Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/420

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EVIL

Again it is meaningless for the wise one who is contented with his own divinity and grandeur to have produced through his own knowledge and will an enemy of mankind, who causes them misery in this and the next world.[1] A wise person always acts with a view to the good of all, and does not contemplate evil. Now evil abounds in the world. If the Lord has created Ahriman, who does good neither to him nor to his creatures, but positive harm to all, then this creative act of Ormazd is unwise.[2] Again if God does not know the means to avert evil, he is equally unwise,[3] and an unwise God is imperfect.[4] But Ormazd is perfect in wisdom, and knows how to eradicate evil,[5] which he has not created.

Omnipotent Ormazd has not created evil. One of the indispensable attributes of God is omnipotence;[6] and the divinity of the Deity without this quality would be incomplete.[7]The independent existence of a rival spirit, which the theologians of this period so zealously maintain, is in no way considered to diminish the power and grandeur of God.[8] Inasmuch as the ultimate victory rests with the Good Spirit, and goodness is to rout evil at the end of time, the omnipotence of Ormazd is not considered to be impaired. It is emphasized in Pahlavi literature that Ormazd, who is omnipotent,[9] would on no account be the author of evil.[10] If he desired to prevent evil, but could not do so, he is impotent. The omnipotent being must be capable of performing his own will, for otherwise mankind would not adore him as the almighty Lord.[11] If he is thus capable of performing his will, and if at the same time his will is always for good and never for evil, it should come to pass that the avoidance of sin, the shunning of the path to hell, and the striving to be worthy of heaven would be manifest among all mankind according to God's will.[12] But this is not the case.[13] If the Deity is capable of performing his will, and yet does not do it, he is unmerciful and of inconstant will.[14]

Again, if the rival spirit did not exist, and if evil did not originate from him, the omnipotent creator ought to have created

  1. ↑ Sg. 11. 27–29.
  2. ↑ Ib., 11. 330–338.
  3. ↑ Ib., 314.
  4. ↑ Ib., 317.
  5. ↑ Ib., 310.
  6. ↑ Ib., 11. 13.
  7. ↑ Ib., 15, 16.
  8. ↑ Ib., 33, 34.
  9. ↑ Ib., 12. 52.
  10. ↑ Ib., 11. 312.
  11. ↑ Ib., 288–294.
  12. ↑ Ib., 295–297.
  13. ↑ Ib., 298.
  14. ↑ Ib., 299, 300.
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