Tagged to Chapter 3 - I loved writing Elizabeth I so I just did the first few side stories with her or that setting. This one was a favorite of mine to write cause it pulls from things I enjoy debating about, mainly religion, belief and how one defines things based on their own experiences. As a writer, Religion is always a fascinating thing and to get to play with the concept is always fun. There is no intention of offending anyone with anything written below. It's all just a theoretical discussion.
Enjoy
~~~~~~~This is a Beginning~~~~~~
The room was dimly lit, only a few candelabras lighting the corner where the two players sat opposite each other at a chess board. The pieces, elaborate mock ups of opposing kingdoms, were scattered around the board in a fairly involved game, several pieces having been decommissioned and now sitting off to the side, relegated as observers.
Queen Elizabeth I stared at the board, eyes narrowed in thought as she pondered her next move. Her opponent, the Doctor, a non-human guest at the palace who had taken to playing chess and debating various topics with her in the evenings, was one who could easily and handily beat her at this game. He never did, letting her figure out a strategy and employ it before showing her, step-by-step, how he would beat it in between discussing philosophy and morals and the value of bananas. He was a strange character but she wouldn't trade the short time she had with him for anything.
At the moment though, they were talking about religion. She knew, mentally, that the Doctor wasn't human. Knowing this begged the question of beliefs. Did God exist for his people? God was the Creator so if He didn't exist on the Doctor's world, what did that speak of Christianity? Did that lessen its value?
Of course, for everything, the Doctor had an answer of some sort.
"Oh, I believe in something Elizabeth. Everyone believes in something. It is a fundamental component of being alive. Whether it is a belief in a god, in many gods, in science, in truth, in a book or a person or a thing, belief is fundamental throughout the universe. One species on Lambda 78 believes fully that everyone must walk with their forward arm placed on their chest over their…oh, the equivalent of your stomach, in order to prevent the sky from falling down. It is an absurd belief, yes, I can see you laughing, but it is one they believe in fully. It isn't the belief that matters or the religion, there are millions of those for any given species, it is how you believe, if you use the belief for the betterment of yourself and others, if that belief brings good or harm to the world. It is the impact of that belief rather than the specifics that is important."
Elizabeth mulled that over. "Does that make any religion less important than another?" she asked.
The Doctor's eyes smiled at her. She wasn't sure how they managed that. "Of course not. Religion is meant to be a personal thing, something you hold high as a beacon of hope or solidarity or happiness or anything else you need to reach for. Your belief in God isn't any less valuable than mine in Time. They represent different things to us because life shapes your beliefs but it doesn't make them any less important than another."
"Time? How can that be a religion? Isn't it a constant? It moves forward and is represented in the past by records of events."
"You measure time in hours, minutes, seconds, days, months years, weeks right? Not necessarily in that order but you use those measurements to mark time." Elizabeth nodded. "Well, I know someone who functions just fine not even knowing what days of the week are, what hours, minutes and seconds are, or even how long a year is."
Elizabeth blinked. "Really? Who? Such a person must be strange, surely, not able to measure time properly. How does anything get done?"
The Doctor smiled. "Little Harry. Completely ignores conventional times, he does."
Elizabeth wasn't sure what to make of that. "Really? But he's so smart. Time is such a simple concept to grasp. Every child does!" It was outrageous that such a bright young child didn't know time. "Have you not taught him?"
A grin of amusement greeted her astonishment. "Nope. Never had a reason to. Days of the week mean little when they might change whenever you show up on a new place. Besides, he has a different way of seeing time. It's about the way he spends it. Learning time, Throne time, Bed time, Talk with Dad time, Play time, Adventure time. It's just a different way of understanding it. This is also a way to believe in time."
"I don't understand."
"Well, how do you believe? Do you worship on bent knees and prostrate as the Muslims do? Do you perform rites at ancient, sacred places as the druids did or take place in ritualistic sacrifice as the Aztecs?"
Elizabeth wasn't sure what the Doctor was getting at. "No, of course not, such practices are unnatural. I attend church, read the Bible and pray to Jesus Christ and to God for deliverance."
The Doctor nodded. "So you make your way to a house built for the sole purpose of worship to read a book that has gone through several dozen translations and pray to a deity that had a mortal son who became an anointed figure after he was killed by those you would call barbaric for his beliefs." Elizabeth's face went red.
"Well, if you put it like that…"
"There is wisdom in not dismissing any religion outright Elizabeth. Each person holds different ideas and values and morals. No other human's ideas will ever match up with yours."
"You asked how I believed Doctor. I believe in God and Jesus and the Bible as the Word of God. I do not believe as they do."
"Yes, but you also dismissed them outright as unnatural. Check." The Doctor moved his rook into striking position. Elizabeth hastily moved her king out of the way, searching for a way to kill the rook off.
"Is it wrong to view them as strange and not normal?"
"No, but it is narrow-minded. I didn't peg you as a narrow-minded person."
Elizabeth took the Doctor's knight out with her queen, only to promptly lose her to the Doctor's nearby castle. "How can one person ever understand or even accept all the different religions? Some of them are so foreign and different."
"By keeping an open mind and letting them exist without judging them. Learn from them."
"Is that how you do it Doctor?"
A smile. "Of course. My belief is more of a certainty than anything else so seeing others beliefs are fascinating. Every sentient species believes in something, it is a fundamental part of their structure. To see how that translates across peoples and planets and time is always interesting."
"But how? How can you not want to make them understand as you do? You are certainly capable of such a thing."
"Just because I believe in something doesn't mean I need to tell everyone else to believe in it. Even Harry will always have a choice to believe as he so chooses. My belief is very personal to me, as I am sure yours is to you. This is how such things work. To force someone else to believe as you do does not make your belief more right than theirs. Their belief has as much of a right to exist as yours does, no more and no less. Checkmate."
The Doctor knocked over Elizabeth's king and the conversation veered from religion and belief, which was giving Elizabeth a headache, and onto the game and how the Doctor managed to beat her this time.
~~~~~~~This is an Ending~~~~~~~
Alright, I'll admit, this has way too much of my own personal views than anything, but I also hope I didn't overdo it. But I thought it would be an interesting topic for the Doctor and Elizabeth to discuss, seeing how religious England was at the time.
Thanks guys!
Kuroi
