Neal Stephenson Quote

Do your neighbors burn one another alive? was how Fraa Orolo began his conversation with Artisan Flec.
Do your shamans walk around on stilts? Fraa Orolo asked, reading from a leaf that, judging by its brownness, was at least five centuries old. Then he looked up and added helpfully, You might call them pastors or witch doctors.
When a child gets sick, do you pray? Sacrifice to a painted stick? Or blame it on an old lady?
Do you fancy you will see your dead dogs and cats in some sort of afterlife?

Part 1, Provener; The questionnaire, in use for 1,100 years, is used once every ten years to determine if civilization outside the monastic compound is beginning to regress. - Anathem (2008)