The Standard by which Divine Acts are Appraised

Abstract

The most natural attempt to answer the question as to how it is that a benevolent God does to people what among human beings would strongly be condemned as evil is to say that God does not have the same obligations toward his creatures as his creatures have toward one another. If I cause unnecessary suffering to my fellow man that is evil, for he and I are on the same level of creation, he is a completely autonomous being vis-à-vis me, whose person I must regard as sacrosanct at all times. But God, to whom we all owe our existence and without whose constant supervision and help we could not be sustained for a single moment, can take liberties with us which we are forbidden to take with each other.