BURNING GALILEO

Chapter 10 - The Vital Question

And then Galileo did it. He asked the final and forbidden question.

The Vital Question:

"My dear sir, after all I have heard, of tipping points, and ludicrous global carbon funds, authority arguments on top of authority arguments, once again, can you answer me honestly: why do you need a consensus?"

The Inquisitor replied reflexively, "Because some people still don't believe—" then he caught himself.

Galileo straightened his back, a large smile expanded across his face as he looked at the younger man.

Then he broke the silence, "So your science is a belief system?"

The Inquisitor went stone cold, staring at Galileo, his eyes burned through him.

"That's it! I've had enough of you, you stringy haired kook! You bastard! You sophist! Let's see what the rest of the rational world thinks about you!"

He turned and looked at the leaderboard.

The editor cut to the camera which was zoomed in on the leaderboard.

1.3 BILLION for 'Burn Him!' and 237 for 'He's right'. "Well," he continued, "It looks like the science is in. We have mountains of evidence, and it is abundantly clear who is right and who is wrong."

Galileo interrupted, "You are showing me nothing but an argument of authority. You had a good start with your verified results, now can we get back to the sci—"

"NO! NO! That's it! We've had enough of you!" He turned again to look straight into camera #3, "Haven't we world?!"

Camera #2 zoomed in on the leaderboard. The 'Burn Him' count rose; it rose so fast that the numbers were a blur.

The 'He's Right' count did not move, it was frozen.

The Inquisitor raised his clipboard in the air, looked up into the sky and bellowed in his microphone, "Allright wooorld, are youuuu reaaaady to buuuurn hiiiim!?"

Over the P.A. system the crew piped the sound of a huge roaring crowd: "Yes! Yes! Burn him! Burn him! Burn him!" the crowd chanted rhythmically.

He took a look at Galileo and yelled, "Do you have anything else to say, kook!?"

"Yes of course. Are you Catholic?"

The Inquisitor looked at Galileo in disbelief, his lips trembled. He quickly regained his composure, looked at camera#3, winked to the men off camera, took a deep breath and yelled, "Buuuuuurn Hiiiiim!" He turned his head up to the sky and moved the microphone slowly away from his mouth for dramatic effect.

The wink was the signal. The workers off camera now doused the pallets with gasoline. Another worker took a cigarette lighter, lit a small torch, and threw the torch onto the gasoline drenched pallets.

The director raised his left hand and pointed at camera six; "Aaand cut to camera six!"

Galileo did not scream. He watched in silence as the torch flew through the air and landed on the pallets.

The pallets burst into a brilliant orange fireball. The fireball then collapsed, and the burning heap generated a thick black column of smoke that twisted gracefully into the heavens. The roaring flames provided a dramatic soundtrack.

"Yeee-aaaah! That's fucking awesome dude!" said Lance, his feet skittering from side to side. He could hardly hold himself in his chair.

"Damned, it looks so real, but it's fake right?" said Mark. "Fuck no! Who cares?! That stupid redneck kook deserves it! Look at that, it looks like he's screaming as he burns!"

"Naw, it can't be real..." said Mark, his mouth agape.