Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 07.djvu/87

662 orbits of the electrons in its atom remain undisturbed. A change or a disturbance of the electrons will transform it into something else; perhaps into heavier or lighter nitrogen, perhaps into an entirely different substance, I know that to be true of every element.

"Now we take a big jump, and consider a human being just before 'death' occurs.

"The blood courses through the vascular system, nourishing the tissues. Then the vital impulse ceases. The circulation stops. The tissue cells, starved for oxygen and nourishment, begin to disintegrate into their inert, protoplasmic elements.

"Electronic activity in the individual atoms, however, goes on forever, despite the gross dissolution and decay of the body. The elementary matter of which the body is composed is indestructible no matter what form the body ultimately attains in the process of disintegration.

"That's Nature's method of analysis, of reducing a body into the individual and original elements which compose it. Does she waste these elements?

"She does not! Of course not! She borrows a few carbon molecules here, a little calcium there, perhaps some sulphur and hydrogen elsewhere. Then she combines them in proper proportion, kindles them with the magic wand of radiant energy, and presto! A new living organism is in our midst—perhaps an amoeba, or one of the yeasts, mayhap bird or beast, or even a new human being!"

"You mean," said Mason intensely interested, "That Death merely disarranges the atomic composition of a body by interfering with the vibratory rate of its electrons, and then, by a rearrangement of the chemical elements of the deceased, and a new vibratory impulse, Nature creates a new form of life from the old?"

"Essentially, yes!" agreed the Doctor. "Only your definitions of Death, Nature, and Life mean separate things to you; whereas to me they mean God. Now, right here, I am about to utter what may sound like blasphemy to those ears of yours which drank in too much in those theology lectures of long ago, when you were just a plastic and impressionable boy.

F I can do these things—if I can reduce an range [sic] the same elements so they'll again be organism [sic] to its components and then rear-instinct [sic] with life, will I not be God myself?"

"I see," said Mason, his voice bitter with disappointment. Me und Gott' as the Kaiser once remarked. You're a megalomaniac."

"Your reactions do you credit, Gary," said Doctor Santurn, shrugging his shoulders apologetically. "But don't misunderstand me. I am not, I have no desire to be—Divine. I am just an inchworm measuring its length against the unknown end of Science's yardstick, in an attempt to reach a certain goal."

"A non-existent goal!" snorted Mason disgustedly.

"I desire to prove," continued the Doctor, "that spiritual Immortality does not exist, because physical, atomic Immortality precludes the possibility. And that goes for Resurrection, too. A man's body dies, disintegrates, and his atoms are used again to build other forms. His 'spirit' is merely the vibration which stimulates the electrons in their orbits."

"Yes?" sneered Mason skeptically.

The Doctor flushed, but continued in the same, pedantic manner.

"In radio work there are two sorts of waves we recognize; the 'damped,' or extinguished type, and the continuous or undamped variety.

"Mortal life is subject to damped impulses. The damping of vibrations may take place in a single cell in an hour; in man, a vast collection of cells, it may require 'threescore and ten', or, in the case of our old friend Methuselah, nine hundred and sixty three years. Earring accident, and applying a proper, continuous vibratory impulse to man, we should be enabled to keep him going indefinitely.

"I am not interested in that aspect of Immortality, my friend. It would interfere with the economic scheme of things. But I am desirous of showing that there is no 'spirit' that persists beyond man's dissolution. Death merely damps his vital vibrations, extinguishes the impulse, so to speak. Only his molecules, atoms and electrons live on forever."

He fell silent, lost in reverie; and Mason wrapped in horrified speculation, did not disturb him. At length he broke the silence.

"And when you demonstrate your thesis to Mankind, Oliver, what do you expect to accomplish?"

Doctor Santurn brought up his wandering thoughts with a jerk, recollected time, place and adversary, and formulated his answer.

"Ah! Gary! I want to wipe out religion, the curse of humanity! I want men to live their years with the knowledge that what they waste here cannot, by any form of expiation, be made up in the 'Hereafter.' That 'Heaven' holds no greater reward than they are capable of achieving right here in the one existence; and that 'Hell' is a consciousness of error. When there are no barriers of religion between man and man, such as differences in faith now present, then the Brotherhood of Man will have arrived."

"You forget one thing," interrupted Mason, "Man's tendency to turn for assistance in time of stress to a Higher Power."

AN is a worm!" retorted Doctor Santurn. "Do you actually believe God guides the destinies of every individual bit of living protoplasm? He does, yes, in a wholesale way. He leaves the inconsequential details to the community. He endows us with knowledge sufficient for our well-being, and with a sense of ethics for the sake of society. He gives us the rudiments, the formulae for successful living, and then washes His hands of us, knowing that our neighbors will reward or punish us as we deserve."

"You are not exactly an atheist," said Mason, puzzled, "And yet"

"I? An atheist? Hardly, Gary. I do believe this much: that a Great Power created the earth and all that is therein. But He or It merely supplied the crude elements that might still be found to-day if all living matter were reduced to its lowest common components.

"Then He planted a cell here, another there, and gave them the initial impulse that made them in-