nonexistent
wings, and perch on the essence of evanescence! They do not recognize
the alternative--that to exist does not necessarily imply a beginning.
They do not recognize it because they have derived all their tools from
reality around them and then denied the reality while accepting the
validity of the tools of thought derived from it. And in this way they
arrive at an absolute existence of Something they have never sensed or
felt in any way, while denying all that they have felt and sensed, and
give it attributes which their sense of idealism dictates it must have,
and call it God."

"Then," Upt said thoughtfully, "I take it you are an atheist?"

"Certainly NOT," Ont growled telepathically.

"But you implied that in your comments on the conclusions of the
ancients," Upt insisted.

* * * * *

"But if there are no artifacts," Harold said. "And no signs of
intelligence whatever, how could we ever know that there WAS
intelligence some place?"

"There must be some way," Gordon said. "I've taught logic at the U for
fifteen years now, and I've done a lot of thinking on the subject. If we
ever reach Mars I think we should be very careful what we touch. We
would be clumsy bulls in a china shop, not knowing the true worth of
what we found, destroying what might be found to be priceless by later
and more careful explorers. Mars is older than the Earth, and I can't
help being convinced that there is SOME form of intelligence there."

* * * * *

"I implied no such thing as atheism," Ont insisted. "I merely said that
the reasoning used by the ancients to arrive at the Creator was the most
slipshod and illogical possible. There was another line used long ago
that was more solid, but still very weak. It started out with the
statement, 'I can be aware of nothing but thoughts.' External stimuli,
if such there are, must be transformed into thought before I can be
aware of them. Since I can never be aware of anything other than
thought, why assume anything except thought exists? You, and all other
things, exist as thoughts in my mind. There is nothing except what
exists in my mind. Therefore, by that token, _I_ am God!"

"But," Upt chuckled, "by the same token I can insist that _I_ am God and
you are just a product of my own creation."

"Yes," Ont agreed. "So it presents a dilemma. To resolve it, it is
necessary to postulate a Supreme Mind, and to say that all