Killing God Part 2

Killing God

Part II

After their escape, Sheila and Hobbes (formerly known as John Griffin) discuss the next step to their “omniscient plan” for a Sovereign World Order in the marshy swamplands of Louisiana. Their plot, they call “omniscient” because of Hobbes’s godlike knowledge of all digital data.

Greenhorn and Juan Carlo change the course of their investigative tactics and start researching the department’s most intelligent FBI agent, Sheila, born “Ursula Wolfgang von Goethe,” raised by immigrant grandparents from Germany to resurrect Hitler’s Third Reich by proliferating the scientific racism of eugenics. In her apartment, on the hard drive of her computer, they find neo-Nazi literature, as well as letters to Hobbes in her sent email with step-by-step instructions to eradicate Christianity. Sheila believes she must enforce population control via extreme measures, from selective social extermination to guided natural selection of only “superior” physical and psychological genes. They discover a photo of Sheila when she was a girl with her grandparents behind a magnet of a Mardi Gras crocodile on her refrigerator. It’s a picture at her grandparents’ cabin, which they left to her before they were assassinated—a government sanctioned assassination for plotting crimes against humanity. This only fueled their granddaughter’s passion for their project.

Sheila’s influence cannot be overstated. Without Hobbes, there would be no Leviathan. And without Sheila, there would be no Hobbes. Sheila is a master A.I. programmer whose greatest “creation” is Hobbes. And Hobbes is a walking humanoid robot who’s been programmed to create a deadly A.I. program (called Leviathan) designed to target Christians.

Sheila met Griffin working as a correctional counselor at The Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as “The Farm,” back when the 18-years-old had not yet heard of the political philosopher, Thomas Hobbes. She immediately fell in love with him. And he loved and admired her for her unwavering devotion to him and her hatred of the prominent Southern religion that made him feel ashamed and guilt-ridden, especially as a child for asking curious and probing questions about Christianity that set him apart as a “devil” at his all-boys’ parochial school.

Although Sheila is his entire world, he still harbors doubts. A year before they met, Griffin remembers a Catholic chaplain who spoke at Chapel to the inmates on Good Friday. This man was unlike any other man, neither judging him for his past mistakes nor condemning him for his current beliefs. This priest told him “God creates every human being with the freedom to choose Him or reject Him. The reason for sin and suffering is when we disobey God. But Love is both relentless and paradoxical. God never stops chasing after us, although He’s Sovereign over every detail of our lives.” It’s the last thing he said to Griffin that continues to haunt him and keep him up at night, questioning, not whether God exists, but whether God is truly good given his own troubled past. “God did not create you to be a robot but a sentient being designed for authentic experiences so you can feel His pleasure.”

The most remarkable thing about Sheila and Hobbes’s relationship is that they keep no secrets from each other. She knows all about his questions and doubts, and he knows all about her plans to reign as Sovereign in order to honor her grandparents.

The day of his release from The Farm she took him to his favorite po’ boy establishment where she presented him with a possible solution to permanently crush the source of his agonizing quandary about the existence of providence and freewill by performing a radical surgical procedure, which could theoretically remove the part of his brain responsible for the freedom of the will to make autonomous choices, according to the Cartesian view that the pineal gland is the hub where the mind and body unite and interact. By removing this gland, as well as the adjacent midline region of the brain, the corpus callosum, which is responsible for connecting left and right cerebral hemispheres, and then replacing it with an A.I. Vertex database housed inside a silicon neuromorphic chip with 1,000,000,000 times more dense “neurons” than the corpus callosum, Griffin would be the first walking humanoid robot, able to process information faster than any computer and able to react faster to both the rational and emotional sides of his brain, simultaneously thinking and feeling like no other person alive. Griffin was in favor of the innovative procedure.

The date was set. He was made aware of possible complications, including a high percent chance of mortality. The neuro-surgeon who performed the operation was paid handsomely for his time and discretion.

The operation was a partial success, transforming Griffin into Hobbes. The surgical extraction of the corpus callosum and the implant of the computer motherboard worked. But, as it turns out, the removal of the pineal gland did nothing to correct his ability to doubt or make freewill decisions except to upgrade his insomnia to severe since the pineal gland is responsible for secreting melatonin, which helps with sleep. Now he has no reprieve from his own vacillating thoughts about divine sovereignty and human freedom. The operation also has a ying-yang effect on him, feeling--to its maximal effect--the suffering of pain and the enjoyment of pleasure.

Back at their secret hideout, protected by a 500-lb alligator, their maniacal plan to conquer the world takes a backseat to Hobbes’s disintegrating mental health.

“I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s literally driving me crazy.”

“Have you searched your database for possible philosophical solutions?” asks the woman 10-years his elder sitting across from him.

“Yes… But nothing resolves the dilemma.” He pauses gently squeezing her tiny hand in the gargantuan palm of his hand. “The irony is that I once met a man who explained things to me so simply and beautifully. But he died. And with him died my only potential for peace.”

As she stands up to place her arm around his shoulder, they hear footsteps outside the cabin.