and infinite love.

The Christians used to tell us, and some still tell us, that this
Heavenly Father of infinite love and mercy would doom the creatures
He had made to Hell--for their _sins_. That, having created us
imperfect, He would punish our imperfections with everlasting torture
in a lake of everlasting fire. They used to tell us that this good
God allowed a Devil to come on earth and tempt man to his ruin. They
used to say this Devil would win more souls than Christ could win:
that there should be "more goats than sheep."

To escape from these horrible theories, the Christians (some of them)
have thrown over the doctrines of Hell and the Devil.

But without a Devil how can we maintain a belief in a God of love
and kindness? With a good God, and a bad God (or Devil), one might
get along; for then the good might be ascribed to God, and the evil
to the Devil. And that is what the old Persians did in their doctrine
of Ormuzd and Ahrimann. But with no Devil the belief in a merciful
and loving Heavenly Father becomes impossible.

If God blesses, who curses? If God saves, who damns? If God helps,
who harms?

This belief in a "Heavenly Father," like the belief in the perfection
of the Bible, drives its votaries into weird and wonderful positions.
For example, a Christian wrote to me about an animal called the
aye-aye. He said:

There is a little animal called an aye-aye. This animal has