B190 <=> B192 [BTG XIX Beelzebub’s second descent, p. 191]

“Well, then, my boy, no sooner was this clearly constated in my Reason, than the idea occurred to me to actualize through this first terrestrial friend of mine, the task for which this second descent of mine in person had been made.

“I therefore intentionally began to lead all our conversation towards the question of the custom of Sacrificial-Offerings.

“Although, my boy, considerable time has flowed since I talked with that terrestrial friend of mine, I could, perhaps, now recall word for word and repeat one of our talks we had at that time.

“I wish to recall and repeat just that talk of ours which was the last, and which served as the starting point of all the subsequent events, which though they brought the planetary existence of this terrestrial friend of mine to a painful end, brought him nevertheless to the beginning of the possibility of continuing the task of self-perfecting.

“This last talk took place in his house.

“I then explained to him frankly the utter stupidity and absurdity of this custom of Sacrificial-Offerings.

“I said to him as follows:

“’Good.

“’You have a religion, a faith in something. It is excellent to have faith in something, in whatever it might be, even if you don’t exactly know in whom or in what, nor can represent to yourself the significance and the possibilities of what you have faith in. To have faith, whether consciously or even quite unconsciously, is for every being very necessary and desirable.

“’And it is desirable because owing to faith alone does there appear in a being, the intensity of being-self-consciousness necessary for every being, and also the valuation of personal Being as of a particle of Everything Existing in the Universe.