"Рэймонд Смаллиан. Две философские сценки (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

GOD (with an infinite sigh of relief): At last! At last you see the
real point!
MORTAL: What point is that?
GOD: That sinning is not the real issue! The important thing is that
people as well as other sentient beings don't get hurt!
MORTAL: You sound like a utilitarian!
GOD: I am a utilitarian!
MORTAL: What!
GOD: Whats or no whats, I am a utilitarian. Not a unitarian, mind you,
but a utilitarian.
MORTAL: I just can't believe it!
GOD: Yes, I know, your religious training has taught you otherwise. You
have probably thought of me more like a Kantian than a utilitarian, but your
training was simply wrong.
MORTAL: You leave me speechless!
GOD: I leave you speechless, do I! Well, that is perhaps not too bad a
thing--you have a tendency to speak too much as it is. Seriously, though,
why do you think I ever did give you free will in the first place?
MORTAL: Why did you? I never have thought much about why you did; all I
have been arguing for is that you shouldn't have! But why did you? I guess
all I can think of is the standard religious explanation: Without free will,
one is not capable of meriting either salvation or damnation. So without
free will, we could not earn the right to eternal life.
GOD: Most interesting! I have eternal life; do you think I have ever
done anything to merit it?
MORTAL: Of course not! With you it is different. You are already so
good and perfect (at least allegedly) that it is not necessary for you to
merit eternal life.
GOD: Really now? That puts me in a rather enviable position, doesn't
it?
MORTAL: I don't think I understand you.
GOD: Here I am eternally blissful without ever having to suffer or make
sacrifices or struggle against evil temptations or anything like that.
Without any of that type of "merit", I enjoy blissful eternal existence. By
contrast, you poor mortals have to sweat and suffer and have all sorts of
horrible conflicts about morality, and all for what? You don't even know
whether I really exist or not, or if there really is any afterlife, or if
there is, where you come into the picture. No matter how much you try to
placate me by being "good," you never have any real assurance that your
"best" is good enough for me, and hence you have no real security in
obtaining salvation. Just think of it! I already have the equivalent of
"salvation"--and have never had to go through this infinitely lugubrious
process of earning it. Don't you ever envy me for this?
MORTAL: But it is blasphemous to envy you!
GOD: Oh come off it! You're not now talking to your Sunday school
teacher, you are talking to me. Blasphemous or not, the important question
is not whether you have the right to be envious of me but whether you are.
Are you?
MORTAL: Of course I am!
GOD: Good! Under your present world view, you sure should be most