Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

Chapter.Page

Armanatoora

 

44 In the Opinion of Beelzebub, Man’s Understanding of Justice Is for Him in the Objective Sense an Accursed Mirage

44.1142

“Soon after our beings departed from this planet, a certain Armanatoora who had belonged to the epoch of the blossoming of the Tikliamishian civilization, and who was by profession a priest—but from among those of this profession whom others regarded as ‘learned priests’—was the first who built up a whole ‘religious teaching’ based on this maleficent idea.

44.1142-3

“It was just in that same ‘religious teaching’ that he, among other things, explained for the first time that certain invisible spirits existing among them spread ‘external Good and Evil,’ and compelled men to take in and manifest this ‘Good and Evil’; and that these ‘spirits,’ the spreaders of ‘Good,’ were called ‘Angels,’ and those ‘spirits,’ the spreaders of ‘Evil,’ were called ‘Devils.’

44.1143

“The Angels, the bearers and spreaders of ‘Good,’ that is, of the most high and most divine, being themselves high and divine, could never be seen or sensed by men.

44.1143

“But as regards the Devils, they, having the lowest origin, that is to say, coming from ‘below’ itself, can on the contrary be seen by men.

44.1143

“And if sometimes men do not actually see Devils, then this is only because of their ‘suggestion,’ and hence the visibility of Devils for the perception of human sight increases in proportion to the increase of the ‘righteousness’ of people.