July 2026
Everything was perfect in the Garden of Eden.
The rivers flowed.
The trees grew.
The animals wandered.
Adam and Eve walked beneath the sun.
There were no churches.
No scriptures.
No doctrines.
No sermons.
No bells.
There was only existence.
And it was enough.
Then Eve noticed something.
A flash of red amongst the green.
Small.
Bright.
Alive against the leaves.
A thing that pulled at the eye.
A thing that refused to be ignored.
A question before it became an answer.
A mystery before it became knowledge.
The serpent is often blamed for mankind's fall, but perhaps the serpent merely offered what humanity secretly desired.
Not pleasure.
Not power.
Not wealth.
Certainty.
The promise that the mystery could be understood.
The promise that existence could be explained.
The promise that the unknowable could be known.
And so Eve reached.
Not because she was hungry.
But because she wanted the answer.
Humanity has been reaching ever since.
We reach through religion.
We reach through philosophy.
We reach through ideology.
We reach through science.
We reach through every system that promises to transform mystery into certainty.
Every age produces its bell-ringers.
Men who climb towers.
Men who gather crowds.
Men who claim authority over the unknowable.
Men who insist that the mystery has finally been solved.
Ding dong.
Gather round.
Ding dong.
We know the truth.
Ding dong.
We know why you are here.
Ding dong.
We know what happens when you die.
Ding dong.
Follow us.
What extraordinary confidence.
If God is infinite, beyond language, beyond thought, beyond comprehension itself, then what greater blasphemy can there be than claiming authority over His mystery?
The Bellkeeper hears these bells.
The bell does not know why it rings.
The river does not know why it flows.
The tree does not know why it grows.
And yet all three participate perfectly in existence.
Only man imagines that understanding is required before participation.
Only man believes he must solve existence before he can live it.
The atheist, perhaps, escapes this trap.
The atheist stands before the same mystery and refuses to claim ownership of it.
He does not know why the universe exists.
He does not know what awaits him after death.
He does not know whether there is a God beyond the stars.
Yet he rises anyway.
He loves anyway.
He grieves anyway.
He plants trees whose shade he may never sit beneath.
He builds for futures he may never see.
He walks willingly into a mystery that offers him no explanation.
The deer does not explain existence.
The blackbird does not explain existence.
The river does not explain existence.
They simply participate in it.
The atheist, whether he realises it or not, does the same.
Only the bell-ringer insists that the mystery has been solved.
Jesus said the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
The meek shall inherit the earth.
Perhaps we have misunderstood him.
Perhaps the kingdom of heaven was never intended for those who stood above others claiming authority over the unknowable.
Perhaps it belongs to those who carried water.
Those who fetched wood.
Those who felt the rain upon their face and the sun upon their skin.
Those who accepted existence before they attempted to explain it.
Those who understood that mystery is not a problem to be solved.
It is a gift to be lived.
Perhaps God does not favour the atheists because they reject Him.
Perhaps God favours them because they leave room for Him.
For the deer leaves room for Him.
The blackbird leaves room for Him.
The river leaves room for Him.
And the atheist leaves room for Him too.
Only the bell-ringer claims to have captured Him.
Only the bell-ringer claims to speak for Him.
Only the bell-ringer claims to know His mind.
The greatest act of faith is not to possess the answer.
It is to walk willingly into the mystery and trust that existence itself is enough.