Early the next morning, before Jimmy had even woken up, someone knocked on his door.
When he opened it, he was surprised to see Mary's family and Connie standing there.
Everyone was dressed very formally, and since Jimmy was home alone—his parents having gone shopping—he looked at them, confused.
Mary gave him a pious smile and said, "Jimmy, we're going to church to pray. Would you like to come with us?"
Jimmy knew that Mary, Sheldon's mom, was a devout Christian and firmly believed in God.
"No, I have other things to do today," Jimmy declined flatly. It wasn't that he didn't have his own beliefs or that he was different from everyone else. It was just that the god he believed in was something far beyond human comprehension—even for someone like him.
To him, it was something that existed among them, their creator—a being so powerful that even with all of humanity's technology, it couldn't be understood.
He was strongly opposed to human religions. From Jimmy's perspective, how could humans possibly tell God's story?
He wasn't by any god's side; he didn't witness its history. Statistically, only one in a million stories might be true. That's why he couldn't believe in something written by man, especially something subject to change.
"Oh, that's a shame," Mary said regretfully.
To her, being in the Lord's embrace was a glorious thing.
"Mom, can I skip church like Jimmy? Science proves that God doesn't exist…" Sheldon tugged at Mary's clothes and whispered pleadingly.
Seeing this, Missy and George Jr. looked at Mary expectantly. In fact, aside from Mary, none of the Cooper family members were Christian.
Most of them preferred staying home over going to church. None shared the same strong connection to the church that Mary had.
"No," Mary said firmly, rejecting the children's request. Then, after preaching to Jimmy about the greatness of God, she took her family and left.
Connie looked at Jimmy and said goodbye. From a distance, she added, "I told you he wouldn't come. Jimmy's like your son—he's all about science."
"Yes, well, I still think he should turn to God."
Jimmy heard it all clearly. He then closed the door and walked into his workshop, which was now busier than ever.
The day to present his project to investors was getting closer, and it was sure to make a big splash.
It wasn't until noon that he finally came back upstairs, full of energy.
After taking a shower, Jimmy put on a casual outfit.
Due to the constant evolution of the serum he was using, which was bringing him closer and closer to a perfected state, Jimmy's height had increased dramatically.
He now stood over 1.7 meters tall. Every muscle on his body was well-defined yet understated, hiding strength comparable to young men in their twenties.
His hair, now totally different from how he used to wear it, was neatly styled. And although his look seemed casual, it had taken Jimmy a long time to perfect that "effortless" appearance.
Obsessed with presentation, Jimmy could make even a simple white t-shirt and black jeans look great.
Seeing that time was running short, he packed some grilled meat from the fridge and headed to Ally's house—he had promised to visit her.
That's what friends did, right?
Jimmy had brought Sheldon to his house, and now it was Ally's turn to invite him over.
…
Meanwhile, in the solemn church, Sheldon—a firm believer in science—was engaged in a debate with Pastor Jeff about the existence of God.
Pastor Jeff tried to approach the subject from a scientific angle, using probability theory: he argued that there was a chance, however small, that God existed, and that if Sheldon valued science so much, he should consider that probability valid.
Sheldon, in his usual pedantic tone, replied without hesitation: —Generally speaking, the higher a person's IQ, the more they trust in scientific evidence.
Pastor Jeff, still wearing his usual friendly smile, gave an example he thought would be irrefutable:
"Famous scientists like Aristotle, Maimonides, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Mendel—they all believed in God. Even Charles Darwin, who formulated the theory of evolution, was Christian."
Upon hearing this, little Sheldon fell silent, unable to come up with a quick rebuttal. He sat down in a church pew, frowning, clearly frustrated that he hadn't won the argument.
Of course, if Jimmy had been there, he would've easily pointed out that while it was true Darwin was Christian for part of his life, he wasn't at the time he formulated and published the theory of evolution. By then, he had become more of an agnostic.
Meanwhile, Mary and Grandma Connie, who had been watching from a nearby pew, felt it was inappropriate for Sheldon to challenge the pastor so openly in church.
But when they saw the disappointed look on Sheldon's face, they felt a twinge of annoyance toward Pastor Jeff. Maybe, they thought, it hadn't been necessary to defeat the child in the debate so thoroughly.