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worshipped a golden calf, My rage was not because they were slipping back into idolatry and its
uncivilized imperatives, but because it was a slight against Me. I retaliated by visiting on them all
manner of mischief. But I concluded after some centuries of chronic relapsing on their part that rage and
punishment was not the best way to hold a clientele. It is only the most primitive of mortals who are
swayed by that sort of thing. So I ameliorated My stance, and I think have been a better Deity for it,
though it is true that I do not attract the same proportion of mortals that I once did. Unfortunately the
young Christian Deity took Me as a role model and emulated some of the worst faults of My heyday,
especially that of pride. His enormous success has given Him the freedom to indulge those propensities
beyond all reason. Humiliation can indeed make better Deities of Us, because We are reminded that We
do not control the universe. Pride unchecked..."
Parry had to smile. For the first time he saw some slight benefit in the humiliation he had suffered at the
hands of the other Incarnations! His pride had never gotten out of bounds.
"I wonder if You, in Your contemplations, have come across the answer to the riddle I have wrestled
with," he said. "I have been unable to decide whether, in the framework of the assignments of Good and
Evil as Incarnations, it is my purpose to locate evil or to generate it. The task of sorting good from evil
suggests that it is the former, but the practice seems to have been the latter. Now, in the face of God's
dereliction-" He shrugged.
"Surely it is to locate evil," JHVH said. "Or perhaps to evoke it. We know that evil is omnipresent;
every mortal thread represents an admixture of good and evil so intricate as to be virtually inseparable.
The question thus becomes not whether evil is present, as obviously it is, but to what extent it dominates
the individual. You thus must do Your utmost to evoke that quality of evil that makes an individual
eligible for Hell, so that no errors of classification are made."
"To evoke it!" Parry repeated, wonderingly. "Yes, of course!"
"That is what Your predecessors were doing, from the time of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of
Good and Evil on. They were tempting mortals into sin, knowing that temptation is the surest method to
evoke hidden evil. Mortals of course condemn such efforts, but consider the alternative: hidden evil
would have remained in the Garden of Eden, unresolved. The Deity of that time, the ancestor to God's
current office and Mine, finally recognized this, and allowed mortal man to proceed to the challenging
outer world. The result has been history."
"It has indeed!" Parry agreed warmly. "Your perspective enlightens Me!"
"It is a pleasure to review basic principles," JHVH said. "So few are interested."
"But now, with God tuned out, the separation of good from evil is becoming sloppy," Parry said.
"Heaven hardly differs from Hell in certain respects; aimlessness seems to dominate. I have a soul
here"-he patted his pouch-"who asked to return to Hell from Heaven. Consider what that suggests for
incentive! If mortals lose both their desire for Heaven and their fear of Hell, how will a proper
separation of good from evil be accomplished?"
"The Buddhists seem to manage it by arranging for the extinction of all personal desires and passions,
leaving the spirit perfect."
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"But it loses its identity in the whole!" Parry protested. "Christians would never go for that! They insist
on retaining their identities for eternity, good and evil and all."
"That does seem to be their problem," JHVH agreed.
"Which means that we can't simply extract the good and evil, we have to deal with the whole soul.
That's much more difficult. That's the problem I want to address. But God-"
"Perhaps new guidance is called for. In the old days, if one Deity faltered, others were quick to take
away His worshippers. The lack of such a situation may be the contemporary problem."
Parry stared at him. "You are not suggesting that-that I try to-to-"
"I am merely posing a notion," JHVH said. "Perhaps it is an unworthy one. But it may be best to
consider it carefully, so as to expose its unsuitability."
"To take over the leadership of the Christian realm from God, so as to be able to establish an improved
mechanism for processing souls," Parry finished.
"As I understand Your framework, all that is required is the amassing of a greater number of souls than
is controlled by Your opposite. God has dominated because most mortals prefer to go to Heaven when
they die."
"They wouldn't, if they knew how dull it was!"
"Then perhaps you may want to spread the word."
Parry was uncertain. "If my objective is to find a more efficient way to separate the threads, to evoke the
evil ones instead of letting the matter drag on interminably, what would be gained by bringing an
increased number of marginal souls to Hell?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]