I think you two are speaking of two different things.
You are speaking about what evil IS.
Rohzek wants to know where evil comes from. It can’t come from the devil. The devil embodies evil. He is a liar and a thief, he encourages us to do evil (The Screwtape Letters - very good) .
So now we have satan. Okay. Why did he fall? Where did he get the pride you speak of in your last post?
I go back even further in time than Rohzek. He feels A and E’s environment outside of the garden contributed to their concup. That means the outside world was imperfect and in a bad state of affairs. Even if we conceed that, where did all that evil come from?
God bless
God gave his creatures the angels and man, the capability of not loving Him.
There can be no expression of love without this free choice. The first angel fell to pride and the other angels were influenced by that, and then Eve and Adam. St. Thomas discusses the first angelic sin:
Summa Theologica, I, Q63, (excerpts):*A2 - Whether only the sin of pride and envy can exist in an angel?
*But there can be no sin when anyone is incited to good of the spiritual order; unless in such affection the rule of the superior be not kept. Such is precisely the sin of pride–not to be subject to a superior when subjection is due. Consequently the first sin of the angel can be none other than pride. *
A3 -Whether the devil desired to be as God?
*It is said, in the person of the devil (Isaiah 14:13-14), “I will ascend into heaven . . . I will be like the Most High.” And Augustine (De Qu. Vet. Test. cxiii) says that being “inflated with pride, he wished to be called God.”
… he sought to have final beatitude of his own power, whereas this is proper to God alone.
Since, then, what exists of itself is the cause of what exists of another, it follows from this furthermore that he sought to have dominion over others; wherein he also perversely wished to be like unto God. *
A5 - Whether the devil was wicked by the fault of his own will in the first instant of his creation?*
It is written (Genesis 1:31): “God saw all the things that He had made, and they were very good.” But among them were also the demons. Therefore the demons were at some time good.
A6 -Whether there was any interval between the creation and the fall of the angel?
I answer that, There is a twofold opinion on this point. But the more probable one, which is also more in harmony with the teachings of the Saints, is that the devil sinned at once after the first instant of his creation. This must be maintained if it be held that he elicited an act of free-will in the first instant of his creation, and that he was created in grace; as we have said (62, 3). For since the angels attain beatitude by one meritorious act, as was said above (Question 62, Article 5), if the devil, created in grace, merited in the first instant, he would at once have received beatitude after that first instant, if he had not placed an impediment by sinning.
If, however, it be contended that the angel was not created in grace, or that he could not elicit an act of free-will in the first instant, then there is nothing to prevent some interval being interposed between his creation and fall.
A7 -Whether the highest angel among those who sinned was the highest of all?
But if the motive for sinning be considered, we find that it existed in the higher angels more than in the lower. For, as has been said (2), the demons’ sin was pride; and the motive of pride is excellence, which was greater in the higher spirits. Hence Gregory says that he who sinned was the very highest of all. This seems to be the more probable view: because the angels’ sin did not come of any proneness, but of free choice alone. Consequently that argument seems to have the more weight which is drawn from the motive in sinning. Yet this must not be prejudicial to the other view; because there might be some motive for sinning in him also who was the chief of the lower angels.
