more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
All of this [cruel killing] nature does with the most supercilious disregard both of mercy and of justice, emptying her shafts upon the best and noblest indifferently with the meanest and worst
Gist of Idea
Nature dispenses cruelty with no concern for either mercy or justice
Source
John Stuart Mill (Nature and Utility of Religion [1874], p.115)
Book Ref
'The Existence of God', ed/tr. Hick,John [Macmillan 1964], p.115
A Reaction
The existence of an afterlife at least offers an opportunity to rectify any injustice, but that hardly meets the question of why there was injustice in the first place. It would be odd if it actually is justice, but none of us can see why that is so.
| 21335 | Belief that an afterlife is required for justice is an admission that this life is very unjust [Mill] |
| 21329 | Nature dispenses cruelty with no concern for either mercy or justice [Mill] |
| 21328 | Killing is a human crime, but nature kills everyone, and often with great tortures [Mill] |
| 21330 | Nature makes childbirth a miserable experience, often leading to the death of the mother [Mill] |
| 21331 | Hurricanes, locusts, floods and blight can starve a million people to death [Mill] |
| 21332 | We don't get a love of 'order' from nature - which is thoroughly chaotic [Mill] |
| 21333 | Evil comes from good just as often as good comes from evil [Mill] |
| 21334 | No necessity ties an omnipotent Creator, so he evidently wills human misery [Mill] |