Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/419

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386
EVIL

perfect.[1] If nothing proceeds through his will, he works automatically and is therefore made by some one,[2] but this is unthinkable. If some things are through his will and others through the will of some other being, God either ordains the existence of the good or the evil, for there is nothing in the world which is not the result of either of the two. If God wills good, some one else wills evil, or if he wills evil, some other being wills good.[3] Hence a power that personifies the opposing will exists,[4] and since God is goodness, the evil in the world proceeds through the will of the rival spirit, who exists independent of the good spirit.

If it is argued that Ormazd has created evil for the reason that mankind may better understand and appreciate goodness; or again, that he has created poverty, pain, and death that human beings may better understand the value of wealth, health, and life, and consequently become more grateful to God, it is as unreasonable as saying that the Deity gives poison to mankind so that they may better understand and appreciate the value of the antidote.[5] In another place, however, it is said in the Pahlavi texts that Ormazd allows Ahriman, the father of evil, to commingle with his creation for an allotted period for the experience and training of mankind.[6]

The all-wise God would not create his own adversary. Omniscience is one of the attributes requisite for divinity;[7] and in the Pahlavi period Ormazd is always spoken of as omniscient.[8] If it is maintained that both good and evil proceed from Ormazd himself, the question then arises why he, being omniscient, should have foreseen the harm that would be caused to his creation, and yet not have found it inexpedient to create, through his own will, a perverse creature that would turn out to be his adversary and cause him perpetual anxiety and sorrow.[9] If he did not foresee the evil consequences, he is not omniscient.[10] If he created this eternal foe to man for the sake of experiment, without knowing the result, then such a being is making experiments at the painful cost of the miseries of the countless generations of mankind, and is consequently not omniscient.[11]

  1. ↑ Ib. 162.
  2. ↑ Sg. 164–167.
  3. ↑ Ib., 168–175.
  4. ↑ Ib., 176.
  5. ↑ Ib., 11. 197–204.
  6. ↑ Dk., vol. 10, bk. 5. 7, p. 8.
  7. ↑ Sg. 11. 13.
  8. ↑ Ib., 12. 52.
  9. ↑ Ib., 11. 93, 94.
  10. ↑ Ib., 9.
  11. ↑ Ib., 115–117.
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