ndemned, so to speak, to a definite
crystallisation in the state in which it has pleased God to fix it; to
admit that the mineral will remain a mineral throughout eternity, that
the vegetable will ever reproduce the same types, that the animal will
definitely be confined to his instincts and impulses, without the
hope, some day, of developing the superior mentality of his torturers
in human form; to admit that man will never be anything but man,
_i.e._, a being in whom the passions have full play whereas the
virtues are scarcely born; to admit that there is no final
goal--perfection, the divine state--to crown man's labour; all this is
to refuse to recognise evolution, to deny the progress everywhere
apparent, to set divine below human justice; blasphemy, in a word.

It has been said by unthinking Christians that evidently God created
human suffering, so that those might gain Heaven who, but for this
suffering, would have no right to it. To speak thus is to represent
the Supreme Goodness in a very unworthy aspect and to attribute the
most gratuitous cruelty to Divine Justice. When, too, we see that this
absurd reasoning explains neither the sufferings of animals, which
have no right to enjoy the felicity of heaven, they say, nor the
fact[10] that "there are many called but few chosen," nor the saying
that "outside the Church there is no salvation," although for ages
past God has caused millions of men to be born in countries where the
Gospel has not been preached, we shall not be astonished to find that
those who arrogate to themselves a monopoly of Truth bring forward
none but arguments of childish folly in support of their claims.

Generally, however, it is original sin that is advanced as the cause
of suffering.

The absurdity of this doctrine is so apparent that it has lost all
credence by enlightened members of the Christian faith. First of all,
it does not explain the sufferings of animals, which have had no
participation in this sin, nor does it account for the unequal
distribution of pain amongst men themselves. This sin being the same
for all at birth,[11] punishment ought to have been equally severe for
all, and we ought not to see such frightful disproportions as are to
be found in the condition of children who have not attained to the age
of reason, _i.e._, of responsibility. Saint Augustine felt the weight
of this consideration; he reflected long on this torturing problem:

"When I come to consider the