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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 326, 21 September 1945, Page 5

Sir,-The last letter by J. Malton Murray on the above subject raises some interesting points. He quotes from an eminent theologian to support his idea that "evil was present in the world before human beings were created," May I suggest that this conclusion is incorrect, because it is based on. the assumption that the Fall was an actual event in time and space, whereas the whole story, like a great deal else in the Bible, is simply an allegory-a description of the descent of spirit into matter. Then again confusion arises because of our extremely limited conception of the Creator. Your correspondent’s letter clearly indicates that he regards God as an extra-Cosmic Being, separate from His creation. In fact, there is only one life, one Force, one Power in the whole Universe and that is God’s Life in which we literally "live and move and have our being." As Dean Inge says, God uses us, His children, to work out His Plans -and this is the only way He can work. There is no morality in power-it is neither good nor bad- it is simply power,

However, man can turn it to good or evil, as witness the dreadful possibilities of the recent release of Cosmic energy, locked up in the atom since the beginning of time. Evil may, in broad terms, be stated as anything which frustrates, hinders or inhibits the unfolding Divine life in man; a failure to co-operate and work in accordance with the Divine Plan which is evolution to Perfection for all living things. As an abstraction it simply has no existence. As regards the war, it was the final and dreadful expression of human selfishness, greed, pride and unwillingness to co-operate. It held certain lessons for us, which, it is to be hoped, we have learned. But we would never learn these or any lessons if as soon as we got ourselves into a mess, the Almighty intervened to save us from the consequences of our folly. In any case, it is difficult to see how such Divine intervention could occur, since, as already stated, God can only work through man. Evil exists only for him who is enslaved, by it, and is the outcome of the misdirection and prostitution of the one and only power in the Universe.

H. M.

THORNTON

(Mt. Eden).