"You ask me this? Does God exist?" she said. Imagine a writer meeting ancient Egypt's Goddess of Truth in a bar....

Ma'at, Egyptian goddess of truth, balance, harmony, order, judgement...

“You don’t want to know me,” Ma’at said after he slid onto a stool nearby and stared at her.

“I'll be the judge of that,” he said.

She regarded him. In the clarity of her eyes, he saw a trace of pity. Or was it scorn?

“I would absolutely destroy a man like you,” she said.

“Is there no way we could work around your prejudgement of me? You are such an amazing beauty.”

How could a young woman of such loveliness, her body poured into a sheath dress like a champagne flute, her shoulders soft and hair lustrous, be a threat?

“The first thing you must understand is that truth is not beauty. Truth is cruelly indifferent. Not amenable to charm, flattery, clever argument or pleading. It cuts through the heart like a physician’s knife.”

“Ouch,” he said.

“It won’t be amused off its course either.”

“Truth can be pretty funny.”

“When?”

“Now. That feather on your head.”

“The Feather of Truth.”

“Yes, but it’s toppled over in the breeze from the air-conditioner.”

She raised an ivory arm and clasped the feather in her fingers. It was perfectly erect.

“See, that was funny.”

“It wasn’t the truth.”

“It was the very feather of truth.”

“I did not say that I had no sense of humour. Humankind is hilarious. Especially men like you.”

“What is it about men like me?”
“You want the truth?” she said.

“Um…  Maybe first, a drink. What will you have?”
“What do you suggest?”

“For you, something pure.”

She shrugged.

He ordered a whisky and a drink for her.

The barman brought them back.

“Vodka and lime for the lady.”

“That man knows about the truth,” she said as the barman moved away.

“Hal?”

“He hears the confessions of men.”

The institution of the tavern had been revered as a confessional since ancient Egyptian times, he supposed.

He dragged down a gulp. She sipped hers neatly. She was neat and composed as a cat.

Her composure provoked him.

He wanted to know truth, really know get to know her, in the most archaic sense. But first he had a question or two.

“Okay, let’s play true or false,” he said.

“Very well.”

“You like me a bit. True of false?”

“True.”

“So there’s a chance for us to get together?”

“False. You would escape from me long before that could happen. You are a writer and dreamer who cannot take too much truth.”

“You’re daring me to face more truth?”

“I am only stating the truth.”

“What if I decided to face every truth?”

“Are we still playing the game? Make a statement.”

“Writing is my way of exploring the truth.”

“False. You write to build a shelter of delusion in which you can live comfortably.”

“So you think I’m afraid of the truth?”

“False. I think you hate it.”

“Okay, here's the big one. God exists. True of False?”

“You are asking a pagan goddess this.”

“True.”

“Existence is something limited by time and space. Existence has a beginning, a middle and an end. God, therefore, is non-existent. He does not exist. He simply is, for all eternity, and so he is outside of existence. My ancient Egyptian people grasped this truth in the idea of the invisible High God. Our religious texts spoke about the birth of the universe beginning with a state of non-existence. We say that the beginning was a time when ‘there were not yet two things’. There was only one thing, just endless, oneness. Non-existence. Creation came out of this. Creation was division and splitting of this one thing into millions of things. So the High God is oneness and non-existence.”

“Are you trying to make my head spin?”

“False. But I did warn you.”

“Well, this high god outside of existence has failed by allowing evil, chaos, injustice war, lies and all the rest... into the world instead of just goodness.”

Ma'at smiled.
“False. Is it failure? There can be no order without chaos, no good without evil, no justice without injustice... and most important, no truth without falsehood. I could not exist without it.”

He looked at his watch.

“God, is it that time already?”