the man of mercy

amazed by this:
Sherlock Holmes and the Problem of Evil
never before imagined Sherlock Holmes can be linked with such a theological position... *感动*

i think the problem really has been - while i complained with fervour about the ridiculous contemporary parodies, i myself havent flipped open the original canon in years.
to the point that when i first saw this quote below again, my immediate thought was "huh? is Sherlock actually capable of this??" 囧

“What is the meaning of it, Watson?” said Holmes, solemnly, as he laid down the paper. “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.”

and i end up loving the rose quote even more.

“There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion,” said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. “It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”

a really genuine merciful kind of guy isn't he?
SO NOT Cluster B. (and i so want to highlight this and make it into a poster and hang it on the wall of whoever came up with the contemporary parodies *speechless*)

maybe i shouldn't be so critical. i need to go back to the books and refresh my memory too. :(