Did God Create Evil?
I read the following article in an email that my sister Jenny sent to me. I really liked the arguments presented. You could say that it’s food for thought and a good article to open up some discussion. Here it is:
The DIFFERENCE
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Science and God
‘Let me explain the problem science has with Jesus Christ.’ The atheist
professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his
new students to stand.
‘You’re a Christian, aren’t you, son?’
‘Yes sir,’ the student says.
‘So you believe in God?’
‘Absolutely.’
‘Is God good?’
‘Sure! God’s good.’
‘Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you good or evil?’
‘The Bible says I’m evil.’
The professor grins knowingly. ‘Aha! The Bible!’ He considers for a
moment.
‘Here’s one for you. Let’s say there’s a sick person over here and you
can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?’
‘Yes sir, I would.’
‘So you’re good…!’
‘I wouldn’t say that.’
‘But why not say that? You’d help a sick and maimed person if
you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn’t.’
The student does not answer, so the professor continues. ‘He
doesn’t, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even
though he prayed to Jesus to heal him How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can
you answer that one?’
The student remains silent.
‘No, you can’t, can you?’ the professor says. He takes a sip of
water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax.
‘Let’s start again, young fella Is God good?’
‘Er…yes,’ the student says.
‘Is Satan good?’
The student doesn’t hesitate on this one. ‘No.’
‘Then where does Satan come from?’
The student : ‘From…God…’
‘That’s right. God made Satan, didn’t he? Tell me, son. Is there
evil in this world?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Evil’s everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything,
correct?’
‘Yes.’
‘So who created evil?’ The professor continued, ‘If God created
everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to
the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.’
Without allowing the student to answer, the professor continues:
‘Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible
things, do they exist in this world?’
The student: ‘Yes.’
‘So who created them?’
The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his
question. ‘Who created them? There is still no answer. Suddenly the
lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is
mesmerized.
‘Tell me,’ he continues onto another student. ‘Do you believe in
Jesus Christ, son?’
The student’s voice is confident: ‘Yes, professor, I do.’
The old man stops pacing. ‘Science says you have five senses you
use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen
Jesus?’
‘No sir. I’ve never seen Him’
‘Then tell us if you’ve ever heard your Jesus?’
‘No, sir, I have not.’
‘Have you ever actually felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or
smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus
Christ, or God for that matter?’
‘No, sir, I’m afraid I haven’t.’
‘Yet you still believe in him?’
‘Yes.’
‘According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable
protocol, science says your God doesn’t exist. What do you say to that,
son?’
‘Nothing,’ the student replies. ‘I only have my faith.’
‘Yes, faith,’ the professor repeats. ‘And that is the problem
science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.’
The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a
question of his own. ‘Professor, is there such thing as heat?’
‘Yes,’ the professor replies. ‘There’s heat.’
‘And is there such a thing as cold?’
‘Yes, son, there’s cold too.’
‘No sir, there isn’t.’
The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested.
The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain.
‘You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat,
mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we
don’t have anything called ‘cold’. We can hit up to 458 degrees below
zero, which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is
no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the
lowest -458 degrees. 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 (-458 F) is the total absence of heat.
You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of
heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units
because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the
absence of it.’
Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom,
sounding like a hammer.
‘What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as
darkness?’
‘Yes,’ the professor replies without hesitation. ‘What is night
if it isn’t darkness?’
‘You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the
absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright
light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have
Nothing and it’s called darkness, isn’t it? That’s the meaning we use to
define the word. In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were, you would be able
to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?’
The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him.
This will be a good semester. ‘So what point are you making, young man?’
‘Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is
flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.’
The professor’s face cannot hide his surprise this time.
‘Flawed? Can you explain how?’
‘You are working on the premise of duality,’ the student
explains. ‘You argue that there is life and then there’s death; a good
God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something
finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can’t even explain a
thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much
less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life
is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive
thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it.’
‘Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they
evolved from a monkey?’
‘If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young
man, yes, of course I do’
‘Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?’
The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he
realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.
‘Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work
and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you
not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a
preacher?’
The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the
Commotion has subsided.
‘To continue the point you were making earlier to the other
student, let me give you an example of what I mean.’
The student looks around the room. ‘Is there anyone in the class
who has ever seen the professor’s brain?’ The class breaks out into
laughter.
‘Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor’s brain,
felt the professor’s brain, touched or smelled the professor’s brain? No
one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of
empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no
brain, with all due respect, sir. So if science says you have no brain,
how can we trust your lectures, sir?’
Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the
student, his face unreadable.
Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. ‘I
guess you’ll have to take them on faith.’
‘Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists
with life,’ the student continues. ‘Now, sir, is there such a thing as
evil?’
Now uncertain, the professor responds, ‘Of course, there is. We
see it everyday. It is in the daily example 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.
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. – C. S. Lewis
That’s a very nice story that proves nothing. It’s an argument about duality. I don’t think you have a solid grasp of religion, do you?
Thank you Kurt for your comment. The article wasn’t meant to prove anything. I felt that it presented an argument of duality that was worth thinking about. A different way of viewing evil if you will. As for your question as to whether I have a good grasp of religion or not, I would say that some may think that I do. You obviously think that I don’t. I for one never claimed to have a PhD in religion but I do have faith. Would it be fair of me to say that I don’t think that you have a solid grasp of what it means to have faith based on your comment alone? Thanks again. Claudia
A lot of the claims made don’t make much sense at all. Things like cold are conceptual abstracts: defining cold as the abscence of heat makes perfect sense. No one is unclear on what is being discussed. It’s simply a negative definition.
But defining evil as the abscence of God does not work in this context: it merely begs the question under discussion. You can’t have a debate over whether or not God is responsible for evil if you simply start out defining evil as anything that isn’t God. You’re simply assuming your conclusion right off the bat.
And in any case, this bizarre definition of “evil” basically takes it away from any concrete examples. Evil acts are not negatives, not lacks: they have their own particular causations, and no hypothetical absolute creator God cannot beg off of being part of that causal chain.
Not only did God, if God creates everything, create evil, but he would have specifically picked a precise amount of evil. God made malaria. God made it so that brain damage can lead to psychosis and rage. And the student never even bothers trying to explain why God would create a being, Satan, that works to inspire and create more evil.
Nor does the student seem to understand much of anything about empiricism: the argument that the professor has no brain, or that evolution isn’t well established is nonsense. Empiricism is about evidence, of which seeing things directly with eyeballs is merely one example, and not even the most reliable or convincing kind.
I left the Christian church because I woke up and realized that “faith” is nothing but a sham. Nothing at all against you personally, sorry if I came across that way.
Kurt, I do wonder how you came to the conclusion that faith is a sham. I for one am convinced that my faith is not. There’s plenty of evidence out there to confirm that God exists if evidence is in fact what you need. I think the problem many of us get into is when we try to explain and understand the mind of God. It just isn’t possible. Our puny brains aren’t capable of understanding so when we come across an idea about God that we don’t like(or misunderstand), we have a tendency to become angry with him or dismiss him altogether. I don’t mean to imply that this is what you’ve done. I’m just speaking in general. I do feel that you were trying to insult me but that’s ok. Thanks for sharing.
Bad, I found your observations interesting and well thought out. I will share a few thoughts of my own warning everyone that I’m not a philosophy student. I merely speak from my heart but I do believe in the importance of openly sharing ideas with one another even if we may be at odds (or even if some of us are less versed in religion than others, referring to myself of course). My faith, after all, stems from having an encounter with the living God and walking away a completely different person.
Bad, why can’t we begin with a premise that perhaps evil is in fact the absence of God or in the least caused by it? I believe that what the student was saying was that a person who does not know God, and therefore God is absent from his life, is more likely to do evil things since God’s character is not in him. The absence of God in one’s heart can produce evil in that person.
Some may argue that God did create Satan but not necessarily with the intention of creating an evil being. Perhaps he created a being with the ability to choose and Satan, through his choices, alienated himself from God. God became absent in his life. God of course knew that giving this being the ability to choose could bring about some very negative consequences but for whatever reason, he might have felt that this was still the better way. Who can understand the mind of God after all? I for one appreciate this gift of choice.
I agree with you that evil acts do have their own causations. According to scripture, these evil acts are not caused by God though. People make choices. But I believe that what the student was saying was that the absence of God in people’s hearts is at the root of what causes evil in the first place. Am I making any sense? I don’t have your gift for words.
Did God create Malaria and brain damage? I won’t be so arrogant as to assume that I know the answer to this but here’s something to think about. What if God didn’t? Is it possible that these diseases developed in humans over time once sin and evil entered the picture or just through the body experiencing stress? For those of you that believe in evolution, you should be able to accept that changes can occur in beings very slowly over a long period of time. What if this alone is the explanation for many of the diseases that are present? Keep in mind that some of these diseases we bring on ourselves. I have hypoglycemia. If I eat properly and take care of myself, I can keep it under control. However, I can become careless and this illness can pretty much take over my life. If I let that happen too often, I can become a diabetic. We put poisons into our bodies every day through the foods that we eat, the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, and the medicines that we take. Vaccinations alone are being linked to diseases like Autism and who knows what other diseases or illnesses they will be responsible for in the future. We choose to put these poisons into our bodies. Is it fair to say that God made us sick if we chose to do this to ourselves? Now please, don’t read more into my words. I’m not saying that the diseases that we have are our fault. I am not saying that someone who has cancer caused this disease to occur because of poor diet choices or whatever. I’m just expressing the possibility that diseases evolved over time on their own. I’m suggesting the possibility that our minds have such a small capacity to understand and that we should be able to accept the idea that we don’t know everything about God and how he works.
I, like the student, don’t understand much of anything about empiricism(I even had to look up the word!) but here’s my take on what he was saying. At first it seems silly to say that because the students couldn’t actually see, feel, touch, smell or taste the professor’s brain that he, therefore, didn’t have one….according to science. Now it seemed silly to say that because we all know that tests could be run on the professor to show that he did, in fact, have a brain. Perhaps an autopsy could be performed etc. etc. etc. However, I think the point that he was trying to make was this. If they were in a situation where tests couldn’t be run, an autopsy performed etc., how would we know that the professor did have a brain? What evidence would there be? Even though we couldn’t see, feel, touch, taste, or smell his brain, we would still know that he had one because we would see evidence of its existence (the professor was talking, breathing, walking etc.). He was saying that even though we can’t see, feel, touch, taste, or smell God we can still see evidence of his existence in creation. Maybe God can’t be proven using scientific methods, but his existence is evident. This evidence appears in many forms. That’s another topic all together. I’ll close with some of God’s words concerning this topic.
“When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:13-17
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (Suffering has a purpose)
“Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight…” 1 Corinthians 3:18-19
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” Romans 11:33-34
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, COLA.
Getting lost is easy to do LOL. Thanks COLA.