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EVIL

his mercifulness.[1] If, then, he is merciful, why should he knowingly permit Ahriman to introduce misery and harm among his own creatures.[2] Mankind, even with their little knowledge, would never, of their own accord, allow the lion, the wolf, and other noxious creatures in among their young ones; why has the Lord, who is called merciful, let in Ahriman and his ribald crew of demons upon his own creation.[3] If he is capable of removing evil and yet does not do so, but, on the contrary, curses those who adhere to evil and casts them away for punishment in hell, he is not merciful.[4] Where is his divine mercy in fathering such a world of woe and sorrow.

Again, as a wise being Ormazd acts for some purpose when he creates the universe, for to act without a purpose is not worthy of the all-wise lord.[5] If he has, then, created the world for his own pleasure and for the happiness of mankind, as religion claims, why should he ever indulge in their slaughter and devastation.[6] But this is not true, for Ormazd is merciful and he does not slaughter, nor devastate, nor wish evil to his creatures; evil is, therefore, not of his making, but of some other merciless being.[7] Such is the view maintained in the treatise.

It is deemed futile to attempt to resolve Ahriman into a symbolic personification of man's evil nature. To those who put forth the theory that evil springs from the nature of man, our author asks whether it had its origin before the creation of mankind or at the same time with man.[8] If evil arose before man, he says, it must either have been created by God, or it had its independent existence.[9] If it arose after mankind through man's own making, that is, through the freedom of his own will, it means that man originated it in defiance of the imperfect will of his own creator.[10] This is setting up the will of man in opposition to the will of Ormazd. Now the sinners among mankind are punished by Ormazd. His omnipotence and mercifulness demand that he should not have thus allowed men to sin, when he wanted to punish them afterwards for having committed sin.[11] If evil originates with mankind, because mankind are created by God, then the creator is responsible for the production of evil.[12]

  1. ↑ Ib., 11. 13.
  2. ↑ Sg. 11. 8.
  3. ↑ Ib., 11. 111–114.
  4. ↑ Ib., 121–124, 300.
  5. ↑ Ib., 103–105.
  6. ↑ Ib., 106–108.
  7. ↑ Ib., 12. 56.
  8. ↑ Ib., 11. 177–179.
  9. ↑ Ib., 180–182.
  10. ↑ Ib., 183–191.
  11. ↑ Ib., 192–196.
  12. ↑ Ib., 258.
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