Could an all-loving God create evil? It seems like that would be against His very nature. Because if God created everything, and if evil exists what does this show us about God's nature? Is He both good and bad? Benevolent and Malicious? And if He created evil, He tried to trick us with it. Because evil is beautiful and the most alluring lie ever. I mean, we don't even get a warning sometimes. It's just BAM right there. We don't even see it coming. I've been thinking this through the past few months. The day I came home from college I had a good conversation with a friend about the origins of evil. I told him I thought maybe evil is not tangible. Good is tangible, we can see it and feel it, but maybe evil is simply the absence of good. God created good. But where God is removed, evil resides. He said the idea sounded familiar and later posted this note:
"According to popular story there was once a university professor who challenged his class with the following question: If God created everything, then He also created evil. From the audience a young student replied in return with the question of whether darkness did or did not exist. Naturally the professor responded in the affirmative and so the student proceeded to explain his position. Just as there is no way to measure the depths of darkness there is no real way of measuring evil. On the other hand however we can indeed measure light. A prism will divide a beam of light into different wavelengths and colors. Yet there is no band for darkness, because darkness is the absence of light. In the same fashion evil is the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the word we use to describe the absence of God just as darkness is a word used to describe the absence of light. The name of the student was Albert Einstein."
Evil like darkness cannot be tangible because it is only a condition, only an absence of the good/light.
I would agree. However, the Genisis account contadicts your theory. HaShem created Lucifer as the most beautiful being. Angels are, Judeaically and Christian wise are entities created by HaShem. They were not born, nor grew up and obtained the brain, or whatever it is that moves them. What they know and feel was placed there by HaShem himself.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, HaShem placed within Lucifer, not only the ability to rebel, but also the capacity to be all-evil.
Regarding evil and Humanity... HaShem allowed there to be deception, in the form of the serpent, in a supposed perfect, sinless environment. Are deception and temptation not sin? They are. Therefore Adam & Eve were not allowed to remain pristine.
Simply stated, it's a fucking mess of a astory, a contradiction in itself.
Not to mention, that the rest of us to follow Adam & Eve had no choice. That's a bit unfair, no?
While the idea of a god creating all-evil is a bit odd, HaShem of Genesis most certainly did.
So your outlook is a good one, but one that contradicts the Tanaklh and the NT, as well as Christianity as a whole.
Great post, Jen.
But Lucifer choose that which was apart from God. God allowed that choice. Lucifer wasn't created evil. And maybe upon his choice he didn't suddenly become 'evil'. His choice defined what he was to become: lacking good. Thereby rendering 'evil'.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I, personally, have the capacity to be all-evil... or pretty much close to all-evil, but that doesn't mean God created that in me, or predisposed me to that type of life. Just because God gave a choice to the angels to choose or reject him doesn't mean that he made Lucifer evil.
I'm trying figure out if these tow views can be compromised and you're not making it easy! lol But that's okay, I appreciate your input.