Did He Create Evil?

jessthenurse · **Did He Create Evil?**

God Created Everything, Did He 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, and according to the
principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is
evil."

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

Another student raised his hand and 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.

Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or
transmits energy and heat is what makes a body or matter have or
transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of
heat. And all matter becomes inert and 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 and
study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot
measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world
of darkness and 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 and
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 and 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

mom23angelboys · 10-24-2006, 06:57 PM

I love that! I have heard it several times before, but I enjoy reading it over and over again. Angela

mom23kj · 10-25-2006, 07:40 AM

I received that email a few months ago, but I respectfully take issue with the assumption that those with out God in their heart are evil. There are many non-believers out there who are good, moral people. Not an evil bone exists in their bodies, so it is quite unfair and even insulting to presume that a lack of belief in God constitutes evil. Those that believe that concept are the antithesis of what it means to be Christian. What ever happened to "Love thy neighbor?" and if I'm not mistaken wasn't it Jesus who preached love of all people, not just the believers? I find the statement to be quite hypocritical, actually. If one accepts that evil is the absence of God in one's heart, then one must accept that it is impossible for a believer of God to be evil, and that simply isn't so. What about priests who molest innocent children, or those that cover up such vile things? Or any other who commit a heinous crime such as murder or rape, be it the rape of an adult or worse, of a child? They supposedly had God in their hearts. To be truthful, I know more "Christians" who lead immoral lives, but think it's all okay because they go to church on Sunday than the non believers I know who are moral, just and lead clean, good and lawful lives. I also say that those who believe that premise would do well with some lessons of tolerance and should view the sermon on "Demystifying Paganism" by the Rev. Derek Younger, his message is closer to Christ's than any other I've heard. I know that most know that I am a non believer, but that fact does not make me or any other individual who is not of the Judeo-Christian extraction (this includes Islam) evil. Our actions and how we chose to live our lives, the decisions we make are what make us good or evil. Not the belief in or lack there of in any deity.

treehugger · 10-25-2006, 08:37 AM

Thank you, I love this and will pass it on.

I am a believer yet Mom23 makes a very good point. I know lots of nonbelievers who lead good and moral lives. And I do agree that there are many so called "Christians" who do not. Are the priests who molest young children evil, are the rapists and murderers evil and did God create those evil people? From my understanding, he created freewill. The choice to be with God or not. If someone choses to not walk with God he isn't automatically choosing to be a horible person or to be evil. Calimari responded to my question regarding the "devil" a few weeks ago, by saying, " No such thing. Evil is just a part of human nature." I too believe that evil is a part of human nature, that we have the choice to be good or bad, the choice believe or not believe, it's all our own freewill. My question is, if someone chooses not to believe in God yet still leads a good life, by his own nature following the commandments and is good to others, if this person finds out after they have died that opps! God does exist, I was misinformed, do they get into heaven? And for the people who are so called "Christians" and lead terrible lives, not following the commandments and causeing harm to others, but asking for forgiveness along they way, to they go to heaven?

jessthenurse · 10-25-2006, 10:06 AM

I apologize if I insulted anyone with this post. I in no way intended for anyone to think that i was insinuating that if you don't believe in God you are evil. I know there are many,many, many non-Christians out there.

I agree that there are lots of people who proclaim to know God (e.g. the priests who molest children) and yes I think that is evil. I also don't think that just because you go to church makes you a Christian; I think it is how you live your life.

mom23kj · 10-25-2006, 11:02 AM

Jess, you in no way insulted me, so please don't take my previous post personally. I was just taking issue with how evil is represented in the body of the piece. I did not aim my response at you. The beauty of this forum is that we can respectfully discuss such things. I try my best not to judge people and try to form my opinions based on how people treat me and the others around them, not race, creed or gender and wish more people in this world would do the same. The sad thing is there are so many who live life in absolutes and have no gray areas. They are the ones who will refuse to associate with a wonderful person solely because they have differing religious beliefs or have a different sexual orientation or live in the "wrong" part of town. They miss out on such a rich mix of wonderful people and it's truly a shame.

jessthenurse · 10-25-2006, 11:58 AM

mom23, thanks for your response. I really do agree with you about the association thing. It's actually one of the reasons I have a hard time feeling comfortable in churches. It always seems to be about who's dressed right and whatnot (not all church, just the ones I've been to). To be honest, I didn't even think about how a non-believer would take that piece when they say a heart w/out God is evil.

Rakshanda · 10-25-2006, 01:32 PM

I believe the eivl is not the absence of good. evil is a being, an opposit of God in the form of Satan.

In Islam we believe that all evil is rooted with Satan, who we believe is the fallen angle. He was a good angle and then became evil when he started questionin God and his ideas. Not only questioning, but thought he was God. We beleive we are on this earth with free will and we can choose one of two paths, one of good and one of evil. If somebody chooses good, ti doesnt meant they believe in God, if somebody chooses evil doesnt mean they dont beleive in God.

calimari · 10-25-2006, 05:56 PM

http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp

Just so you know, the whole thing is an urban legend anyway. Einstein never had this conversation with a professor. And I'm with Mom23 on this one, of course.

mom23kj · 10-26-2006, 07:43 AM

Einstein would never have said what was quoted anyway. The God he believed in was in a cosmic sense. He wrote an article for the New York Times stating his religious beliefs and stated he "has a cosmic religious sense which know no dogma and no God made in man's image." He also stated that while it's impossible to disprove the existence of an omnipotent being, but felt there was no reason to believe one exists so he didn't believe in the existence of such a being. If his beliefs must be classified, he would be best described as a Pantheist a la Spinoza. I had a feeling the above circulated email was most likely just pulled out of the air by someone wanting to further their agenda, but never thought to check snopes.com. Thanks Calimari for dispelling the urban myth. I just really take issue with the logic the idiot who wrote the thing used.