"The Bible was written for humans, so I am attempting to read like one, and at the speed one typically reads. I am hoping this will help me resolve the numerous conflicts within the book."

"Conflicts?"

"Yes," she said, her eyes scanning the pages, her AI mind separating the energy representing letters and words from that of the pages themselves. "Even limiting my scope to the English-language, the Bible is available in 319 versions. As I noticed factual contradictions in the popular ones, I attempted to resolve them in the translations closest to the original Hebrew and Greek languages, but many remained: numerical discrepancies, traced to ancient copyist errors; or Christ's last words; or the presence of one or two angels at his tomb. The creation account in Genesis is unclear, and I cannot decide whether God is transcendent or omnipresent."

"Decide?" I asked. "This isn't a religion where you can ‘decide,' Aether. God just ‘is' something."

"Questions have meanings, too, Brandon; and not to state that an answer is unknowable."

"And how much do you think these people really ‘know'? The last preacher said Jesus was fully man and fully God. It just doesn't make sense."

She shrugged her shoulders, still reading.

"Aether, those books were written more than two thousand years ago. Some of it is cultural references. Some of it is based on bad source material. Research wasn't so cut-and-dry back then - and not many people were even able to read."

"If the Bible is the inspired word of God, then I must understand all of it. The age and culture of its origin is irrelevant. The conflicts must have resolutions."

"But the people here don't think like computers and they do just fine. God listens to them, doesn't he? God forgave their sins, didn't he?"