



The next morning I began the wait for Arsenius who, I was told, would arrive later that day. It gave me some time to think about all the things Akakios had told me about the christian god. Akakios had mentioned the concepts of the devil and the true path. Akakios explained that the true path was the way to the spirit world and a path to knowledge and wisdom. He said that every human being should be pursuing the true path. But I was greatly puzzled about the true path, how did it work, what did one do? I regretted that I had not spent more time with Akakios learning exactly what he meant by the true path. I began to wonder, "What path was I on? Was my path a true path?" After all, it was a path toward knowledge and wisdom. While my path might not be the same road, it did seem to be going in the same direction.





Still, the christian idea of acquiring knowledge and wisdom through fideism, or accepting on faith what someone said, troubled me, as it did Theon and Hypatia and other philosophers in the university. Blind acceptance of that kind of knowledge made it too easy for some to manipulate others, to control their thinking. The very people who insisted on this means of acquiring knowledge, have their own personal reasons for promoting this idea of taking their version of the truth on faith alone. They often insisted that only they speak the absolute truth under the authority of God himself.





Of course kings invent the very gods they claim they get their authority from. And that has been the great lie of all the kings in the past. They claim to get their version of the truth from someone in the spirit world, someone they invent. Kings come and go, as does the knowledge they promote through fideism. But knowledge gained from study and reason is truer knowledge, a closer approximation of the truth. At least it represents a broader consensus. And through the process of open debate on specific points, knowledge through study and reason is freer from personal influences and personal motivations.





I learned from Theon and Hypatia that knowledge itself was neither good nor bad, but rather it depended upon the motivations of the person passing on knowledge to someone else. Hypatia told me that it was important not only to study the knowledge passed on by those who called themselves philosopher or teacher, but one must know the person who is passing it on. Theon always said that knowledge is like the contents of a container and the container is the motivation of the person passing it on.





In academic debate, the underlying tenets are out in public for everyone to examine and criticize and expose to public scrutiny and ridicule. And through such an incremental process of refinement over the ages knowledge becomes wisdom. Hypatia told me that it is through this wisdom that civilizations are able to advance. And that is why the Great Library plays such an important role. As an already ancient respository of great wisdom, the library provides content and other resources to help light the dark and narrow path to the future.

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