Hell

Whose hell this is, I do not know;
It's not of God, nor of Godot.
I had no choice in stopping here,
To watch the works of Mammon grow.
Mephitic odors, fetid, damp,
Suffuse this desecration camp.
Between those stricken with despair,
In darkness, reft of any lamp.

The hell is depthless, darkness hedged,
And owned by those to Satan pledged.
And there's no solace to be dredged,
From this, our haven, mis-alleged.

Pace Frost (Robert, not the one wreaking havoc in this unspeakable and incommunicable temporal realm)

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I believe there is a God. I believe He created the world. I believe that, for whatever reason, He has allowed Evil Incarnate to reign in this temporal realm. I cannot understand why, and I do not believe I have the right to question His choice, any more than did Job. But that is how I see it. For the record, I'd give up "free will" -- or at least the freedom to harm others -- in a nanosecond, if it would disempower the sociopaths who make all our lives hell. It seems to me an insufficiently gratifying form of compensation. I, for one, have no desire to exercise the option to trample and torture other humans in a demented quest for wealth and power, or just for the "fun" of it. People who do have that desire tend to become CEO's or talk radio hosts.Why not simply deprive us of the ability to harm one another? We can't hurt or help God, so the only way we can demonstrate our love of the Creator is to love one another. Depriving us of the options afforded by sociopathic Schadenfreude (which relatively few of us exercise, in any case) would not deprive us of the ability to love one another, or to love Him (which, for the record, I do). But that's just human reasoning. And I'm just a human, who can't get the first line of Psalm 22 out of his head.

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son... I am sure He loves us. I am sure satan is not more powerful, in the cosmic scheme of things. Jesus exhorted us to love one another, and was crucified for His efforts. What is wrong, here? I am prostrate, unable to see the sense in empowering the wicked and painting targets on the innocent. Jesus, I know you're listening. This *is* by way of a prayer. For understanding, if nothing else.