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"Go on, Uncle Will Don’t e of the chair beside one of the College Joes and did her best to look interested
"Yes…" For a moment, Uncle Will’s bewildered expression threatened to becoan pacing the room with his hands behind his back "As I said, how does one explain the presence of evil?"
The boys all looked to one another to see ould answer
"Man h his choices," so it out That’s what the Bible says, at least," another boy argued
"How can there be a Devil if there is a God?" a boy in golf knickers asked "I’ve alondered that"
Uncle Will waved a finger,a point "Ah Theodicy"
"Is that a cross between theology and idiocy?"
Will allowed a sy concerned with the defense of God in the face of the existence of evil It brings about a conundru, all-powerful deity, how can he allow evil to exist? Either he is not the ood we’ve been told, or he is all-powerful and all-knowing, and also cruel, because he allows evil to exist and does nothing to stop it"
"Well, that certainly explains Prohibition," Evie quipped
The college boys laughed appreciatively Again Uncle Will looked at Evie as if she were a subject he had yet to classify
"Any good world would allow for us to have free will, yes?" he continued "Can we agree to this point? But once hus have free will, they also have the ability to , free will, allows the possibility of evil into our fine world" The room was silent "One to ponder But, if I may continue with our earlier discussion…"
The boys sat up straight, ready to take notes as Will paced and talked "Aether by threads from different cultures Our history is rife with the supernatural, the unexplained, the ious freedorants who followed introduced their hopes and haunts, frohosts’ of China The original Americans believed in shamans and spirits The slaves of West Africa and the Caribbean, stripped of all they had, still carried with the pot of cultures, but also of spirits and superstitions Yes?"
A boy in a navy blazer raised his hand "Do you believe in the supernatural, Dr Fitzgerald?"
"Ah It would seee It’s difficult enough to get people even to believe in Methodism" Will smiled as the boys chuckled "And yet, there are mysteries How does one explain the stories of people who exhibit unusual powers?"
Evie felt a tingle down her spine
"Powers?" a boy repeated in a skeptical tone bordering on contempt
"People who claim to be able to speak to the dead, such as psychics or spiritualon of hands Who can see glimpses of the future or know a card before it is played The early records of the Americas talk of Indian spirit walkers The Puritans knew of cunning folk And during the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin wrote of prophetic dreams that influenced the course of the war and shaped the nation What do you say to that?"
"Those people need the services of a psychiatrist--though I’ll make an exception for Mr Franklin"
Another round of chuckles followed, and Evie joined in, though she was still disco to subside
"This very museum, as you may knoas constructed by Cornelius Rathbone, who a railroads How did he know that the age of steel was co?" Will paused at the lectern and waited When no one answered, he continued pacing, his hands behind his back "He claimed he knew because of the prophetic visions of his sister, Liberty Anne When Cornelius and Liberty were young, they spent hours in the woods playing at all sorts of games One day, Liberty went into the forest and was lost for two full days The men of the town searched but could find no trace of her When she eone completely white She was only eleven Liberty Anne claie, tall man, skinny as a scarecrow, in a stovepipe hat and whose coat opened to show the wonders and frights of the world’ She fell ill with a fever The doctor was sent for, but there was nothing he could do For the nextprophecy, which her worried brother transcribed in his diary These prophecies were astonishing in their accuracy She claireatour American cousin’--a reference to the assassination of President Lincoln in the balcony of Ford’s Theatre while he watched a production of the play Our Aon criss-crossing the land, belching black smoke,’ which most interpret to mean the Transcontinental Railroad She predicted the Emancipation Proclamation, the Great War, the Bolshevik revolution, and the invention of the motorcar and the aeroplane She even spoke of the fall of our banks and the subsequent collapse of our economy"