Is there any step in the long march of evolution from the first creation of matter and force to the evolution of man, when the jelly speck, or the polyp, or the fish, or the reptile, or the beast, or the ape, or the man, had power to change, or to assist, or to resist the working of the laws God made? Is there any step in the long march of evolution, any link in the long chain of cause and effect, when any one of the things or beings evolved by law working on matter and force could by act or will of their own have developed otherwise than as they did? Is it not plain that man has developed into that which he is by slow evolution of matter and force, through the operation of divine laws over which he had no more control than he now has over the revolution of the suns in their orbits? How, then, can we believe that man is to blame for being that which he is? Is there any quality of body or of mind that has not been _inevitably_ evolved in man by the working of God's laws? You are not going to tell me that I am answerable or blame-able for the nature of matter and force, nor for the operations of God's laws, are you? You will not suggest that I am responsible for the creation: so long ago, and I so new, so weak, so small! God, when He created matter and force and law, knew the nature of matter and force, and the power and purpose of law. He knew that they must work as He had made and meant them to work. He knew that we _must_ be as His agents _must_ make us. Will He punish or reward us, then, for the acts of His agents: the agents He made and controlled? Absurd. But, it may be urged, "man has a soul." So! He got that soul from God. God made the soul and fixed its powers for good and evil. It is the soul, then, that is responsible, is it? But the soul did not create itself, and can only act as God has ordained that it shall and must act. If man is not to blame for his own acts he is not to blame for the acts of his soul; and for the same reason. "Soul," or "man," "reason," or "conscience," responsibility lies with the causer, and not with the thing caused. And God is "The First Great Cause," and how then can God justly punish any of His creatures for being as He created them? It is impossible. It is unthinkable. But upon this unthinkable and impossible absurdity the whole code of divine laws is built. Therefore the Christian religion is untrue, and man is not responsible to God for his nature nor for his acts. CHAPTER TWO--THE LAWS OF MAN COMMON law and common usage all the world over hold men answerable for their acts, and blame or punish them when those acts transgress the laws of custom. Human law, like the divine law, is based upon the false idea that men know what is right and what is wrong, and have power to choose the right. Human law, like divine law, classifies men as good and bad, and punishes them for doing "wrong."