“The consequences of the Big Bang should have flowed like rows of falling dominoes; the physical universe should be predictable. But it ain’t, because intelligent life forms are messing with it.”

 – Ambrose Phoenix

   Stene held up his glass to view the morning sunlight through the wine. Lovely. “Why is that, Dan? Ever wonder? Why is life on this world so violent?” He sipped, rolling it back on his tongue. Memories of other wines, ancient and wonderful, added to his pleasure.

   “It just is. No reason.”

   Stene erupted in laughter and a regrettable spray of wine. “Many things are not reasonable, my friend. But nothing ‘just is.’ Everything and I mean every-thing, has a history.”

   “A history?”

   “What things were before. How they came to be the way they are. What science describes as causation.”

   “Hmm." The librarian leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.  "Scientists believe the same things always happen the same way because they like their world orderly and predictable. But, Stene, don't you have to know the reasons? If you don’t know the reasons, how can you predict similar outcomes?” He pointed at a large rock next to the street. “That granite boulder was half buried in my yard when I moved in. It was probably deposited there by a receding glacier at the end of the last ice age. I dug it up and rolled it to the street. Geologists of the future will not know that rock is where it is now because somebody bet me I was too old to move it.”

   “And your point?” Stene couldn't hide his amusement.

   “Things aren’t always the way they’d be if left to nature. Those old scientists missed something.”

   “That is half a thought, my good antiquarian,” he smiled. “Finish it.”

   “Well, People change the world around them. They make changes that don’t occur naturally.”

   “Go on.”

   “We've been changing things for millions of years, making them different from the way nature would. So, this is not a natural world. It should be predictable, but it ain’t,” he grinned. “Because people are messing with it.”

   “Bingo, Dan! Intelligent life changes things in unpredictable ways.”

   Dan relaxed back in his chair, obviously pleased.

   But now Stene's thoughts turned to the deeper colors of his wine. He waved a weary hand at the dead town around them, “What went wrong?”

   “What are you getting at?”

   “Something went wrong on Earth, Dan. Something is out of whack here, can’t you feel it?”

   "Like what? War, evil or are you running low on wine?"

   "How does evil rise up and engulf a world?"

   Dan leaned towards him, “What caused evil, Stene?”

   “Ambrose’s Error! It made you unable to access your genetic memory. Without the experience of past mistakes, each generation constantly overreaches. It outgrows its resources and eats its neighbor. At least animals have instinct; they're born with a little experience from their past - and carnivores eat each other only to survive. Humans though, they have intelligence and yet they make war to take more than they need. And how do you make people mad for war, Dan? By awakening them in each life with no experience of their past lives. They know only what side they are on and what they want. This is all a mistake!" He paused to catch Dan's eye.

   "So we lost Eden." Dan sighed and sat back in his chair.

   How disappointed he seems, Stene thought. "I know what I am talking about Dan. This is not the alcohol talking; it is reality, my friend."