Martian Visitor IV

A MARTIAN EXAMINES CHRISTIANITY by Arthur Levett, Page 25
Chapter IV The Martian Inquires As To SIN “ We have observed some of the miseries and suffering to which your people are subjected,” remarked the Martian, after a pause. “ We of course ascribe them to the operation of Nature’s laws. If God controls these laws and is a loving father, why does he permit his children to suffer? ” “ Sin is the cause of suffering,” said the Priest; “ God would not continue to inflict suffering if man would confess and truly repent of his sins.” “ You interest me,” said the Martian. “ You say your suffering is due to sin. On Mars we have our accidents and catastrophes, which we endeavour to avoid by studying Nature’s laws and guarding against their malevolent operation. Am I to understand that you believe these manifestations of Nature are due to your sins? I have just learned of a cyclone in a part of your planet where many little children were cruelly destroyed; of a storm at sea which wrecked one of your ships, throwing children into the water to be devoured by sharks. Is it your belief that the agonies that these children endured were because of sins committed by them? ” “ The sins of the fathers are visited on the children even to the third and fourth generation,” said the Fundamentalist. “ And is this the reason for the suffering and death of these innocent children? ” asked the Martian. “ It is God’s will, and if it is God’s will it must be right,” said the Fundamentalist. Page 26 “ Ah” exclaimed the Martian, “ and in your administration of justice, if a father commits a crime, you punish his children also? ” “ Why, no.” “ You do not? Then your ideas of justice do not coincide with those of God.” “ We know His purpose is good,” said the Fundamentalist, “ because He is just and good.” “ Because you presume he is good you assume that when he inflicts his evils they really will result in ultimate benefit to the sufferer? ” “ Exactly; that is just what we all believe. ‘ Whom He loveth He chastiseth.’ If God in His wisdom calls these children to Him, we know it is better that it should be so. ‘ Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.’ We know He must have a good purpose when He inflicts suffering on the innocent, because otherwise He would not be the good God.” “ I agree with the last part of your statement,” said the Martian. “ Sometimes He sends suffering,” said the Priest, “ in order to develop our characters.” “ But why should he choose to develop character through unmerited suffering? ” “ It is God’s way, and God’s ways are not our ways. “ If that be so,” answered the Martian, “ how can you know that your ideas of right and wrong coincide with those of God; that when you act in accordance with your ideas of right you have his approval? It must be assumed that his ways are your ways, and it seems to me that if God allows innocent children to suffer he is either unable to relieve them, in which case he is not all-powerful, or he deliberately permits their suffering, in which case he can hardly be considered good. Yet you worship him. Are you afraid of him? Page 27 “ We all fear the wrath of the Lord,” said the Fundamentalist. “ His wrath? ” queried the Martian. “ Why should an all-good father become wroth? ” “ He becomes wroth when we sin.” “ But why should he be angry with you for the defects he himself implanted in you.? I cannot get your point of view.” “ That is because you do not appreciate God’s loving-kindness,” said the Fundamentalist. “ He is good and merciful, and I will give you one of many instances to prove it. Last year I made a sea voyage to South Africa. A storm wrecked our ship and we had to take to the boats. Many of the boats were upset and a number of people were drowned. The boat I was in drifted for days. We ran short of water and provisions, and several of those aboard went mad and jumped into the sea. The rest of us, after untold hardships, finally landed upon a distant barren island. We fell upon our knees and thanked God for saving us. Several of the survivors died from exposure, but it was not long before a steamer appeared and safely brought us home. Does not that show Him to be a merciful God in sending that steamer to us? ” The Martian had listened with grave attention. “ You thanked God for saving you,” he said. “ And those who reached the island and afterwards died - they also thanked him for saving them? ” “ All of them, yes.” “ And this storm that caused all the trouble - was that under the control of God? ” “ Of course! ‘ God rides upon the storm,’ ” answered the fundamentalist. “ Did you blame him for causing the storm? ” Page 28 “ To have blamed Him would have been blasphemy. As the good and all-wise God He knows what is best for us.” “ Did you try to save any of those who were shipwrecked with you? ” “ I did everything in my power to save them.” “ But you could not succeed, because God had made up his mind to kill them,” observed the Martian. “ You put it in a strange way, sir.” “ And you tried your best to thwart the will of God by keeping them alive? ” “ Why, any good man would have tried to save their lives.” “ Do you consider yourself as merciful as God? ” “ No, indeed; He is infinitely more merciful.” “ Again I do not understand. You would not have sent the storm; you would not have caused the suffering; you would have prevented it if you could; you would have saved the lives of these sufferers; but you say you are not so merciful as God, who would not permit you to succeed in these kind, merciful deeds.” The Martian remained thoughtful for a few moments, then continued: “ Suppose I had the power to control the elements and should act as God acted in sending the storm that killed your comrades, would you consider me good and merciful? ” “ Surely not; but you are a human being,” answered the Fundamentalist. “ You believe God to be good and benevolent in spite of these terrible manifestations of evil and suffering wrought by him? ” “ Yes, in spite of them. It is true that many times we cannot understand why things should be as they are; But we know He has some good purpose, and that He wishes us to develop and become more perfect,” replied the Fundamentalist. Page 29 “ But I do not see why he did not make his children perfect in the first place and cause them to be happy at once without putting them through a course of suffering and torture. “ That is just what He did do,” exclaimed the Fundamentalist. “ As we have told you, God originally made man perfect, but man sinned, and it is for that sin that he has suffered.” Chapter V The Martian Inquires As To GOD’S WORD Chapter III The Martian Inquires As To PRAYER Home: Chapter I The Martian Visits The Earth

A MARTIAN EXAMINES CHRISTIANITY by Arthur Levett, Page 25

Chapter IV
The Martian Inquires As To SIN
“ We have observed some of the miseries and suffering to which your people are subjected,” remarked the Martian, after a pause. “ We of course ascribe them to the operation of Nature’s laws. If God controls these laws and is a loving father, why does he permit his children to suffer? ”
   “ Sin is the cause of suffering,” said the Priest; “ God would not continue to inflict suffering if man would confess and truly repent of his sins.”
   “ You interest me,” said the Martian. “ You say your suffering is due to sin. On Mars we have our accidents and catastrophes, which we endeavour to avoid by studying Nature’s laws and guarding against their malevolent operation. Am I to understand that you believe these manifestations of Nature are due to your sins? I have just learned of a cyclone in a part of your planet where many little children were cruelly destroyed; of a storm at sea which wrecked one of your ships, throwing children into the water to be devoured by sharks. Is it your belief that the agonies that these children endured were because of sins committed by them? ”
   “ The sins of the fathers are visited on the children even to the third and fourth generation,” said the Fundamentalist.
   “ And is this the reason for the suffering and death of these innocent children? ” asked the Martian.
   “ It is God’s will, and if it is God’s will it must be right,” said the Fundamentalist.

Page 26
   “ Ah” exclaimed the Martian, “ and in your administration of justice, if a father commits a crime, you punish his children also? ”
   “ Why, no.”
   “ You do not? Then your ideas of justice do not coincide with those of God.”
   “ We know His purpose is good,” said the Fundamentalist, “ because He is just and good.”
   “ Because you presume he is good you assume that when he inflicts his evils they really will result in ultimate benefit to the sufferer? ”
   “ Exactly; that is just what we all believe. ‘ Whom He loveth He chastiseth.’ If God in His wisdom calls these children to Him, we know it is better that it should be so. ‘ Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.’ We know He must have a good purpose when He inflicts suffering on the innocent, because otherwise He would not be the good God.”
   “ I agree with the last part of your statement,” said the Martian.
   “ Sometimes He sends suffering,” said the Priest, “ in order to develop our characters.”
   “ But why should he choose to develop character through unmerited suffering? ”
   “ It is God’s way, and God’s ways are not our ways.
   “ If that be so,” answered the Martian, “ how can you know that your ideas of right and wrong coincide with those of God; that when you act in accordance with your ideas of right you have his approval? It must be assumed that his ways are your ways, and it seems to me that if God allows innocent children to suffer he is either unable to relieve them, in which case he is not all-powerful, or he deliberately permits their suffering, in which case he can hardly be considered good. Yet you worship him. Are you afraid of him?

Page 27
   “ We all fear the wrath of the Lord,” said the Fundamentalist.
   “ His wrath? ” queried the Martian. “ Why should an all-good father become wroth? ”
   “ He becomes wroth when we sin.”
   “ But why should he be angry with you for the defects he himself implanted in you.? I cannot get your point of view.”
   “ That is because you do not appreciate God’s loving-kindness,” said the Fundamentalist. “ He is good and merciful, and I will give you one of many instances to prove it. Last year I made a sea voyage to South Africa. A storm wrecked our ship and we had to take to the boats. Many of the boats were upset and a number of people were drowned. The boat I was in drifted for days. We ran short of water and provisions, and several of those aboard went mad and jumped into the sea. The rest of us, after untold hardships, finally landed upon a distant barren island. We fell upon our knees and thanked God for saving us. Several of the survivors died from exposure, but it was not long before a steamer appeared and safely brought us home. Does not that show Him to be a merciful God in sending that steamer to us? ”
The Martian had listened with grave attention.
   “ You thanked God for saving you,” he said. “ And those who reached the island and afterwards died - they also thanked him for saving them? ”
   “ All of them, yes.”
   “ And this storm that caused all the trouble - was that under the control of God? ”
   “ Of course! ‘ God rides upon the storm,’ ” answered the fundamentalist.
   “ Did you blame him for causing the storm? ”

Page 28
   “ To have blamed Him would have been blasphemy. As the good and all-wise God He knows what is best for us.”
   “ Did you try to save any of those who were shipwrecked with you? ”
   “ I did everything in my power to save them.”
   “ But you could not succeed, because God had made up his mind to kill them,” observed the Martian.
   “ You put it in a strange way, sir.”
   “ And you tried your best to thwart the will of God by keeping them alive? ”
   “ Why, any good man would have tried to save their lives.”
   “ Do you consider yourself as merciful as God? ”
   “ No, indeed; He is infinitely more merciful.”
   “ Again I do not understand. You would not have sent the storm; you would not have caused the suffering; you would have prevented it if you could; you would have saved the lives of these sufferers; but you say you are not so merciful as God, who would not permit you to succeed in these kind, merciful deeds.”
The Martian remained thoughtful for a few moments, then continued: “ Suppose I had the power to control the elements and should act as God acted in sending the storm that killed your comrades, would you consider me good and merciful? ”
   “ Surely not; but you are a human being,” answered the Fundamentalist.
   “ You believe God to be good and benevolent in spite of these terrible manifestations of evil and suffering wrought by him? ”
   “ Yes, in spite of them. It is true that many times we cannot understand why things should be as they are; But we know He has some good purpose, and that He wishes us to develop and become more perfect,” replied the Fundamentalist.

Page 29
   “ But I do not see why he did not make his children perfect in the first place and cause them to be happy at once without putting them through a course of suffering and torture.
   “ That is just what He did do,” exclaimed the Fundamentalist. “ As we have told you, God originally made man perfect, but man sinned, and it is for that sin that he has suffered.”

Chapter V The Martian Inquires
As To GOD’S WORD

Chapter III The Martian Inquires
As To PRAYER

Home: Chapter I The Martian Visits The Earth