Did God Create Evil?

[fredms3]

In the Garden of Eden, we could find there the Tree of Knowledge…Good and Evil…

Can we say that God did create evil?

Your opinion will be very much appreciated

 

[bogeydogg]

God created the Garden, man, free will and the tree. I suppose one could say that created evil, but then again St. Augustine argued that evil was not in itself a thing but rather an absence of a thing, namely God. When God gave man free will He created choice, but He did not facilitate and neither did He encourage evil and if Augustine is right and evil is the absence of God then we could not say that God created evil either.

 

[1ke]

No, we cannot say that God created evil. God did not create evil.
God made everything good.

 

[rossum]

In the Garden of Eden, we could find there the Tree of Knowledge…Good and Evil…

Can we say that God did create evil?

Your opinion will be very much appreciated

Isaiah 45:7 “I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things.” (Douay)

rossum

 

[BlaineTog]

In the Garden of Eden, we could find there the Tree of Knowledge…Good and Evil…

Knowledge OF Good and Evil, OF Good and Evil. The tree was wholly Good, it just gave information about evil as well.

 

[toaslan]

Evil is not a thing but a lack of a thing–goodness.

If you have goodness, you have automatically the possibility of evil. Because the subtraction, distortion, fracturing of good is evil.

Think of a drawing, in black on white paper, of a pumpkin, the pumpkin being black. What is left on the paper after the black crayon is put away is white. That white “picture” has been “created” as a side effect of the creation of the pumpkin picture.

Or take blindness–in a being designed to see, the absence of sight is blindness. Blindness is not a thing, but the lack of a thing, sight.

So the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil–that tree is the Tree of the Knowledge of the Good and the Deprivation of the Good. These are not two different things, but one thing, Goodness, plus the inherent possibility of it being lessened or distorted by man’s free will.

Hope that helps.

 

[Teflon93]

We created evil, by choosing to place our own will over God’s.

Think of what happened as Eve reached out for that apple. Previously, man and woman did God’s will. The moment she snatched that apple, she knew good and evil, for she did evil where she had previously known only good.

Corrupted by evil, Eve then sought Adam’s fall as well. Adam, perhaps not wanting to return to living alone, placed his will above God’s, turned away from Him, and embraced evil as well.

The sins multiplied quickly after that simple act of disobedience, didn’t they?

 

[Jason_W]

Isaiah 45:7 “I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things.” (Douay)

rossum

If you look in the Catholic encyclopedia,it states the evil spoke of here is evil of afflictions and punishments, not the evil of sin.

I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things. Create evil, etc… The evils of afflictions and punishments, but not the evil of sin.

it would be silly to say God created sin. we know it is by our own freewill that we sin. although it usually comes by means of some form of temptation. I like to think of evil as a state. a state of opposition to God and his will. Everything God created is indeed good. even the devil when created was one of the greatest among the Angels. but when he came in opposition to God by his freewill he destorted his holy nature, and also a third of the Angels who would follow the devil, perverted their holy nature and were cast out of Heaven. thus evil , death, sin are all caused by the corruption of things once good.

 

[fredms3]

Knowledge OF Good and Evil, OF Good and Evil. The tree was wholly Good, it just gave information about evil as well.

Remember God told Adam and Eve that they can eat the fruit of all the trees except from that tree of Knowledge…

 

[rossum]

it would be silly to say God created sin.

Does sin exist - yes or no?
Did God create everything that exists - yes or no?

If you answer “yes” to both questions then logically God had to have created sin. If sin does not exist or if God did not create everything then there is no logical problem and God did not have to have created sin.

Which question would you answer “no” to?

rossum

 

[w_stewart]

Isaiah 45:7 “I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things.” (Douay)

rossum

Evil could be physical and moral.

In the passage you quoted, it meant physical evil, not moral evil.

 

[BlaineTog]

Does sin exist - yes or no?
Did God create everything that exists - yes or no?

If you answer “yes” to both questions then logically God had to have created sin. If sin does not exist or if God did not create everything then there is no logical problem and God did not have to have created sin.

Which question would you answer “no” to?

Neither. I instead call your argument for being fallacious. You’re equivocating on the use of the term “exist.” What God created exists differently from the way sin exists. In a sense, sin doesn’t exis:; it is neither a material nor a spiritual substance but an action, distance from God, a breach in the heavenly relationship. Sin no more “exists” than a missed birthday, nor is any more “created” than a callous word or a blow to the face is “created.”

Remember God told Adam and Eve that they can eat the fruit of all the trees except from that tree of Knowledge…

Because they couldn’t handle the consequences at that time. A stove is a good thing, and yet we don’t let toddlers play in it when it is hot. A car is a good thing, and yet we don’t let our children drive them until they are 15 and 1/2, and then only under close supervision. The ocean is a good thing, but you should never turn your back in it, nor leap in if you don’t know how to swim.

 

[runandsew]

God did not create evil, but he created the potential for evil, by giving us free will.

 

[Teflon93]

Does sin exist - yes or no?
Did God create everything that exists - yes or no?

If you answer “yes” to both questions then logically God had to have created sin. If sin does not exist or if God did not create everything then there is no logical problem and God did not have to have created sin.

Which question would you answer “no” to?

rossum

Actually, the argument rests on sloppy terminology.

“Create” in the usual sense means “actively willed into existence.” It is an active verb, implying the creator’s purpose in the final product.

“Exist” simply means “to be”, and includes created and uncreated things.

So did God create “everything that exists”? When referring to the material world, the atoms and the elements which comprise it, the answer would be “yes.”

When referring to the knot I just tied into my shoelace, the answer would be “No—I created that.”

Yet both the elements and the knot in the shoelace exist.

Furthermore, “Sin” means “an act against God’s will.” Since something against God’s will cannot simultaneously be an act God wills, God cannot sin. This is why we object to the heretical notion that God wills sin, which would be both a tautological impossibility as well as a grievous blasphemy. God cannot both be infinitely just and punish sinners for the sins He allegedly willed into existence.

Thus, God created man, man created sin.

 

[Jason_W]

Does sin exist - yes or no?
Did God create everything that exists - yes or no?

If you answer “yes” to both questions then logically God had to have created sin. If sin does not exist or if God did not create everything then there is no logical problem and God did not have to have created sin.

Which question would you answer “no” to?

rossum

logically then, lets look at your response. you say that everything there is was created by God. so if there is death then by your logic God created death, right? but what does the Bible say about that. Wisdom 1:13 because God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living.

its very clear that God did not make death.

did God create demons?no , he created them as Holy Angels in Heaven. by their own freewill they opposed God their creator and corrupted their Holy nature.

just because something that God created became perverted or corrupted does not imply that he created the perverted or corrupted nature. God created everthing good, not death , not sin , not evil.

 

[Jason_W]

In the Garden of Eden, we could find there the Tree of Knowledge…Good and Evil…

Can we say that God did create evil?

Your opinion will be very much appreciated

We can say for sure that God created the TREE which held the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil.

we could say that God created that which became evil, but not that he created evil.

 

[Teflon93]

We can also say with certainty that God created people who seek every available excuse for our own evil actions, including blaming Him for our sins.

 

[fredms3]

Neither. I instead call your argument for being fallacious. You’re equivocating on the use of the term “exist.” What God created exists differently from the way sin exists. In a sense, sin doesn’t exis:; it is neither a material nor a spiritual substance but an action, distance from God, a breach in the heavenly relationship. Sin no more “exists” than a missed birthday, nor is any more “created” than a callous word or a blow to the face is “created.”

Because they couldn’t handle the consequences at that time. A stove is a good thing, and yet we don’t let toddlers play in it when it is hot. A car is a good thing, and yet we don’t let our children drive them until they are 15 and 1/2, and then only under close supervision. The ocean is a good thing, but you should never turn your back in it, nor leap in if you don’t know how to swim.

Yes Blaine,

But that doesn’t take away the truth about the presence of Good and Bad in the Garden of Eden

 

[fredms3]

We can say for sure that God created the TREE which held the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil.

we could say that God created that which became evil, but not that he created evil.

yes Jason,

What do you think is the reason of the presence of GOOD and BAD in the Garden of Eden?

 

[mardukm]

Remember God told Adam and Eve that they can eat the fruit of all the trees except from that tree of Knowledge…

I assume you are proposing that because God forbade eating from the fruit of the tree, the fruit of the tree must be evil?

If that’s the case, it’s not a logical conclusion. The “fruit” of the tree is actually a symbol for the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil itself. Now, the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil is not evil in and of itself. However, armed with that knowledge, man - because of free will - would then have the capacity to actually do evil. Ignorant of what evil is, man would not have the capacity to act it out.

Compare it to a container that is holding something that has the capacity for harm. A warning sign is put up that says: DON’T OPEN THIS CONTAINER. Does that mean that the container itself is bad?

Blessings,
Marduk