3. Help the boy to lead a higher and a better
life, to eat up his crusts and fat as directed,
to avoid chivvying the hens, inking his
fingers, haunting the stables, stealing
green apples in the orchard, tearing his
clothes, and generally doing evil with
fire, water, mud, stones and other tempting
and injurious things?

And was it entirely decent of God to be eternally spying on a fellow,
as appeared to be His confirmed habit?

As for that awful heart-rending Crucifixion, was that the sort of
thing for a Father to look on at.... As bad as that brutal old Abraham
with Isaac his son ... were _all_ "Good" Fathers like that ...?

And nightmare dreams of Hell--a Hell in which there was a
_Snake_--wrought no improvement.

And the Bible! How strangely and dully they talked, and what people!
That nasty Jacob and Esau business, those horrid Israelites, the
Unfaithful Steward; the Judge who let himself be pestered into
action; those poor unfortunate swine that were made to rush violently
down the steep place into the sea; Ananias and Sapphira. No--not a
nice book at all.

The truth is that Theology, at the age of seven, is not
commendable--setting aside the question of whether (at any age)
Theology is a web of words, ritual, dogma, tradition, invention,