Currently reading Letters from the Earth — Uncensored Writings of Mark Twain.
I don’t usually talk about religion at all, because I’ve been an atheist so long now it doesn’t even matter anymore, but this paragraph found its way into my heart.
The following is from a series of letters addressed to the archangels Michael and Gabriel by Satan, containing his observations of life on earth. On the subject of Adam and Eve’s fall:
. . . Very well, God banished Adam and Eve from the garden, and eventually assassinated them. All for disobeying a command which he had no right to utter. [They were acting according to the nature God had given them.] But he did not stop there, as you will see. He has one code of morals for himself, and quite another for his children. He requires his children to deal justly — and gently — with offenders, and forgive them seventy-and-seven times; whereas he deals neither justly nor gently with anyone, and he did not forgive the ignorant and thoughtless first pair of juveniles even their first small offense and say, “You may go free this time, I will give you another chance.”
On the contrary! He elected to punish their children, all through the ages to the end of time, for a trifling offense committed by others before they were born. He is punishing them yet. In mild ways? No, in atrocious ones.
You would not suppose that this kind of a Being gets many compliments. Undeceive yourself: the world calls him the All-Just, the All-Righteous, the All-Good, the All-Merciful, the All-Forgiving, the All-Truthful, the All-Loving, the Source of All Morality. These sarcasms are uttered daily, all over the world. But not as conscious sarcasms. No, they are meant seriously: they are uttered without a smile. . . .
