, standing on the water.

"We wanted to ask you," One of them said, "what comes after 'I believe in the holy spirit'?" the Bishop was too stunned to speak and stood agape for a moment before saying,

"What had you been saying before I came?"

"You are Three and we are three, have mercy on us." They replied. The Bishop said,

"Keep that prayer, I have been using mine for years and I have never been able to walk on water like you!" It was just fun for them, and he saw no reason to force them to learn something that might lose them that power.'

Does that answer my question? I don't think so but hey, it's a story!