Dr. Macfarlane.
I want to tell you how I found peace. My explanation is as old as the hills, and I believe many perfectly virtuous persons have been frizzled alive for accepting it. Our good Vicar would say I was a heretic. I can’t help it. I can’t see any other way of reconciling the goodness of God with the existence of evil.
Mrs. Littlewood.
Well, what is it?
Dr. Macfarlane.
I don’t believe that God is all-powerful and all-knowing. But I think He struggles against evil as we do. I don’t believe He means to chasten us by suffering or to purify us by pain. I believe pain and suffering are evil, and that He hates them, and would crush them if He could. And I believe that in this age-long struggle between God and evil we can help, all of us, even the meanest; for in some way, I don’t know how, I believe that all our goodness adds to the strength of God, and perhaps—who can tell?—will give Him such power that at last He will be able utterly to destroy evil—utterly, with its pain and suffering. [With a smile.] When we’re good, we’re buying silver bullets for the King of Heaven, and when we’re bad, well, we’re trading with the enemy.
Sylvia.
[Without looking round.] John has just ridden back on his bicycle.
Dr. Macfarlane.
Come, Mrs. Littlewood, they don’t want us here just now.