Once there was a small village; and in this village stood the statue of God.

The village was happy and prosperous until one day tragedy struck. Somehow the statue of God fell from it's pedestal and shattered. All the villagers were shocked and their hearts were as broken as the statute was that such a thing should befall them. "Are we not pious?" they asked. "Are we not deserving?"

They took this to be a bad omen and decided to abandon the village. The villagers decided to disperse, each family going their own way, but before they left each family decided to take with them a piece of the statue of God.

Soon all the villagers had new villages of their own. Soon all these new villages forgot about the village that their ancestors all came from. Soon all of these new villages had enshrined their little piece of the statue of God and adored it as God.

They would shout at each others village:

"This eye is God!"
"No! This foot is God!"
"No! This hand is God!"
"No! This knee is God!"
"No! This mouth is God!"
"No! This finger is God!"

Soon all the villages started to fight among each other.

Soon the villagers were trying to wipe out the unpious who did not believe in the one true God.

Soon people were killing and dying to prove their faith in the one true God.

And no one had the intelligence to just put the pieces back together.

And no one had the wisdom to just throw the pieces away.

tory copyright 1994 by Robert L. Pitt