Did God create evil? Only serious answers.?

Question

Did God create everything that exists? Does evil exist? Did God create evil?

A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question. "Did God create everything that exists?"

A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"

"God created everything?" The professor asked.

"Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God created evil. And, since evil exists, & according to the principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."

The student became quiet & did not respond to the professor's hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the religious faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand & said, "May I ask you a question, professor?"

"Of course," replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?"

The other students snickered at the young man's question. The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat.
Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, & heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460F) is the total absence of heat; & all matter becomes inert & incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does."

The student replied , "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors & study the various wave lengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness & illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is?
You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct?
Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor,”Sir, does evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the professor responded, ”Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime & violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.

To this the student replied, ”Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness & cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.
God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness
That comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

The young man's name--Albert Einstein - A true story

Answer 1

Yes, but evil is not simply the absence of good, it is in direct opposition to his will. In this case, God has created evil, but not in a direct sence. Such that lawlessness cannot exist without the law, similarly, evil is in opposition to what is good.

God created Satan, but did not force Satan to become proud and oppose him. Through this action (of Lucifer's will), evil was born. God's will had been opposed and it would not be the first time, as that inherent evil is within every human person (which is why it is important that Jesus was born of a virgin, the inheritance had stopped).

Answer 2

I doubt this is a true story, seeing how Einstein was a pantheist, not a believer in a conscious god. Do you have a link for this?

Even if it is true, it is poor reasoning. Darkness and coldness are defined as the absence of light and warmth. Evil is, on the other hand, not merely defined as the lack of good or of God. Not going to Church could be an example of a lack of belief in God, but this is not synonymous with "evil." If evil is purely the absence of God, then we would have to say that all acts committed in the absence of God are "evil" and equally so. This is obviously absurd. We also cannot accept the similar version of evil being only a lack of goodness for similar reasons - there is a fundamental difference between comitting an act which merely lacks goodness (is neutral) and committing an act which is evil.

St. Augustine developed this argument centuries ago, and it has not developed much since then. It is not a good argument.

Check out this link for more criticisms of this argument: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil#Definition_of_.22evil.22


boganvilia: I don't think you can seriously claim that "evil" is only a relativistic description of feelings. Or do you claim that Hitler's feelings that Jews were evil and our feelings that the Holocaust were evil are equally valid? By casting moral arguments in terms of "evil" we only confuse ourselves. Much better to say "unnecessary suffering" instead of "evil" - it has the same consequences (because what is "evil" if not unnecessary suffering?) and avoids silly metaphysical nonsense like this question.

Answer 3

Long story to go counter to the Bible.

God supposedly created the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

God told Adam not to eat of it's fruit.

Adam ate and evil was released into the world.

Admittedly, this isn't a philosophic but a religious proof, but; we are talking about God and not chaos.

This is not a question of whether God exists but rather if he is all powerful like religions say He is, so you need a theologian and not a philosopher to answer this question.

As for Einstein, look to the end of the Bible, "...even though thou be in hell I shall be there...."

God is not missing when evil is present. God has hardened the hearts of man to create evil. Does that make God evil because he uses evil to do his will? Maybe. Or maybe, God will is neither good nor evil. We choose to interpret God's will in one way or another.

We look at God as a parent. Perhaps we are wrong in doing that.
Perhaps that is the only way we can trust God, and that is why we need a saviour. We need a connection that need not be there.

In Answer to your question, God created everything. Man called somethings evil. Man can be wrong.

Answer 4

God doesn't write the book on the meaning of "Evil"
We do.
It's always changing. Do we think the ancients were wrong about it? Yep. And that's our hubris, for thinking our interpretation the naturalized pinnacle of truth. It will change again.

btw, coldness and darkness exist -.-
such a dumb cartesian argument really.
that's like reducing the qualia of red to
wavelengths of light...

St. Augustine had to formulate how the church saw the relationship to Good and Evil. There were many alternatives, but he ultimately chose neo-platonism. The Good exists over and above us.. and we live on the deluded plane of appearances, ontologically lacking perfection.

It's such a pervasive idea, and there's no proof or justification for it. I can't imagine any professor sitting down over an assault based on this bad assumption.

Where did this "speech" come from? It sounds so mythological.

Answer 5

God created free will. Free will allows us to choose which path we will follow. However, in the many societies that have existed through out history, good and evil are a matter of perspective. If one has been raised as a cannibal, it would not seem evil. In post World War 1 Germany, the German people were being punished and forced to live in poverty. This made it easy to listen to someone who told them they were good and the rest of the world was evil. On each side of a war, there are usually people who implore the help of God to defeat the evil people fighting against them. I guess the question is really, what is evil and does it exist? If it doesn't exist, it wasn't created.

Answer 6

Edmund Burke said all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is "that good men do nothing."

Basically, evil exists because we allow it, in fact, we as a society, even protect it. However, in a broader sense, evil is also a personal choice and what is evil to one can quite possibly be good to another. Take polygamy as an example. Many see this as evil or wrong while (most?) Mormons believe it to be the proper path to enlightnment, etc.

And let's not forget upbringing and education. Did the children of cannibals in our past know it was "evil" to eat the meat they were fed? How would they ever know different without outside intervention?

Answer 7

God , I feel like Im still in the stone age. This a very inspireing story. Good God now I have more reason to go to church.

Ok , How about 'Evil does exist' Its just simply the opposite of good. Its the order of Life. Evil exist to create a basic foundation within ourself of to balance our judgement between choosing whats right and whats wrong.Whatever path we choose,right or wrong, will be judge by the lord when our time comes.

Answer 8

Exactly! At last some common sense. Evil is merely a word to describe ones feeling towards someone/ something. I think the Internet is evil when my husband wants to spend all day on eBay! Did God create the Internet, computers, eBay? No! Is God real? To some, yes, very real. To others, no, a load of hogwash. It's all relative isn't it? If you believe in good, you must believe in evil, but how you choose to perceive evil is up to the individual, just like choosing whether or not to believe in a God.

Answer 9

If you go all the back to the beginning of time then yes. He created beauty so naturally its counter must exit. Without co-existence of anything how would we know what was. for example if there were no evil how would we know what good really meant if we had nothing to compare it with.

Answer 10

I do think God created evil. God created everything in opposites. Hot and cold. Light and dark. Smart and dumb. There is matter and anti-matter. God created everything in opposites, therefore creating evil.