Is it logically possible?

[cpayne]

St. Basil, a Doctor of the Church, made it quite simple 800 years before St. Thomas Aquinas made it difficult.

“Reality is subtle rather than simple.” G.K. Chesterton

 

[DanteAlighieri]

The Catholic Dictionary defines Evil as: A condition resulting from some imperfection

If you mean by “Evil” that something is Bad then logically speaking; if something is “Bad”, that is a description of a good thing that is not doing what it’s supposed to do. i.e. a banana that has gone “bad” means that it is inedible, and therefore does not fulfil it’s purpose; or a young boy who is disobedient to his parents is refered to as having “bad” behaviour. An angel that was created to Worship God, but chooses not to would also be defined as “bad”. All of these examples, and any others that I can think of, presumes that all things were created good.

Exactly.

Evil is a privation of good. Privation cannot be the first cause of anything.

Peace,
Dante

 

[Mirdath]

What ideas of evil? And are they coherent?

Problematic as the Thomistic view is (it’s hard to discuss something like the Holocaust in Thomistic terms), I find more Manichean views far more problematic.

Well, I have been talking up the gnostics quite a bit, so…

 

[w_stewart]

I learned so much from you guys. Keep it coming.