jim orr:
So, are you saying evil is done by good people? Or are you saying evil does not exist? Or are you saying evil is created by a good person who makes a mistake? Or are you saying evil is a force that is promoted by Satan? Or are you saying Satan does not exit? Or are you saying God permits evil because he loves us? Just exactly what are you saying about evil? If it is not created, then where does it come from?
The Catholic Encyclopedia says this
newadvent.org/cathen/05649a.htm
Christian philosophy has, like the Hebrew, uniformly attributed moral and physical evil to the action of created free will. Man has himself brought about the evil from which he suffers by transgressing the
law of God, on obedience to which his happiness depended. Evil is in created things under the aspect of mutability, and possibility of defect, not as existing *per se *: and the errors of mankind, mistaking the true conditions of its own well-being, have been the cause of moral and physical evil (Dion. Areop., De Div. Nom., iv, 31; St. Aug., De Civ. Dei. xii). The evil from which man suffers is, however, the condition of good, for the sake of which it is permitted. Thus, “
God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist” (St. Aug., Enchirid., xxvii). Evil contributes to the perfection of the universe, as shadows to the perfection of a picture, or harmony to that of music (De Civ. Dei,xi). Again, the excellence of
God’s works in nature is insisted on as evidence of the Divine wisdom, power, and goodness, by which no evil can be directly caused. (Greg. Nyss., De. opif. hom.) Thus
Boethius asks (De Consol. Phil., I, iv) Who can be the author of good, if
God is the author of evil? As darkness is nothing but the absence of light, and is not produced by creation, so evil is merely the defect of goodness. (St. Aug., In Gen. as lit.)
St. Basil (Hexaem., Hom. ii) points out the educative purposes served by evil; and
St. Augustine, holding evil to be permitted for the punishment of the wicked and the trial of the good, shows that it has, under this aspect, the nature of good, and is pleasing to
God, not because of what it is, but because of where it is; i.e. as the penal and just consequence of sin (De Civ. Dei, XI, xii, De Vera Relig. xliv). Lactantius uses similar arguments to oppose the dilemma, as to the omnipotence and goodness of
God, which he puts into the mouth of Epicurus (De Ira Dei, xiii).
St. Anselm (Monologium) connects evil with the partial manifestation of good by creation; its fullness being in
God alone.
In simpler language there is this
pytlik.com/observe/deliverus/evil-02.html
Many people believe that since God created all things, He must also have created evil. How did it come about if not created by God?
Code:
Apologist [Greg Koukl](http://www.str.org/free/commentaries/apologetics/evil/agoodrea.htm) offers insight into this commonly asked question. He points out that evil is not a created "thing" but the absence of a thing. This analogy originated with St. Augustine and was further developed by Thomas Aquinas. Consider the issues of light or temperature. Black is not a thing; it is the absence of light. Light is a thing, made up of particles or waves. Take away the created 'thing' and the result is black--*nothing.* Temperature works the same way. Cold is not a thing, but the absence of heat, which is a created thing. Take away the element of physical motion which creates heat as we know it and you are left with cold. Cold is not created, neither is darkness. They are the absence of the created things. Evil, then, is not a created thing, but the absence of good.
Obviously this is a simplistic comparison, because it doesn’t take into account the inherent energy of evil–its motivation and purpose as part of a spiritual battle. But I don’t believe that difference disqualifies the analogy.