Satan and Evil as the absence of good

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I just started reading “Why we’re Catholic” by Trent Horn. I’m really liking his writing style.

However, I’m having trouble fully wrapping my mind around his explanation of evil. He says that evil is simply the absence of good (and good = God), and God can allow evil to exist in order to bring about even greater goods. Those pieces make sense to me.

What I don’t get is where Satan fits in with this explanation of evil. If evil is simply the absence of good, then it makes me believe that evil can not be a force itself. So, where does that leave us in terms of Satan/demons? Doesn’t Satan=evil? Don’t we as Catholics believe that Satan is an evil force in the world?
 
MrsK0224 said:
I just started reading “Why we’re Catholic” by Trent Horn. I’m really liking his writing style.

However, I’m having trouble fully wrapping my mind around his explanation of evil. He says that evil is simply the absence of good (and good = God), and God can allow evil to exist in order to bring about even greater goods. Those pieces make sense to me.

What I don’t get is where Satan fits in with this explanation of evil. If evil is simply the absence of good, then it makes me believe that evil can not be a force itself. So, where does that leave us in terms of Satan/demons? Doesn’t Satan=evil? Don’t we as Catholics believe that Satan is an evil force in the world?
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Satan is not actually evil incarnate. Insofar as he actually exists as an angel, he is good. However, his will is ordered against his natural ends as an angel and he reject’s God’s will. It’s this lack of being what he should be, this voluntary and knowledgeable rejection of it, that he is evil, and is a force for promoting evil in the world. But being a force for evil in the world is not the same thing as being “evil itself.” Evil is not a force in itself, metaphysically speaking. But it’s not harmful to speak in that way poetically sometimes, or to make a point.
 
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MrsK0224 said:
I just started reading “Why we’re Catholic” by Trent Horn. I’m really liking his writing style.

However, I’m having trouble fully wrapping my mind around his explanation of evil. He says that evil is simply the absence of good (and good = God), and God can allow evil to exist in order to bring about even greater goods. Those pieces make sense to me.

What I don’t get is where Satan fits in with this explanation of evil. If evil is simply the absence of good, then it makes me believe that evil can not be a force itself. So, where does that leave us in terms of Satan/demons? Doesn’t Satan=evil? Don’t we as Catholics believe that Satan is an evil force in the world?
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The being of Satan is good. Even his power of intentionality is good. But what he intends with his power is evil. Sometimes it’s easier to understand Evil as a perversion of something that is good.
 
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Evil is the opposite of good as well as being the absence of good. It is both the absence of God’s goodness, filled instead with the presence of evil spirits etc.

Eg: metaphor of a basket of ripe healthy apples (representing Good things,) and poisoned apples (representing Evil things).

Is an empty basket evil? Um. No. It is when the good is absent and replaced with evil. (Evil is the presence of evil and the absence of good).

Is a chair evil? No. Can a good person or bad person sit in that chair? Yes.
Is an empty chair evil? No.
When a bad person sit’s in a chair, it is the absence of the good person and the replacement of it by the evil person.

Evil is an actual force, pushed by satan. ‘The devil who brought sin into the world.’ Exorcists have described manifestations of evil spirits: as ‘pure evil.’ It is not just emptiness, or the lack of the presence of God, but what is actually filling that emptiness instead,

Love is a being, =Jesus. ‘God is Love.’

Paradoxically evil is a thing, a force, beings (evil spirits),

Saint Augustine wrote: ‘There is a God shapes hole in each of us, that only God Himself can fill.’

Saint Thomas Aquinas or St Francis De La Salle I think, wrote: ‘If man cannot find pleasure in the things of the Spirit, he will turn to things of sinfulness.’

A priest I was listening to on youtube today put it like this:
‘A vacuum cleaner works on the science that it creates a vacuum inside that must be filled with something.

If the human being is not filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then it is prey to being filled with thing that evil spirit will suggest and prompt.’

It is what the space is filled with that makes it good or bad.

Bad is the absence of good , replaced with the prescence of bad.

Good is the absence of bad; replaced with the presence of good.
 
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Satan is no longer good. Nor can he do good. When the angels fell and choose their sides, they choose evil or good forever.
 
YoungCatholicGuy said:
Evil is the opposite of good as well as being the absence of good. It is both the absence of God’s goodness, filled instead with the presence of evil spirits etc.

Eg: metaphor of a basket of ripe healthy apples (representing Good things,) and poisoned apples (representing Evil things).

Is an empty basket evil? Um. No. It is when the good is absent and replaced with evil. (Evil is the presence of evil and the absence of good).

Is a chair evil? No. Can a good person or bad person sit in that chair? Yes.
Is an empty chair evil? No.
When a bad person sit’s in a chair, it is the absence of the good person and the replacement of it by the evil person.

Evil is an actual force, pushed by satan. ‘The devil who brought sin into the world.’ Exorcists have described manifestations of evil spirits: as ‘pure evil.’ It is not just emptiness, or the lack of the presence of God, but what is actually filling that emptiness instead,
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Your explanation doesn’t make sense to me. God is pure goodness, and God created all things visible and invisible. Your explanation necessitates that evil is a created thing/force in itself, which cannot be because God is the sole creator and cannot create evil. Therefore the only plausible explanation is that evil, by definition, is the absence of good.

An empty chair is still good, and even a chair holding up an “evil person” is still serving the purpose it was built for (to hold people).

There can be “evil spirits” in which case the force is derived by the spirit itself that has free will to act. If the spirit chooses to commit evil acts (that is, acts that are lacking goodness), then the spirit is the one that puts those evil acts in motion into the world. It’s not evil in itself.
 
MrsK0224 said:
… If evil is simply the absence of good, then it makes me believe that evil can not be a force itself. …
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Right. Evil is not a living animated essence per St. Basil, Hexaemeron (Homily 2)
It is equally impious to say that evil has its origin from God; because the contrary cannot proceed from its contrary. Life does not engender death; darkness is not the origin of light; sickness is not the maker of health. In the changes of conditions there are transitions from one condition to the contrary; but in genesis each being proceeds from its like, and not from its contrary. If then evil is neither uncreate nor created by God, from whence comes its nature? Certainly that evil exists, no one living in the world will deny. What shall we say then? Evil is not a living animated essence; it is the condition of the soul opposed to virtue, developed in the careless on account of their falling away from good.
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http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/32012.htm
 
IWantGod said:
evil is simply the absence of good
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I wonder how Trent Horn would explain the following passage from the Gospel of Matthew (8:28-34):
Jesus Casts Out Demons
28 When He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. 29 And they cried out, saying, “[a]What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” 30 Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a distance from them. 31 The demons began to entreat Him, saying, “If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.” 32 And He said to them, “Go!” And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters. 33 The herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported everything, [c]including what had happened to the demoniacs. 34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region.
 
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