Alan Watts

Alan Watts  
What about evil?
   You see, how it was done was this prohibition not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. That was the one sure way of getting it eaten. But of course when the Lord God accused Adam and said, "You've been eating of that tree I told you not to eat," and he passed the buck to Eve and said, "this woman that thou gavest me, she tempted me and I did eat." And He looked at Eve and [said] "now what about it?" She said, "well, it was the serpent." And He looked at the serpent--the serpent didn't say anything, because he knew too much and he wasn't going to give away the show. Who is it that sits at the left hand of God? We know who sits at the right hand. It's hushed up, because that's the side where the district attorney sits, and in the Book of Job of course you know Satan is the district attorney at the court of Heaven. He's the prosecutor, he's a faithful servant of the court. Because, you see, the whole problem is, it would be very bad indeed if God were the author of evil and we were his victims. That is to say, if we keep the model of the King of the Universe, and the creatures are all subjects of the king, then a God who is responsible for evil is being very unkind to other people. But in this theory God is not "an-other" person, there are no "victims" of God. He is never anything but His own victim. You are responsible, and if you want to stay in the state of illusion, stay in it, but you can always wake up.