“A puppet. ...the manipulator is the one holding the strings, making the puppets dance or whatever they do. That is not God.”

Brita Seifert She flashed with anger. “Oh,” she pointed at the head, “you know this hijo de puta? You know what he did? He abused a little girl. You say that is not cruel?”

“No, that is cruel. I said God doesn’t make it cruel.”

“Huh!” She got up and poured for him again. He was disarming, this prospector and she was not necessarily angry at him now.

He thought he should clarify. Go ahead and just say it all and get it over. She wasn’t going to let it go and his cryptic answers were just going to exacerbate the situation.

“Ma’am. Look at it this way. In the animal world, there is no cruelty. The animals eat other animals, that is true, but it isn’t in malice. Only humans can act cruelly. So, if God made all of the universe and the animals, both human and non-human, and He didn’t make any of the other creatures of the world cruel, and only humans can be cruel, then how can we say God is responsible for cruelty?”

She’d not thought of it that way.

“But He made that pig cruel.” She pointed to the head.

“No, no ma’am. He made the man, but the man chose the cruel and wicked path. God is not like a manipulator of the marionette…”

“What’s this marionette?”

“A puppet. You know, puppets, the kind on a string, the manipulator is the one holding the strings, making the puppets dance or whatever they do. That is not God.”

She sat quietly and got cigars out. They smoked and she looked into the fire. This man was very interesting. She thought of something else. “So, when a person, when a person has many bad things happening. That’s not God punishing them or making them have a bad time? That is what you are saying?”

“Yes, ma’am. That’s what I am saying. We have a great gift. We have something the other animals in the world do not have.”

“A soul?”

“Well, yes, we have that, but that isn’t what I was going to say. We have a thinking, reasoning brain.” He pointed at his head. “We have free will.”

“Free will?”

“Sure, you know, the ability to pick and choose. You can be good or you can be bad. You can sleep all day and not work or you can get up and make something of yourself, make something for yourself. You,” he pointed at her and she suddenly remembered the old woman showing her the reflection in the mirror. “You can make the world as you wish.” Maria's Trial