THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 



who made the heaven and the earth, and who on 

 looking upon them said that they were very good. 

 Here is where the trouble begins — a Creator apart 

 from the universe who looks upon and approves 

 the work of his hands. This is the early, childish 

 view of mankind. As Bergson says, when we apply 

 to the universe our idea of a maker and a thing 

 made, trouble begins. The universe was not made; 

 it is, and always has been. God is Nature, and 

 Nature is God. If this is pantheism, then we are in 

 good company, for Goethe said that as a philosopher 

 he was a pantheist. Even the atheist has a god of 

 his own. He knows that there is something back of 

 him greater than he is. 



Most persons are pantheists without knowing it. 

 Ask any of the good orthodox folk what God is, 

 and they will say that He is a spirit. Ask them 

 where He is, and they will answer, He is here, 

 there, everywhere, in you and in me. And this is 

 pantheism — all god — cosmotheism. 



"Truly all that we know of good and duty pro- 

 ceeds from Nature; but, none the less so, all that 

 we know of evil." 



"If there be a divine spirit of the universe, Na- 

 ture, such as we know her, cannot possibly be its 

 ultimate word to man," says James. But does he 

 not see that this term "divine spirit" is born of 

 man's narrowness and partiality; that Nature is all 

 of one stuff, divine or diabolical, just as we elect? 



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