No, How Can an Atheist Become a Saintess!?

No, How Can an Atheist Become a Saintess!? – 4

EP.4

Chapter 1

Candidate and Candidate (4)

That’s right. In theory, at least.

But putting theory aside, plans rarely go as expected. The information I had about Lee Chae-eun indicated that, despite outwardly resenting God, she held deep-seated faith within her. I knew better than anyone that the “God” she believed in wasn’t a deity in the true sense. However, she was a child of a hero, after all. It was clear she couldn’t fully escape her father’s influence, and the novel suggested that this conflict stirred up her inner turmoil.

So, I thought to myself: I would draw out the unwavering faith she held deep inside. Such faith, after all, typically emerged in the face of dire crises or when confronted with an unworthy unbeliever that one couldn’t bear to look at.

“Do you see what I mean? The term ‘God’ isn’t really suitable to refer to that existence. In this country, the word can describe Zeus, ancestor spirits, or the deity of this religion. What kind of meaning does such an inconsistent term even hold?”

It was breakfast time. I made my case like this in front of Ria.

I considered it a reasonable argument, but the people in the church often looked at me as if I were spouting nonsense when I made such statements. For them, the word ‘God’ had long since become synonymous with the entity of this world; thus, whatever I said seemed to carry no weight.

If only they broadened their perspectives just a little, they might see how valid my reasoning was. However, despite this, my argument had proven to be quite effective when dealing with annoying people.

If someone knowledgeable, who understood that Earth revolves around the Sun, was told that, in reality, the Sun revolves around Earth, and you persistently try to convince them with evidence and theories, they’d usually shudder and leave. They’d also reaffirm how rational they are.

Of course, in this case, it was I who was normal, and all the other humans were abnormal, so it was a slightly different situation.

“Really?”

Yet, despite my reasoning, the words I used to drive out annoying people passed right through Ria’s ears. Her red bobbed hair was covered with a veil, haphazardly placed, likely following the way I normally wore mine.

As I passed by the table, the head nun shot me a deeply furrowed brow, her gaze piercing into me, filled with suspicion about my usefulness. A chill ran down my spine.

If this continues, I’ll be kicked out of the church! I’ll end up being confessed to by seven people!

“So, to clarify—”

“But…”

With a drowsy expression, Ria spooned some cream soup into her mouth, then interrupted me as if a thought had suddenly struck her.

“Hey, what’s this?”

Ria pointed her spoon at me. A bit of cream soup spilled over the edge and plopped back into the bowl.

“It’s a spoon.”

When I answered, Ria nodded again.

“Really? But there are so many types of spoons, right? So why is it that this spoon is specifically called a ‘spoon’ among all those different kinds?”

“Excuse me?”

“A spoon for eating rice, a spoon for pudding, and a spoon for scooping sugar into a teacup—aren’t they all spoons?”

“……”

“People just agreed to call all similar objects ‘spoons,’ right? Or in English, it’s called a ‘spoon.’”

“So?”

“Then a god is a god.”

Ria shrugged her shoulders as she spoke.

“If there’s an entity that everyone agrees to call a god, then it’s not strange to call it a god, right?”

“……”

I was utterly speechless.

“What? Hasn’t anyone ever countered you with this?”

Well, the thing is, usually people don’t approach it from a linguistic standpoint. They start by accusing me of blasphemy. Even if they are forced to learn in the convent, most people here live under the influence of divine power. While they might harbor some resentment towards the entity above, many more are grateful and think of it as a blessing. After all, that way, they could utilize divine power a little more.

And because of this, when the term ‘God’ came up, people would usually take a theological approach first. The more educated they were, the more so. The head nun or priests would be even more inclined to this.

In fact, a description like “just entity called ‘God’ makes it ‘God’” could easily be deemed blasphemous for another reason. It implies that the entity might not be worthy of such a title. If people stopped calling it ‘God,’ wouldn’t that mean it isn’t God?

Whether I kept my mouth open or not, Ria resumed scooping the soup and bringing it to her mouth in spoonfuls. Just moments ago, she had looked incredibly lethargic and annoyed by everything, but now, after dealing a blow to me, her face seemed to brighten up a bit.

“And what if people stopped calling God ‘God’? Wouldn’t you find that acceptable? People would still view that entity as something similar to God and have faith in it, wouldn’t they? Right?”

“Ugh…”

I felt defeated. It’s been a long time since my logic, which I’ve upheld for 15 years in this world, was entirely refuted.

She was definitely making a good point. Even if we replaced the term ‘God’ with ‘Gin’ in this context, people would still worship that ‘Gin’ without a doubt.

The term “faith” would become “gin-faith,” and the word “divine power” would likely remain “divine power.”

“What do you hope to gain by denying the word ‘god’?”

“……”

Damn it, I was too logical to counter that argument.

The rational and reasonable me couldn’t deny that there was something up above. Denying that the Earth is round after having confirmed it from a spaceship would just make me a fool talking nonsense.

In the end, I decided to just shut my mouth and finish my meal. I could feel the eyes watching me, slightly amused, as I tore the bread roughly and dunked it into the cream soup, but I didn’t feel like responding to that.

For some reason, the white light above my head fell again, so I waved my hand to disperse it.

*

After breakfast, we went out with brooms in hand to clear away the light snow that had fallen the previous evening. Since it was already mid-February, it wasn’t a lot of snow, so it didn’t make the work difficult enough to prevent us from talking.

“Look, if there really was a god looking after us, wouldn’t He spare us from such tedious tasks? If He loved people, He’d let us just relax. Isn’t it possible that the scriptures are wrong?”

“That scripture, well, they periodically rewrite it.”

“……”

“This year’s edition is the fourth version.”

Really?

Wait, has there really been that many editions of the scripture in just over ten years? I had heard it was revised at some point.

“Did you seriously not know that?”

“Of course, I know that much.”

I puffed out my chest, trying to bluff.

“They remove anything about miracles or anecdotes if they can’t cross-verify them, right?”

“Do they?”

Eek.

I accidentally showed a bit of interest in that statement. I didn’t particularly like calling the scripture “scripture.” Back in middle school, when I was still in my awkward phase, I nearly got hit for calling the Bible the “Collection of Jewish Myths” while my friend was reading it. However, I did find the scripture itself quite intriguing.

I had read it a couple of times, not out of interest in faith, but rather because I liked mythology and had read many related books. Ironically, that interest had ultimately led me to become an atheist.

“This religion doesn’t have a long history yet, does it? Since it’s still in the process of being established, they need to lay a solid foundation. It’s a natural process.”

“That’s… quite rational…”

I unknowingly responded and then clamped my mouth shut. Ria was grinning at me, so I angrily swung my broom to clear the snow from the ground.

“Ouch!”

Just then, I accidentally pricked my finger on a thorn from the old wooden broom handle.

It wasn’t a huge injury, but a thin cut had appeared on the tip of my finger, and a small bead of blood formed.

As the white light fell over me, I waved my other hand, the uninjured one, to disperse it.

“If it’s divine power, wouldn’t it take less than a second to heal such a wound?”

As I pressed my lips against the cut, Ria came over, grinning mischievously as she teased me, prompting me to glare at her with a furrowed brow.

Ugh.

Why is she so annoying?

I could finally understand a bit of why the saintess kept clashing with Lee Chae-eun.