The Veritas Conflict (50 page)

He chuckled as relieved sighs rippled among the students. “What’s important is that you distinguish this time as one of those key turning points in history that you recognize only in hindsight. Hume was the first to acknowledge that since his philosophy was counter to theistic thought, it was more honest to explicitly abolish any pretense of Christian belief or practice. The other philosophers had said, ‘We can’t prove it, but there is a God’ Hume said, ‘We can’t prove it, and there isn’t.’

“This major switch led to the rise of determinism, a philosophy that is de rigueur in some circles today, which states that because a cause determines every action, there is no such thing as free will or even responsibility. An upright citizen, for example, became so because he had a good home and schooling, and an alcoholic thief became so not because he chose to but because of his terrible home environment and alcoholic father.”

Claire, sketching notes just to be on the safe side, raised an eyebrow.
For goodness sakes.…

“The logical application of this philosophy states that there is no difference, then, between Martin Luther King Jr. and Adolf Hider: An atom went one way in King’s
brain, another in Hitler’s, and that’s what caused their different belief systems and actions.”

A few astonished chuckles arose from the students around Claire. She smiled to herself.
See, when you’re not entangled in philosophy class mindbenders, everyone else thinks this stuff sounds crazy, too
.

Mansfield was walking back to the podium, whiteboard marker in hand. “Finally, naturalism was the ultimate philosophical outgrowth of the evolution from the theological to the scientific methods. Naturalism declares that only nature exists, that the supernatural realm—everything from the idea of a supreme being to the concept of the mind or the soul—is simple fantasy.

“Naturalism,” he wrote the word with a flourish, “is the philosophy that underlies and is essentially synonymous with secular humanism, the preeminent worldview or religion of today’s secular culture—and certainly the preeminent view among academics. The primary consensus of humanism is that human reason and the scientific method are the only sure means of arriving at knowledge and that all beliefs, values, and mores are made by men and for men, with no real absolutes, and certainly with utter rejection of the idea of God. And that—” he capped his marker with a click— “brings us back to where we started.

“So, ladies and gentlemen, you can see that in just the few hundred years following Newton, the theological foundations that had underpinned Western society for over a thousand years—indeed, had informed all manner of theistic cultures even prior to that point—were completely replaced by the scientific and humanistic doctrines of today.”

Where is he going with this?
Claire fidgeted and chewed on the end of her pen.
It almost sounds like he’s saying humanism is the ultimate end point. But he wouldn’t believe
—

“So the church took an extra-Biblical stand—a stand that was never discussed in Scripture, and which we now know was untrue—and the history of Western civilization was changed forever. Nontruth ultimately will be discredited.” He smiled slightly. “Something that the humanists of today, who declare that there is no mind or soul or anything not measurable by science, might want to keep in mind.”

Amidst a few startled chuckles from the audience, Mansfield glanced quickly at his watch. “And … I think that is where we have to stop. Ian Burke will conduct a classwide review, and of course each of your TAs are available for your section reviews tomorrow. I’m sure they’ve already told you the times. See you Thursday.”

Claire relaxed into her seat, waiting for the review session to start. Her eye traveled down the last page of notes. Rationalism, empiricism, determinism—unbelievable what a bunch of twisted “isms” these philosophers could come up with. Why did everyone have to make it so complicated, when it was so easy?

She reached into her backpack for the small Bible she had begun to carry with her. She flipped to the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, her finger following the page down to verse 20.
“So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made them foolish and shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense.”

She snorted to herself.
You can say that again
.

As the class broke up, Mansfield descended the stairs from the stage and beckoned her and Ian over. He spoke without preamble. “I got a call from Edward Grindley this morning. He wants me to come over tomorrow afternoon. I’m not sure why. I’m planning on briefing him on our progress.”

He looked at Claire. “So just to be sure we’re on the same page, are we still on track with your timing? You’ll be sure to get that advance work done tomorrow afternoon after your class?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good.” Mansfield was buttoning up his coat. “Well, I’m off. I’ll see you Thursday for the test.”

Standing side by side, Ian and Claire watched him move out through the departing crowd. It took him a few minutes to get to the door. Every student seemed to want his attention to say hello or ask him a question.

Ian spoke without looking at her. “Just because he’s your favorite professor, don’t expect him to go easy on you on the test.” He grinned. “Or me either, for that matter.”

Claire flushed. “I wasn’t expecting you to.”

“Good.”

They stood there a moment longer, watching the classroom gradually empty. Claire hugged her notebook to her chest, wondering if she should leave. She didn’t really want to.

“Well, I’d better get going.” Ian gestured toward the stage, where papers and books were stacked neatly by his backpack. “I’ve got a lot of prep work to do before the test.”

“Okay.” She hesitated, then blurted out the words on her mind. “Thank you for helping me review that material last night.”

“Well, we can’t have you failing out now, can we?”

Claire shook her head, then made busy about gathering her notebook and papers into her backpack. “I should get out of here. I’ll see you Thursday.”

“Lunch with Mansfield after the test?”

“Yes.”

She smiled at him, then walked up the steps toward the doors in the back of the room. She forced herself not to turn to see if he was watching.

At the back of the room, Kai turned to his team. “The first thread must be pulled. He will have less than thirty minutes.”

A cadre of angels nodded and sped off, each going his separate way.

As the young woman headed for the door, Gael saluted his superior with a grin and prepared to depart.

Kai chuckled and clasped his arm. “This is going to be interesting, my friend. The Master’s hand is at work!”

“And as the man of God told his class, Truth
will
win!”

Kai’s expression sobered. “Yes. It will.”

Ian watched Claire go, a smile playing on his lips. He shook himself out of his reverie. What was he thinking? She was still too young.

He bounded up the stairs to the stage and gathered up his things. Within minutes he was heading out the door, walking the half-mile to the law school campus. It was about time he got to some actual law school business!

He pushed through the lunchtime crowds at the Hark and headed for the mail slots that lined the crowded common area of the student center. He checked his little cubicle and groaned. It was stuffed frill of flyers. How long had it been since he’d checked it? He didn’t have time to deal with this.

He pulled out the crunched mass and plopped himself down on one of the sofas in the common area. He might as well just go through it now and get it over with. Ninety percent of it was going in the trash anyway.

Page after page flipped by under his impatient fingers, and the discard pile grew. Activities, happy hours, intramurals, service projects. He stopped briefly at that one, glancing at the date on the bottom of the page, then grimaced. The project in question had happened a week ago. He flipped more pages.

Apartment listings, recruiting…

He backtracked quickly to the cream-colored recruiting newsletter. Jobs were good. He scanned the flyer. He had probably missed these sessions, too.

Suddenly, he started to his feet, looking intently at the clock on the wall, then back at the cream pages in his hand. He gathered the pile of discarded flyers and threw them in a trash can nearby, then grabbed his satchel and ran for the door.

The company that founded the Excellence Awards was recruiting in Pound Hall, right next door, until one o’clock. It was already after that. His mind flickered to the article about Pike Holdings being the front-runner for the prestigious award. And now
here they were on campus. To cap it off, the recruiter was someone he knew, a guy from the law school’s Christian Fellowship who had graduated the previous year. Could this possibly be coincidence?

He hurried to the listed classroom and threw open the door. Empty. The clock read 1:05.

Ian made a sound of frustration and started to throw down his satchel. Then he stopped, half in, half out of the room, and forced himself to think. Maybe the career services office knew where to find the recruiters. Maybe …

“Ian!”

Ian swung around to see a familiar face approaching down the hallway.

“D.J.!”

The two friends clasped in a bear hug, slapping each other hard on the back.

Ian stepped back, relief washing over him. “Man, am I glad we didn’t miss each other. Do I have some questions for you!”

“What, you angling for a job next summer?”

“Nothing like that. I just have a question for this research project I’m doing. You remember Mansfield?”

“The history prof?” D. J. chuckled. “Who wouldn’t? You still his TA?”

“Yes. Listen, do you have time for lunch?”

D. J. looked at his watch. “Hmm. I’ve really got to catch a plane. We’re getting ready to choose the Excellence Award for this year, and you wouldn’t believe the stuff that’s going on.” He hesitated, then nodded. “I can probably squeeze in an hour.”

“Long enough.”

Ten minutes later the two friends sat at a deli window counter, looking out at the traffic on Massachusetts Avenue and conferring quietly. Ian was giving D. J. an overview of the past few weeks.

D. J. listened, munching on a BLT, as Ian described the downed tree, Edward Grindley, the old records. His face registered astonishment as Ian described Claire’s findings on the unused Christian grants and endowments. And he grew increasingly interested as Ian outlined—without using names—the odd finding that a current, hostile professor seemed to be a member of a mysterious family involved from the earliest years of Harvard.

“How weird is that?” D. J. glanced at his watch. “So who is this hostile professor? Who’s the family?”

“Anton Pike.”

D. J. stared into Ian’s face. After a frozen moment, he glanced around the bustling deli, then back at Ian.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Ian raised an eyebrow, but followed his friend out the door and a few steps down Massachusetts Avenue toward the Cambridge Common. D. J. marched right out into the middle of the frozen park, then swung around to face Ian.

“Do you have any idea what’s going on with the Excellence Awards, or is this just pure coincidence?”

“The only thing I know is what I read in the business magazines. They said Pike Holdings was up for your award this year.”

D. J. laughed without humor. “Yeah, they’re up for it. And my bosses would kill me for telling you this, but they’re going to get it, too. Unless we can track down evidence that corroborates some negative rumors we’ve heard.”

“What?”

“Look, I need your word that this doesn’t go beyond your little team working on this.”

“You got it.”

“Okay.” D. J. took a deep breath. “As you may know, our company has two business lines—two profit centers, if you will. One is the side that does the Excellence Awards, the other is a major business magazine.”

“I didn’t know that, but okay.”

“The business magazine gives us the investigative tools we need to make the determination about the Excellence Award. Since that award is a huge deal in the marketplace, we have to be sure we get it right.” His eyes bored into Ian’s. “Or at least be sure that we don’t get it wrong.”

A blast of wind shot across the Common, and D. J. shivered as he pulled on a pair of gloves. “This year, I think everyone in our office just assumed that Pike Holdings would get the award. Even though everyone knows that one of its main subs is losing a big lawsuit—the Helion case—everyone recognizes that that sort of thing happens. It doesn’t affect the fundamental stability of the business going forward. And Pike Holdings has managed to be incredibly profitable even during recessionary years. Its really a business marvel.

“My bosses felt that Pike Holdings was long overdue for the award and that it was essentially the heir apparent for this year. All that was left was the official decision, which was supposed to be made internally last week.” He leaned toward Ian. “And I think someone inside may have told the Pike folks that, because their company promptly timed their initial public offering so they’d be out into the market raising money just a week after the award date.”