Like it or not, the question of God’s justice (and therefore, his existence) hinges on the problem of pain.

Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at least. Imagine that you are doing this but it is essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creatures . . . in order to found that edifice on its unavenged tears. Would you consent to be the architect on those conditions?

Those really are the conditions that God, if he is omnipotent, set on himself. And while many argue that Christ avenges those tears, I cannot accept that answer. Like Ivan I cry, “I want it now or not at all.” Damn than higher justice if one innocent must suffer. The only fools who proclaim that none are innocent are those who have never really suffered. No, that is an unfair, uneducated contention, and I take it back. All the same, Christ’s sacrifice seems little compensation. Make innocent suffering alright by more of the same? Can that work?
Have I finally made up my mind that there can be no god whatsoever?