Prosper Mérimée has once said: “The only thing which pardons God is that He does not exist.” Indeed, with the amount of evil our world is seized by, it is scarcely believed to be permeated with divine spirit. But does the deliverance from evil bring us back to God? To be coerced into doing good – does it not mean to become a puppet in the hands of a benevolent, yet cruel lord?

In Mérimée’s doubt as to God, is evinced not so much his scepticism or sarcasm as the inner tendency of human nature. Man seldom notices one who emancipates him, and when noticing disdains. Quite natural, he who vests man with freedom gets equated with him in powerlessness – at least in the eyes of a slave who has no need for it.

Man barely seeks to manifest himself, to get turned “inside out”. He longs not for freedom (the opportunity to choose and to answer for the choice), but strives after free rein (arbitrariness). As a result, the slave of circumstances gets converted into the slave of his own wishes and whims.  Rid of constraints, he reminds of a car with gained speed, but without break and steering wheel and, consequently, becomes an exorbitantly destructive force.

The evil waylaying man all over restrains and curbs him and makes him set goals more carefully and more accurately confront them with means. Meanwhile, a mild, amiable world is the realm of unconcern and permissiveness. Personality cannot survive there, for is always under the storm of blows by “self-willed” fellows going bald-headed. The circle closes up: the complete cleansing of the world from evil turns into an absolute evil without mercy towards both the world and man. Hence, the presence of evil not only does not undermine the trust in God but is, in itself, the most convincing evidence of God’s existence.