Who Created Evil Essays - Sin, Theodicy, Philosophy Of Religion

Who Created Evil? Where did evil come from? Ever since the beginning of time our reality has been based on the conflict between good and evil. From the story of Adam and Eve to modern day and everything done by the human race has been a battle between these two. Many theologians and scholars have tried to argue the creation of evil. They question if God created it or if man and his perversion of the good created it. Still many have reached the conclusion that evil is man's perversion of God's great gift of free will. However, I do not agree. I believe that evil is inherent in man. I believe that God, whether directly or indirectly, created evil. St. Augustine was one of the great theologians in church history. He had the idea that man was inherently and totally good until the fall. After the fall, man was both good and evil. A dualistic thought, but nonetheless a very Christian statement because we now had the ability to sin. From that point on, man was not prone to evil, but was born with evil in him. This is what drives us to sin in the first place. How could we perverse a good without having that perverseness, evil, in us already? Augustine himself identifies with this in his famous story of the theft of the pears. When he stole those pears he didn't have ?any desire to enjoy the things [he] stole, but only the stealing of them and the sin.? What he's saying is that there was no reason for him to steal the pears, no need or desire. It was simply the fact that it was evil and sinful that drove him to commit his pointless theft. He realized that there was a side of him that was naturally drawn to the enjoyment of evil. He r ealized that he had evil in him. And that part of him is what delighted in sin. Augustine admitted that it could not have been a perversion of a good because if that were so, and he was naturally all good, then he would have felt remorse. He would not have felt such pleasure in the act. It was the evil that part of him craved. How could anyone enjoy such sin if it wasn't already in him or her? The reason is that he had evil in him, we all do. If we didn't, then we wouldn't sin. Some would say that we are good and the gift of free choice allows us to sin. But if that were true, then we still wouldn't sin. How would we be able to perverse good if the ability to do it isn't in us? The ability and desire too perverse is evil. So if we do possess that ability and desire then we must possess evil. This paradox goes back a long time before Augustine. It goes back a long time before man. The angels themselves were created as beings of worship for the Lord. After an extensive search of the bible, I have failed to locate any passage that explains the creation of the angels. Nowhere in the bible does it state whether or not angels have free will. Assume that they do have free will, Lucifer and his angels' chose freely when they decided to go against the Lord. This choice of Lucifer's is not documented at any point in the bible. When the war in Heaven broke out it was divided into two sides, God's and Lucifer's. Michael, God's general, won the battle. Lucifer and his minions were cast down from the heavens. From this time on Lucifer would be known as the very epitome of evil. Since then it has seemed that all evil has originated from Lucifer, Satan. The part of the story that seems to be a bit odd is that God, as we understand him, is all knowing. Augustine described God as having ? supreme knowledge of all things.? So if the Lord were all knowing, then he would know that Satan and his angels would rebel. He would know that Satan would be evil and bring evil in to the world. In this sense God created