How evil came into existence?

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angelheart

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Hello,

I would like to know how evil came into existence. I am currently taking a philosphy course, and I have an assignment regarding the question in the title. I am also asking this question because I am interested…i never really thought about it before. Why did God create evil? Do angels have free will?

I would really appreciate some answers.

Thank you,

Stefania
 
angelheart said:
Hello,

I would like to know how evil came into existence. I am currently taking a philosphy course, and I have an assignment regarding the question in the title. I am also asking this question because I am interested…i never really thought about it before. Why did God create evil? Do angels have free will?

I would really appreciate some answers.

Thank you,

Stefania
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Are you sure this wouldn’t count as cheating?😛
 
angelheart said:
Hello,

I would like to know how evil came into existence. I am currently taking a philosphy course, and I have an assignment regarding the question in the title. I am also asking this question because I am interested…i never really thought about it before. Why did God create evil? Do angels have free will?

I would really appreciate some answers.

Thank you,

Stefania
Click to expand...
God hasn’t created evil!

Read Exodus 1:31! Everything He created was good!

Angels and archangels are more perfect creation than men. They have the reason and will, too. The reason is given to men to distinct good from evil. If we didn’t have reason we wouldn’t be created in image of God.

The fallen angel directed his will against God, in his haughtiness and envy, so he changed his nature. The haughtiness changed his nature. It isn’t God whom created him evil, it’s his will that made him change.

So it’s our arch-enemy that is the source of evil.

God is the source of good.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I did not know that angels have reason and will…now it makes sense that God didn’t create evil.

Thank you again.

Stefania
 
Note that philosophically evil, dark and cold do not exist. They are just the absence of good, light and heat. Thus they were not created - one cannot create darkness; one can only exclude light. When good was rejected the emptyness was termed evil.
 
angelheart said:
Thanks for the reply.

I did not know that angels have reason and will…now it makes sense that God didn’t create evil.

Thank you again.

Stefania
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An important point to remember: evil first conquered the spiritual, the angels, before it conquered the physical, man.

Also God created heaven, but He did not create Hell, His creatures did by trying to cease to be by turned away from the source of Life.
 
orthodoxlurker said:
The fallen angel directed his will against God, in his haughtiness and envy, so he changed his nature. The haughtiness changed his nature. It isn’t God whom created him evil, it’s his will that made him change.
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I’m not sure what you mean by the angel changing his nature. How did this change the angels nature? from what to what? Did Adam’s nature change when he turned his will against God through his disobedience?
 
angelheart said:
I would like to know how evil came into existence… Why did God create evil? Do angels have free will?
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Evil came into the world as a result of freedom, because God is Love, and love outside of absolute freedom is not love. So that when Adam turned away from God and toward the Serpent in obedience to the serpent and to self-love [vanity], thereby Satan came to exercise [temporary] rulership over this fallen world…

Now God did not create evil, but certain of His creaated beings did in their freedom… Angels have free will, as does man, and you really must admit, that whether directed toward good or evil, toward one thing or another, the willfulness of man has never been in question… And as well, the committedness of will of the Angels is NOT a lack of free will - In other words, a free will does not require that it occassionally choose evil just to prove that it is still free… Indeed, such a choosing LOSES its freedom, as Adam so dreadfully demonstrated… And becomes a slave to passions and their evils…

So that evil is to be understood as the turning away from the source of good, Who is God, and since God is the source of life, to turn away is to embrace death, and communion with death is evil…

Arsenios
 
Isa_Almisry said:
Also God created heaven, but He did not create Hell, His creatures did by trying to cease to be by turned away from the source of Life.
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Be caucios, my brother, not to draw hasty conclusions, I think you are on the edge of it.

Wheter Heavens/Heavenly Kingdom is already created or not is not something I’m able to attest. I’m not sure we can assert if that’s a place or a condition now. We know the fullness of Heavenly Kingdom will be established upon resurrection and judgment, so both souls and resurrected bodies will experience it. But Enoch and Elias are there, as St. John of Damascus (chapter 99, on Antichrist) in Exact exposition… says. The (pseudo) Council of Florence bears also an interesting witness, where Carholics certified the SAints are already in Heavens, while Orthodox first said they wouldn’t know about it, but afterwards agreed with Catholic position.

Full experience of Hell will also occur after the resurrection and judgment, so bodies will experience it, too. But we also have the story about Lazarus and the rich man. I still don’t know if it is the place or a condition now, and nobody knows what would it be after the Judgment.

So I’m not sure we should say He did not create Hell anticipating He will not create it.

It’s fine to use reason and logic, as long as we are not speculating about what’s not been revealed to us.
 
deaconjim said:
I’m not sure what you mean by the angel changing his nature. How did this change the angels nature? from what to what? Did Adam’s nature change when he turned his will against God through his disobedience?
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You’ve got me off guard!

I should not have used “the nature”, or, for that matter, “the substance” or “the essence”, in the first place.

The haughtiness is root of all sins.

So, explaining how exactly the fallen angel changed would require at least pride and a very high self-esteem from my part, drawing me dangerously close to haughtiness.

Adam and Eve changed after the sin since God allowed they become mortal, so their sinfullness would not become immortal in them, torturing them ethearnally. Was that the change of “nature”, “substance” or “essence” is beyond my possibilities to comprehend.
 
Joe_Kelley said:
Note that philosophically evil, dark and cold do not exist. They are just the absence of good, light and heat. Thus they were not created - one cannot create darkness; one can only exclude light. When good was rejected the emptyness was termed evil.
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This is fine explanation.

St. Dionisios (referred to as “Pseudo-Dionisios” by recent RCC scholars) and St. Gregory of Nyssa developed that concept. Evil as lack of good. Dark as lack of light. Minus as lack of plus.

But the existance of fallen angels warns us they are not just absence of angels. The existence of devil warns us it isn’t just lack of God. Not anymore.
 
deaconjim said:
I’m not sure what you mean by the angel changing his nature. How did this change the angels nature? from what to what? Did Adam’s nature change when he turned his will against God through his disobedience?
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Angels are each a separate universe: they do not eat, procreate etc. As such, their nature is not malleable, changing, unlike man who eats, procreates etc. and by virtue of that is caught in a web of relationships with other creations.

Once the angel falls, not being capable of change, its corrupted nature becomes its nature. Unlike man, who is fallen by history and not essence.

As the Fathers say: it is the nature of angels not to fall, of demons to fall and not get up, of man to fall and get up.🙂
 
orthodoxlurker said:
Be caucios, my brother, not to draw hasty conclusions, I think you are on the edge of it.

Wheter Heavens/Heavenly Kingdom is already created or not is not something I’m able to attest. I’m not sure we can assert if that’s a place or a condition now. We know the fullness of Heavenly Kingdom will be established upon resurrection and judgment, so both souls and resurrected bodies will experience it. But Enoch and Elias are there, as St. John of Damascus (chapter 99, on Antichrist) in Exact exposition… says. The (pseudo) Council of Florence bears also an interesting witness, where Carholics certified the SAints are already in Heavens, while Orthodox first said they wouldn’t know about it, but afterwards agreed with Catholic position.

Full experience of Hell will also occur after the resurrection and judgment, so bodies will experience it, too. But we also have the story about Lazarus and the rich man. I still don’t know if it is the place or a condition now, and nobody knows what would it be after the Judgment.

So I’m not sure we should say He did not create Hell anticipating He will not create it.

It’s fine to use reason and logic, as long as we are not speculating about what’s not been revealed to us.
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Just as cold, darkness and evil have no existence, but are brought about by absences of heat, light and God, so too the origins of Hell. As Losky points out God is the I AM, the source of existence. That’s why when He warned of the forbidden fruit, He didn’t say “Eat it and I will kill you,” but “Eat it and you will die.” Adam pulled his own plug out.

As such the sinner is a being who is trying to obliterate his being by cutting himsefl off from the Author of Being. Such is the origin of Hell, both in its anticpated state, and the finality of it after the Last Judgment.
 
Montalban said:
I don’t get this reference
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I assume (with all that that entails, assUme) that you get down under.

MoveOn.org started as a liberal group (so called bipartisan) that wanted Congress to “move on” past Clinton’s impeachment (i.e. drop it). It is interesting that their main animus seems to be the 2000 election. Get over it. Bush won. Move on.

They are among the most bizarre of the Bush haters here. And we have very strange bush haters.
 
orthodoxlurker said:
This is fine explanation.

St. Dionisios (referred to as “Pseudo-Dionisios” by recent RCC scholars) and St. Gregory of Nyssa developed that concept. Evil as lack of good. Dark as lack of light. Minus as lack of plus.

But the existance of fallen angels warns us they are not just absence of angels. The existence of devil warns us it isn’t just lack of God. Not anymore.
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I’m not sure I’m clear on this. Just because a demon performs evil works and leads men to desire evil things doesn’t seem to me to automatically mean their evil still isn’t anymore than the absence of something. A demon I would think is not an absence of “angel” but an angel lacking something.
Or quite opossibly I am misun derstanding what you are saying.
 
Isa_Almisry said:
I assume (with all that that entails, assUme) that you get down under.

MoveOn.org started as a liberal group (so called bipartisan) that wanted Congress to “move on” past Clinton’s impeachment (i.e. drop it). It is interesting that their main animus seems to be the 2000 election. Get over it. Bush won. Move on.

They are among the most bizarre of the Bush haters here. And we have very strange bush haters.
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Here the bush is the outback.

But without wishing to derail the thread the remarks were against the whole of G W Buhs’ career, from business deals with Bin Laden, on to the fake WMDs.

If you wish to respond, please feel free, but 'cause I don’t wish to derail the thread I can not respond further here.
 
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