Towards the Truth

30
Now that soul is supposed to be the doer of good and evil so
much so that the body is merely its instrument. Virtue and sin are
so much connected with the Christian soul-idea, that Christianity
even claims monopoly-rights over certain virtues. Thus we hear
of Christian charity, which however is found nowhere more than
in Atheistic Communism. Isn’t the Church of England called the
Conservative Party of Prayer? And doesn’t the Conservative Party
stand for Capitalism and imperialism? Wasn’t Christ described to
us last time, by my reverend opponent, as a totalitarian dictator?
If that is so, weren’t the Jews quite right in trying him as a warcriminal?
With regard to sin we heard also the following statements: “Sin
is a tendency to deviate from a course leading to well-being. Man
is born with a tendency to leave the straight road, and by his own
merit man is not able to overcome this tendency to evil. Therefore
God evolved the plan of redemption.”
But if sin is an inborn tendency towards the gutter—and God
made man thus—and if man is incapable by himself to get up again,
how can that ever be an offence? And how can that ever be called
justice, if man is pushed from the gutter into the drain—nay, into
everlasting hell-fire? But “God does not want man to go to hell”.
Then who else wants it? Who created man with evil tendencies, and
who created hell? Would the whole plan of redemption not have
been much simpler, if God, instead of sacrificing his only Son and
afterwards cursing the Jews for having done it—if he had created
man with a tendency for good?
But God is love; and love is not reasonable.
I know it and admit it: I have lost my faith by reasoning too
much; I have not always been as the little child, which alone has the
privilege to enter the kingdom of heaven. But then, if God is my
creator and he has given me intellect and reason, why should I not
be allowed to use them? I used my reason and lost my faith. Who
is to blame?