If God made everything, does that mean He made evil too?

Answer 1

Yes, without "evil" the word "good" would be meaningless.

There is a nice story from Gibran Khalil, which I have in German on my homepage and somewhere in my blog it is called Satan, I will re-post it ......

Answer 2

God made everything. Evil was revealed when Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Its a long story though...God made Satan first as an angel, the angel of music. But Satan believed he was more powerful than the Lord so he was cast down from heaven. God gave Satan reign over the current world, (God still is in control) but that is the reason the earth has sin and evil. But god said he would return and than Satan would be thrown into hell and the "new" world would then be created. Where there is no sin or any sort of evil...I don't know if this helps but I hope it does.

Answer 3

To answer to your question:

Yes. Since God made everything, it does mean he made evil too.

I have to say that it depends on what/which god/religion/faith we come from. Chances are, the worldview of a Buddhist will differ from a native american mayan's and both will differ from a catholic's.

In regards to this question, the three of them will probably have varying answers. And another individual can even argue that the three of them are saying the same thing.

In a way,it is about semantics and representation. How do we understand this part in sacred books where it cites: God, the creator of all (great) things.

Answer 4

I feel he did. I feel there are reasons he did. You have to have the bad.... in order to appreciate the good. If there is no basis for comparison, then how will you know that good.. is good??

Dealing with evil situations...... evil people...... malecious intent builds character in us like nothing else. We have to have the challenges in life in order to grow as humans and discover things about ourselves that dealing with the easy and good will never bring forth. A challenge will always bring forth strengths we may never have known existed before.

Of course the evil has been set for to tempt us as well. Will we pass the test? Or will we fall for the temptress? Again....... it says so much about our character. We may falter at times.... and other times we resist...... all part of the growing process necessary to become who we are.

I've had good in my life.... I've had bad. I've been good and ohhhhhh yes I've been bad. But you have to have both to understand who you are.... what you are...... what you are capable of becoming. God knew this.... and this is why he allowed the evil to walk the earth as well.

Answer 5

No. Evil is not a created thing but the absence of a thing. Evil is the absence of good, just as cold is the absence of heat and darkness is the absence of light. They are not things in and of themselves, but the absence of something. I once had a long discussion about this with a priest who was a friend of the family. He told me that the concept of sin in our lives (evil) is not the presence of something that needs removing but an emptiness, a nothing, where there should be something. Man in turn attempts to fill this infinite void with finite things: money, sex, alcohol, drugs, etc, but they are finite. He told me, "ask the alcoholic if there is enough booze in the world to fill his need, ask the drug addict if there are enough drugs, or those addicted to porn or money if there is enough in the world to satisfy. The answer of course is no. To fill an infinite void you need an infinite presence. I call it God, others, Good or Love.....Fill the void and there is no room for evil.

Answer 6

Yes.
'I, the Lord, make peace and create evil. I do all these things' Isaiah 45:7
BTW, like the avatar :-)

Edit: God's pretty mean creating evil then punishing us for eternity for not being able to reason his existence...

Answer 7

Yes. I was corresponding with a friend of mine on just this subject recently. Here's what I said to her. . .
I think God uses evil as a tool for the betterment of people. Do you learn and grow the most during the times your life is easy or when you're suffering? What God sees as good and right and what we see as good and right might not, and probably don’t, line up. And if they don’t who is more likely to be right, fallen sinful humans or an all-knowing, infinite God? Based on my own observations of life and the scriptures I’ve concluded that God cares much more about our character and integrity than he does our physical surrounding or condition. It’s more important to God that someone being tortured for their faith maintains their integrity than it is that they are being tortured. Not that he lack compassion and doesn’t care about the torture, but he sees that character will last forever while physical surroundings are temporary. It’s not unlike a mother who forces her child to eat broccoli, despite the fact the kid hates it. The mom doesn’t want her child to suffer and she does care about him. But she recognizes it will benefit him in the long run to suffer a little and eat the broccoli and he does not. God’s our mom and evil is the broccoli. Of course this is not a perfect analogy and I would never try to explain it to someone who is suffering that God is feeding them broccoli. But as best as I can tell this is logical, biblical, and more or less resolves the issue.
Of course this depends on you accepting the Biblical God. If you don't believe in that God than it makes mores sense to say he didn't create evil.

Answer 8

Yes, the christian god take credit for the creation of evil in isaiah 45:7 or 47:5, lol, one or the other. Its there, read it

Answer 9

Yep, in a sense...

In the old testament he says so himself - though it does mean more something more like calamity like destroying Sodom as opposed to evil as we think of the term.

However, to say God created evil as in evil deeds and evil people is not quite right.

Your statement kind of has a faulty premise.

Evil is not a created "thing" in and of itself. It does not exist autonomously. Instead it is the absence of the perfect which God did make.

Answer 10

Evil is not a separate creation of God, it is simply a corruption of good. Everything God created was pronounced good.
Also Isaiah 45:7 does not say that God created evil, it says
"I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things."