IVAN CHALLENGES ALYOSHA'S FAITH
        "Are you fond of children, Alyosha? I know you are, and you will understand why I prefer to speak of them. If they, too, suffer horribly on earth, they must suffer for their fathers' sins, they must be punished for their fathers, who have eaten the apple; but that reasoning is of the other world and is incomprehensible for the heart of man here on earth. The innocent must not suffer for another's sins, and especially such innocents!"
        "Brother, what are you driving at?" asked Alyosha.
        "Do you understand why this infamy must be and is permitted? Without it, I am told, man could not have existed on earth, for he could not have known good and evil. Why should he know that diabolical good and evil when it costs so much? Why, the whole world of knowledge is not worth that child's prayer to dear, kind God'! I say nothing of the sufferings of grown-up people, they have eaten the apple, damn them, and the devil take them all! But these little ones! I am making you suffer, Alyosha, you are not yourself. I'll leave off if you like."
        "Nevermind. I must hear you out," said Alyosha.

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
        "One story, only one: There was in those days a general, owner of great estates. One day a serf-boy, a child of eight, threw a stone in play and hurt the general's favourite hound. 'Why is my favourite dog lame?' He is told that the boy threw a stone that hurt the dog's paw. 'So you did it.' The general looked at the child. 'Take him.' He was taken from his mother and kept shut up all night. Early that morning the general comes out on horseback, with the hounds, his dependents, dog-boys, and huntsmen, all around him. The servants are summoned, and in front of them all stands the mother. The child is brought from the lock-up. It's a gloomy, cold, foggy, autumn day. The general orders the child to be undressed; the boy is stripped naked. He shivers, numb with terror. 'Make him run,' commands the general. 'Run! run!' shout the dog-boys. The boy runs. 'At him!' yells the general, and he sets the whole pack of hounds loose. The hounds catch him and tear him to pieces before his mother's own eyes! I believe the general was afterwards declared incapable of administering his estates. Well -- what did he deserve? To be shot? To be shot for the satisfaction of our moral feelings? Speak, Alyosha!
        "To be shot," murmured Alyosha, lifting his eyes to Ivan with a pale, twisted smile.
        "Bravo!" cried Ivan delighted. "If even you say so... You're a pretty monk!"
        "What I said was absurd, but-"
        "That's just the point, that 'but'!" cried Ivan. "Let me tell you, novice, that the absurd is only too necessary on earth. The world stands on absurdities, and perhaps nothing would have come to pass in it without them. We know what we know!"
        "What do you know?"

IVAN SAYS THAT NOTHING CAN JUSTIFY SUCH EVIL, IF IT COULD BE PREVENTED
        "Listen! I took the case of children only to make my case clearer. The argument is, this suffering must exist, for men to be free, and for the eternal harmony. But listen! If all must suffer to pay for the eternal harmony, what have children to do with it, tell me, please? It's beyond all comprehension why they should suffer, why they should pay for the harmony. And if it is really true that they must share responsibility for all their fathers' crimes, such a truth is not of this world and is beyond my comprehension. Some jester will say, perhaps, that the child would have grown up and have sinned, but you see he didn't grow up, he was torn to pieces by the dogs, at eight years old. Oh, Alyosha, I understand, of course, what an upheaval it will be when everything in heaven and earth blends in one hymn of praise and all will be made clear. But I can't accept that harmony. I renounce it altogether. It's not worth the tears of that one tortured child. How are you going to atone for them? By their being avenged? What do I care for a hell for oppressors? What good can hell do, since those children have already been tortured? And if the sufferings of children was necessary, then I protest that it is not worth such a price.  I don't want harmony. From love for humanity I don't want it. I would rather be left with the unavenged suffering. Besides, too high a price is asked for harmony; it's beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it. And so I hasten to give back my entrance ticket, and if I am an honest man I am bound to give it back as soon as possible. And that I am doing. It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return him the ticket."

ALYOSHA CALLS THIS REBELLION AGAINST GOD
        "That's rebellion," murmered Alyosha, looking down.
        "Rebellion? Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature -- that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance -- and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears. Tell me: would you consent to be the architect on those conditions?"
        "No, I wouldn't consent," said Alyosha softly.
        "And should mankind agree to accept happiness on the foundation of the blood of a little victim? And accepting it remain happy for ever?"
        "No. But brother," said Alyosha suddenly, with flashing eyes, "you asked just now, is there a being in the whole world who would have the right to forgive and could forgive? There is a Being, Ivan; and He can forgive everything, all and for all, because He gave His innocent blood for all and everything. You have forgotten Him, and on Him is built the edifice, and it is to Him they cry aloud, 'Thou art just, O Lord, for Thy ways are revealed!'"
        "Oh, Alyosha, have you understood nothing of what I have said?"