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

MORTAL: All right, I'll grant your point! But what I really want to
know is do you exist?
GOD: What a strange question!
MORTAL: Why? Men have been asking it for countless millennia.
GOD: I know that! The question itself is not strange; what I mean is
that it is a most strange question to ask of me!
MORTAL: Why?
GOD: Because I am the very one whose existence you doubt! I perfectly
well understand your anxiety. You are worried that your present experience
with me is a mere hallucination. But how can you possibly expect to obtain
reliable information from a being about his very existence when you suspect
the nonexistence of the very same being?
MORTAL: So you won't tell me whether or not you exist?
GOD: I am not being willful! I merely wish to point out that no answer
I could give could possibly satisfy you. All right, suppose I said, "No, I
don't exist." What would that prove? Absolutely nothing! Or if I said, "Yes,
I exist." Would that convince you? Of course not!
MORTAL: Well, if you can't tell me whether or not you exist, then who
possibly can?
GOD: That is something which no one can tell you. It is something which
only you can find out for yourself.
MORTAL: How do I go about finding this out for myself?
GOD: That also no one can tell you. This is another thing you will have
to find out for yourself.
MORTAL: So there is no way you can help me?
GOD: I didn't say that. I said there is no way I can tell you. But that
doesn't mean there is no way I can help you.
MORTAL: In what manner then can you help me?
GOD: I suggest you leave that to me! We have gotten sidetracked as it
is, and I would like to return to the question of what you believed my
purpose to be in giving you free will. Your first idea of my giving you free
will in order to test whether you merit salvation or not may appeal to many
moralists, but the idea is quite hideous to me. You cannot think of any
nicer reason--any more humane reason--why I gave you free will?
MORTAL: Well now, I once asked this question of an Orthodox rabbi. He
told me that the way we are constituted, it is simply not possible for us to
enjoy salvation unless we feel we have earned it. And to earn it, we of
course need free will.
GOD: That explanation is indeed much nicer than your former but still
is far from correct. According to Orthodox Judaism, I created angels, and
they have no free will. They are in actual sight of me and are so completely
attracted by goodness that they never have even the slightest temptation
toward evil. They really have no choice in the matter. Yet they are
eternally happy even though they have never earned it. So if your rabbi's
explanation were correct, why wouldn't I have simply created only angels
rather than mortals?
MORTAL: Beats me! Why didn't you?
GOD: Because the explanation is simply not correct. In the first place,
I have never created any ready-made angels. All sentient beings ultimately
approach the state which might be called "angelhood." But just as the race