These gods of the ancient time were merely exaggerated
types of human heroes and despots. There could be war among them, and
one of them overthrown; and Jupiter could divide the universe, after he
had conquered and dethroned his father, with his two brothers.
All this is reasonable, when you are talking about finite creatures;
but try to think for one moment of an archangel, a pure and clear-eyed
intelligence, deliberately choosing to rebel against Omnipotence! He
must have known it would be utterly, absolutely, forever hopeless!
Intelligent creatures do not rebel under conditions like that,
particularly when you combine with the absolute hopelessness of the
case the fact that he knew he was choosing misery, suffering, forever.
As I said, the whole conception of the origin of evil that implies the
rebellion of a spiritual being who knew what he was doing is
inexpressibly absurd, so absurd that we may dismiss it as impossible.
If there were any such rebellion, if you waive the absurdity for the
moment and consider the possibility, God would be responsible; for he
made him. The whole theory is not only absurd: it is unjust in its
implications towards both God and man. And then, and perhaps we need
not say any more about it, we know that it is not true. It did not even
originate in the Bible, it did not even originate among the Jews: it is
nothing in the world but a pagan myth imported into Jewish tradition
just a few hundred years before the birth of Jesus.
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