Mr. Reed
Iterations. Over time. Diluting the message. Obscuring the original. Judaism is the OG monotheistic religion. It should, by a wide margin, have the most number of practicing members. And yet, it makes up only 0.2% of the world’s population. Why is that? Why is the original less popular than the iteration? Is it any less true than the others?
Sister Barnes
Are we talking about religion or board games or music?
Mr. Reed
Yes. It has the fewest members because it doesn’t advertise. It doesn’t have people like you, knocking on doors, selling people a better life, a better board game, a better song. You ever think about that? How missionaries are really just salespeople for an organization? The product you’re selling is an idea. You knock on my door and you sell, maybe I buy, maybe I don’t buy. Those are the rules of engagement when I invite you into my house. We are negotiating a transaction of ideologies. And what I’m trying to say to you tonight is that I have an idea which I would like to sell to you. [pause] My argument is that the holy texts which we revere are just mythological iterations of stories which ancient people have been telling each other for centuries. They’re not true or real in any literal sense. They are merely a conduit to a more ancient truth. The story of a savior… who was born to a virgin, who could perform miracles and was supernaturally resurrected, was a very popular story for at least a thousand years before Jesus was born.
