careless of human well-being or human
suffering. The deaths of a hundred thousand men mean no more to him than
the deaths of a hundred thousand ants. A couple of million men locked in
a death struggle on the battlefield is only a replica of the struggle
that has been going on in the animal world throughout time. If there be
a God, he made, he designed all this. He fashioned the hooks for the
slaughter, the teeth for the tearing, the talons for destruction, and
man with his multiplied weapons of destruction has but imitated his
example. A world without God, and in which humanity is gradually
learning the way to better things, is an inspiration to renewed effort
after the right. A world such as this, with God, is enough to drive
insane all with intelligence enough to appreciate the situation."
(_Chapman Cohen: "War, Civilization and the Churches."_)

When the Martian investigated the annals of the World War he found,
despite the opportunities Providence had had of showing its benevolence,
the affair of the sinking of the _Lusitania_, the torpedoing of hospital
ships, vessels that were not engaged in fighting but in bringing home
wounded men who had fought in "God's Cause." He found descriptions of
the slaughter of men and women and children in air raids, and he
naturally concludes that the "providence of God" is an insult to the
earthly intelligence.

Greatly disturbed, he picks up one of our newspapers and the stories of
hate and racial antagonism rear their ugly heads. These, together with
jealousy and fear, seem to him to be the outstanding features of our
attitudes. A benevolent, loving, omnipotent father, guiding our
destinies, yet allowing such monstrosities to exist! The conundrum grows
deeper as he proceeds.

It is a bright day, and the Martian is aware of a head-ache brought on
by the effort to understand the ways of earthlings, and therefore
decides to drive through the city streets. Yet this drive affords him no
relaxation, for on every side two diametrically opposed sights meet his
keen eyes--luxury and poverty. Poverty and starvation, yet the Lord's
Prayer: "Our Father which art in Heaven, give us this day our daily
bread!" No Martian father would allow his children to starve; if he did,
the law would fine him and imprison him. Since these earthlings are
neglected by their Heavenly Father, and are powerless to indict him, the
least they could do would be to stop paying tribute to him. If the God
of these