Did God create evil?

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Not sure if this has been discussed before, but was wondering if God created evil? According to Hasidim, God did indeed create evil, but it’s important to note that the Jewish notion of evil differs considerable from the Catholic notion.

*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-Rheims). *
 
In one sense yes and in one sense no.

God created everything, therefore even evil things get their existence from God.

But everything God created is good.

Evil is not an existing thing, but is the lack of something.

God wills only good things, but allows evil to happen by not willing the opposed good.

However, God does not in any way will moral evil. Only rational creatures can do that.
 
Evil is not a thing, but an absence of a thing. Light does not create shadows… shadows happen when light is blocked. Because light exists… so does a shadow. Darkness is word that doesn’t describe something but a lack of something, a lack of light. Evil is the same… evil is when something gets in between good (God) and something else. Evil is the ‘shadow’ that happens when someone ‘stops’ good from flowing into the world.

Evil IS an absence of good.
 
Evil is a lack of a due good. All that God created is good. Evil cannot be “created,” since a lack cannot be created–to create is a positive action, to do evil is to undermine the goodness of something.

-ACEGC
 
Of course God didn’t create evil. But he created the opportunity for evil to exist by creating free will. Think about the difference in those statements.
 
One of those questions that make me break sweat and scared to choose a box!
If he did invent or create evil he also invented/created the will of Man to reject it.
 
All I can think of at present is that God gave us freewill and from the wrong choice of freewill comes evil, such as when Adam and Eve made the wrong choice.

As we have freewill we can choose evil instead of good. Evil has origins in our minds and the mind of Satan, from evil comes evil actions and evil results (for example murders, robbery and wars).

All I can say is we can’t blame God for our wrong choices.
 
Robert, isn’t it possible to interpret Isaiah in such a way that all the response so far are still correct?
 
Robert_Sock said:
Not sure if this has been discussed before, but was wondering if God created evil? According to Hasidim, God did indeed create evil, but it’s important to note that the Jewish notion of evil differs considerable from the Catholic notion.

*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-Rheims). *
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I think this verse means that G-d, who created everything, also created the evil inclination within mankind, as well as the good inclination. However, this evil inclination manifests itself not only in the temptation toward sin, when it is abused, but also in behavior necessary for one’s survival, such as eating, seeking shelter, self-defense, working to achieve, etc.
 
The way I understand it is, God created everything, there isn’t anything that wasn’t created by Him. God created angels, some of these angels fell through their choice, God did not create the fall. However this sometimes confuses me becuause if I remember correctly there are verses or at least a theology that angels don’t have free will but carry out the will of God. In any case, God doesn’t like “evil”, obviously, but in order for a people to be saved they first need saving, in order to be found you need to get lost first. We needed to see that we cannot save ourselves without God, that without Him we would fall in sin in the free will He ordained.

In order for a people to truly love God and come to know Him, you need to live as a faithful servant to Him in a world that has many distractions from His path. You can’t be on the right path if there aren’t wrong ones, its like the concept of the forbidden fruit. God created a world of choices and opportunity, He created the opportunity for people to do evil, while they have been punished in the past while on this earth and the after, there will be a time when it will not longer exist. So we see that God with His own authority will end “evil”. Our souls, those in Christ, will see the awesome power and glory of God and be brought into His presence where our souls will be pure because of Christs Blood and our faithful service.

In the end I would say God created evil to show His people that they truly need him, not to be cruel, but to show the way. It is simple, we can either reject Him and turn to the other opportunities presented to us, or be faithful servants and walk in the light He shows us.
 
None of us are avoiding Isiah 45:7. We are answering the understanding of it, the revelation of it. I want you to look carefully at that verse in itself.

It says I form light… then create darkness. Two different words. Then it says I cause well being, and create calamity(translated evil). By forming light, darkness became a possibility. Darkness exists because God formed light. Notice he didn’t form light and form darkness. He formed light. Darkness was created as a possibility because of that. He causes well being. CAUSES it. He is directly responsible for it. Because he caused well being, calamity is a possibility. It exists as a possibility because God made something good.

It’s also interesting to note that the word ‘and create’ has a root for choice. Free-will makes that very possibility a reality. Darkness can exist because something can get in the way of light. Evil can exist because something can get in the way of good.
 
meltzerboy said:
I think this verse means that G-d, who created everything, also created the evil inclination within mankind, as well as the good inclination. However, this evil inclination manifests itself not only in the temptation toward sin, when it is abused, but also in behavior necessary for one’s survival, such as eating, seeking shelter, self-defense, working to achieve, etc.
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👍
 
meltzerboy said:
I think this verse means that G-d, who created everything, also created the evil inclination within mankind, as well as the good inclination. However, this evil inclination manifests itself not only in the temptation toward sin, when it is abused, but also in behavior necessary for one’s survival, such as eating, seeking shelter, self-defense, working to achieve, etc.
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I’d say that, as the architect of free will, he made evil inevitable, even if he didn’t create it directly.
 
BrotherC said:
In one sense yes and in one sense no.

God created everything, therefore even evil things get their existence from God.

But everything God created is good.

Evil is not an existing thing, but is the lack of something.

God wills only good things, but allows evil to happen by not willing the opposed good.

However, God does not in any way will moral evil. Only rational creatures can do that.
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They could not have become evil unless they were ontologically good. Even Satan was good in his being. He was a very good thing gone very bad.

I think I understand what you may mean by your comment. But there is nothing that God created that is ontologically-that is “in its being”-evil. Nor does God’s knowledge that we would do evil mean that God created that evil. The evil we do comes from our free will, our choice, not God’s original plan.
 
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