The Messiah Game; A Comedy of Terrors—Part I

In a postapocalyptic society, Arn Parek starts out as a simple, psychic con man, but he begins to buy into his own toxic beliefs and preachings and inflated ego. He becomes a messianic figure who uses his followers' devotion to prey upon the rest of society. A parallel tale chronicles the exploitation of the planet's inhabitants by a voyeuristic galactic civilization and their religion's interference in its affairs. The female journalists, through whom the story is told, record the misery of the planet's inhabitants, the psychology of their gullibility, and the details of Arn Parek's systemic tricks and scams.

Tom Flynn is the editor of Free Inquiry magazine, executive director of the Center for Inquiry, founding coeditor of Secular Humanist Bulletin, director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum, and coauthor of The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief. He lives in Amherst, New York.