Why I Am Not a Christian

is good. If you are going to say, as theologians do, that God is good, you must then admit that right and wrong have some meaning independent of God's decree, because God’s decrees are good—not bad—independently of the mere fact that he made them. If you take that position, you must concede that right and wrong did not come into being solely through God, but that they are, in their essence, logically prior to God. You could, of course, say there was a superior deity who gave orders to the God who created this world, or you could take the line that some agnostics took—a line I have often thought very plausible—that, as a matter of fact, the world we know was made by the devil at a moment when God was not looking. There is a good deal to be said for that, and I am not concerned to refute it.

THE ARGUMENT FOR THE REMEDYING OF INJUSTICE

Then there is another very curious form of moral argument, which is this: they say the existence of God is required to bring justice into the world. In the part of the universe we know, there is great injustice; often the good suffer and the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is more annoying. But if you are going to have justice in the universe as a whole, you have to suppose a future life to redress the balance of life here on earth.