Excerpt from Labour, Social Reform and Democracy, Vol. 1
Only those who have never suffered could give expression to such nonsense, both from a moral and a scientific point of view. Suffering never makes man better, never elevates or ennobles man. If it were so, then the miserable sufferers, being the best and noblest, ought to rule, and the favourites of Fortune obey; slaves ought to rule and masters obey. Besides, could not an all-powerful God make us good without compelling us to go through the ordeal of suffering? Is it not a contradiction of His omnipotence? But more perplexing still is the question of the inequality of suffering. When we see the innocent suffer and the wicked triumph and prosper, we must logically conclude that either our conceptions of good and evil differ from those of a Divine Power, a ruler of the Universe - and then all religion and morality are empty words - or that Divine justice and goodness are a myth. The goodness of God is really irreconcilable with the cruelty and injustice of nature. Every thinker who studies the history of humanity, who is not deceived by fine phrases, and who explores the innermost recesses of his consciousness, is ultimately compelled to admit to himself that he is puzzled by the flagrant injustice ruling the universe. He is struck by the apparent chaos and blind fatality of pitiless fate presiding over the destiny of man. Men have puzzled over these problems. On the shores of the mighty sea they have questioned the silent stars; they have queried the mummies in the ancient land of the Pharaohs; they have argued with an invisible Creator, like Job of old, but no answer has been forthcoming. "Ein Narr wartet auf Antwort." The agnostic shrugs his shoulders and dismisses these problems which are beyond human understanding.
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