You: Let us assume that stealing is a bad thing.

Aaron: That is a reasonable thing to assume. When one steals, one commits a great injustice.

You: True enough. Now let us imagine a poor woman. She has three starving children, and her husband was killed by last winter's frost. Every day she walks two miles to the city where she begs, and every day on the way home she steals three apples from the orchard of a rich man. This woman feels bad that she steals the apples, but if she does not, then there will not be enough for her family to eat. When this woman dies, will she be punished by God?

Aaron: That is a very difficult question. On the other hand, we can see that the woman believes that she must steal and is doing it for a good cause, to keep her children alive. On the other hand, stealing is a sin, and she is doing an injustice to the rich man. I would say that, because she is sorry in her heart and because her theft is such a little one, that God would be lenient to her in the end. I will not let you say that God allows people to be evil because one can hardly call this woman evil.

You: It is true that we cannot call the woman evil for wanting to save her family, but let's add a wrinkle to the situation. Let's say that some of the other poor people see how the woman is acting and decide that they, too, could profit from the rich man's apples. Because they are all as poor as the woman is, they know that God will be lenient on them in Heaven for the small evils they are doing on earth.

Before long, a dozen or more poor people taking three apples a day from the rich man's orchard will begin to drive it to ruin. The rich man may find that he is unable to make enough profit from the sale of apples to justify having the orchard in the first place. As his fortune dwindles, he may pray each night for God to punish the evil people who are stealing him out of house and home. Because he knows that God always dispenses justice, he can feel confident that, in the end, the thieves will be punished for their deeds.

Obviously this is an impossible situation. The rich man "knows" that God will punish the thieves, and the poor people "know" that God will knot.

Aaron: There is no contradiction. The rich man does not deserve justice as much as the poor people, therefore the rich man is wrong when he believes that God will dispense justice on his behalf.

You: How can you say that the rich man is less deserving because of his money? How about the workers who will be unemployed when the orchard no longer needs to be tended? Perhaps the rich man became rich by selling apples at very low prices to the needy? Perhaps he is a philanthropist? I don't see any way that you can, as a blanket statement, say that the rich man must necessarily be more deserving than a poor woman.

Aaron: This conversation is getting completely out of hand. You are splitting philosophical hairs and I have little patience for such things. I suggest that we move on to another topic.