EPICURUS TAUGHT CHANCE AND THE GNOSTICS AN EVIL CREATOR.
1. When Epicurus[21] derives the existence and constitution of the universe from automatism and chance, he commits an absurdity, and stultifies himself. That is self-evident, though the matter have elsewhere been thoroughly demonstrated.[22] But (if the world do not owe its origin to chance) we will be compelled to furnish an adequate reason for the existence and creation of all these beings. This (teleological) question deserves the most careful consideration. Things that seem evil do indeed exist, and they do suggest doubts about universal Providence; so that some (like Epicurus[23]) insist there is no providence, while others (like the Gnostics[24]), hold that the demiurgic creator is evil. The subject, therefore, demands thorough investigation of its first principles.