Prom the Unconscious to the Conscious 



In fact we find evil everywhere. It seems that the 

 extinction of the feeble dominates human and animal life. 

 Earth, air, and water are just immense and incessant 

 fields of war, compared to which the battles of Man seem 

 slight and intermittent. 



The most beautiful birds, and the most delicate 

 insects are very often more ferocious than the large 

 carnivora. 



Why should there be this instinct of refined ferocity 

 in the insect, even though it be devoid of thought or 

 responsibility ? 



There is no unavoidable necessity that animals should 

 devour one another, since certain of the more powerful 

 among them are entirely vegetable feeders. 



Why so much sickness, epidemics, and so many 

 cosmic catastrophes ? Why, always and everywhere, 

 so much suffering and evil ? 



The prevalence of evil is really the most serious 

 objection that can be raised against the idea of creation 

 by an all-wise and all-good Providence. The old irre- 

 futable argument inevitably recurs to the mind: If 

 there is a Creator, that Creator must have been wanting 

 either in the knowledge, or in the will, or in the power, 

 to prevent evil ; therefore that Creator cannot be at once 

 supremely wise, or supremely good, or supremely 

 powerful. 



The strength of this argument is manifest by the 

 futility of the refutations which have been attempted. 



It has been said that if there were no evil, the creature 

 would be the equal of the Creator. This sophism cannot 

 hold. Unless it were the work of a Demiurgus of but 

 moderate power, and not of a true Providence, creation 

 could not be based on universal suffering. It should 

 involve the minimum, not the maximum of suffering. 

 It has also been said that evil is the consequence of the 

 liberty given by God to his creatures. But it is evident 

 that great epidemics, most infirmities and diseases, 



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