Some time later I heard again from the lower earth the same cries as before 'How learned, how wise!' On looking around to see what angels were there, I found myself in the presence of angels from the heaven exactly above the people who were shouting 'How learned!'

When I talked to them about their shout, they said that these were learned people who only argue about whether a thing exists or not, and rarely reach the thought that it is so. 'They are therefore like winds which blow and pass on, or like bark around trees that have no heart-wood, or like almond shells with no kernel, or like the peel around fruits with no flesh inside. For their minds are devoid of inward judgment, and merely coupled to the bodily senses. So if the senses themselves are unable to judge, they can reach no conclusions. In short, they are creatures of their senses, and we call them logic-mongers. We call them this because they never reach any conclusions, but they pick up anything they hear and argue whether it exists, continually speaking for and against. They like nothing better than attacking truths and by subjecting them to argument tearing them in pieces. These are the people who consider themselves learned beyond anyone in the world.'

[2] On hearing this I begged the angels to take me down to visit them. So they took me down to a hollow, from which steps led down to the lower earth. We went down and followed the sound of shouting 'How learned!' There we found some hundreds of people standing in one place stamping on the ground. I was surprised at this and asked 'Why are they standing like that stamping on the ground? They might,' I added, 'make a hole in the ground with their feet like that.'

The angels smiled at this and said, 'They seem to stand in one place because they never think about anything being so, but only whether it exists, and this they argue about. When thought makes no further progress, they seem merely to trample and wear out one clod of earth without advancing.'

But then I approached the gathering and saw people with not unpleasing faces and well dressed. 'They look like this,' said the angels, 'in their own light, but if light is shed from heaven, there is a change in their faces and clothes.' This happened, and their faces turned swarthy and they seemed to be wearing black sackcloth. But when this light was shut off, they returned to their previous appearance.

A little later I spoke with some of the people in the meeting and said, 'I have heard the crowd around you crying out "How learned!" So I should like, if I may, to enter into conversation with you about matters of the most profound learning.' 'Say anything you like,' they replied, 'and we will satisfy you.'

[3] 'What sort of religion,' I asked, 'will effect people's salvation?' 'We shall split up this question,' they said, 'into several, and we cannot give a reply until we have settled these. The order of discussion will be: 1) whether religion is of any importance; 2) whether or not there is such a thing as salvation; 3) whether one religion is more efficacious than another; 4) whether heaven and hell exist; 5) whether there is everlasting life after death; and many more questions.'

So I asked about the first question, whether religion is of any importance; and they started discussing with many arguments whether there is such a thing as religion and whether it is of any importance. So I asked them to refer it to the meeting, which they did. The agreed reply was that this proposition required so much investigation that it would not be finished before evening. 'Could you,' I asked, 'finish it within a year?' One of them said it could not be finished in a hundred years. 'So,' I said, ' in the meantime you have no religion.'

'Wouldn't you like us,' he replied, 'to prove first whether religion exists, and whether what is so called is of any importance? If it exists, it will be for the wise too; if it does not, it will be only for the common people. It is well known that religion is called a bond; but the question may be asked, "For whom?" If it is only for the common people, it is not really of any importance; but if it is for the wise too, then it is.'

[4] On hearing this I told them, 'You are anything but learned, since you can think of nothing but whether it exists and argue for and against this. Can anyone be learned, unless he knows something for certain, and advances to that conclusion, just as a person advances step by step, and in due course achieves wisdom? Otherwise you do not so much as touch truths with your finger-tips, but drive them further and further from your sight. Therefore reasoning only whether it exists is like arguing about a hat without ever wearing it, or about a shoe without putting it on. What can come of this, except ignorance whether anything exists, and so whether salvation exists, or everlasting life after death, whether one religion is better than another, or whether heaven and hell exist? You cannot have any thoughts on these subjects, so long as you are bogged down at the first step and pound the sand there, unable to put one foot in front of the other and make progress. Take care that, while your minds stand in the open outside the court, they do not inwardly grow ossified and turn into pillars of salt, making you friends of Lot's wife.'

[5] With these words I left them, and they were so incensed they threw stones after me. Then they looked to me like stone carvings, totally devoid of human reason. I asked the angels what was their fate. They said that their fate is to be plunged into the depths, and there they find a desert, where they are forced to carry loads. Since they can then make no reasonable utterance, they chatter and make idle remarks. Seen from a distance there they look like donkeys carrying loads.