Does evil exist?

[Dadball]

I know this is a cyber myth, but it sounds good.

This has a thought provoking message no matter how you believe. Does evil exist?

The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists?
A student bravely replied yes, he did!"
"God created everything?" The professor asked.
"Yes, sir," the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil."
The student became quiet before such an answer.


The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.


Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question professor?" "Of course", replied the professor. The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"


"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?" The students snickered at the young man's question.


The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Everybody and every object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (- 460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have too little heat.


The student continued. "Professor, does darkness exist?"


The professor responded, "Of course it does".


The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."


Finally the young man asked the professor. "Sir, does evil exist?"


Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. "These manifestations are nothing else but evil."


To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love, that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."


The professor sat down.


The young mans name --- Albert Einstein

 

[jewscout]

Dadball i've read this several times, muslims even use it and replace everything christian w/ islam.

 

[painted wolf]

Evil the label that a culture puts on an activity that it doesn't approve of. The definition of Evil changes from culture to culture and circumstance to circumstance. Thus Evil as a definitive something does not exist and neither does Good.

wa:do

 

[killah247]

evil is an option...u dnt have to do it bt it givz you the option?

 

[jewscout]

Evil the label that a culture puts on an activity that it doesn't approve of. The definition of Evil changes from culture to culture and circumstance to circumstance. Thus Evil as a definitive something does not exist and neither does Good.

I'd say society puts the label of "wrong" on things it doesn't approve of. Evil, i think anyways, is a whole different thing. I mean in America smoking pot is wrong...not Evil. The nazis were Evil, Stalin was Evil.

 

[Feathers in Hair]

I liked that you prefaced that with the 'cyber-myth' disclaimer, but I like the story, and the fact that someone had to think of that theory. It is a wonderful way of putting into words what I feel!

 

[painted wolf]

Ok.... Not that I'm defending them (I'm not) but I'm shure if you asked the Nazi's or Stalin they would say that they were not evil themselves but fighting thier own brand of perceived evil... however twisted that perception is. Few people would look uppon thier own actions as Evil or unjustified.

wa:do

 

[jewscout]

Very true Wolf.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

This has a thought provoking message no matter how you believe.

And my thought was: How could anybody write such drivel?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

For whoever issued the warning: "dishonest drivel" was, in fact, the thought it provoked. That characterization was directed at the author, and not at anyone on this board.

Feel free to disagree with the characterization. I certainly disagree with your method of defending it.

 

[Ceridwen018]

I would have to say that heat and light are a far cry from love and faith. Heat and light are tangible, whereas love and faith, in and of themselves, are not. It's a nice little analogy, but it doesn't really hold up.

 

[painted wolf]

too true Ceridwen, one can not adiquately compair something as fickle as emotion to something as definite and measurable as heat. That is the problem with metaphore, sometimes it does its job and makes you think in new ways and sometimes it just muddies the waters, so to speak. Mostly the muddiness comes from trying to look at metaphore too literally.

wa:do

 

[Lonely Traveller]

Evil would be defined as all those things incompatible with the concept of heaven. Under that definition there are no degrees..only yes or no. This of course is a very hard and fast rule that not too many people would find the degree of freedom they would like to have within the concept. As a result we try to water it down so that it becomes easier for us to meet the criteria but without at the same time accepting that the standard of heaven will diminish relative to the standard entrance test.

Earth you will find in the fullness of time is identical to heaven..for it represents the collective average standard of acceptability. The exact standards we would exhibit if we were in heaven we are demonstrating now, and it is on the "now" that we shall be judged.

For evil to be a stand alone concept you would have to argue that only those with absolutely no virtue would be entitled to reside in Hell. Clearly hell does not conceptually apply such a rigorous standard, in fact it seems prepared to accept anybody it can into its ranks, even ones with some good to offer.

Hell therefore must be the place which contains all those not meeting the heavenly standard test. Any person or thing that degrades the concept of heaven in any way would be excluded.

I dont claim to be God, but if I was then the only solution I would have is to create a paralell universe each time a species in the last universe / earth I created demonstrated an example that could enter heaven. The new universe would then contain the harmony that existed before the addition of the new species as well as examples of the new species that demonstrate the ability to live in harmony with heaven.

This leaves all those imperfect souls self contained in their own world where they can choose to become more perfect in the direction of the heavenly ideal or remain where they are which will increasingly come to represent the incarnation of hell caused by the imperfections that logically lead it to become that way ie less ideally desireable and closer to the point of hellish.

I belive I could substantiate this view even from your perspective. Is the Earth becoming better or worse with the rise of industrialisation which is substantively interupting the natural balance that pre existed before the industrial revolution ?

Only by proving in this world that you are capable of living in the next one without diminishing it can you pass the entrance test.

Some people can go backwards and forwards..but I have no way of proving that other to say that heaven is as wonderful as the greatest mind conceives..and until you allow this world to be created in the same way mankind will never reach its full potential.

Thats just my opinion though.

 

[Lonely Traveller]

All statements should be taken literally..thats the only way you can discover truth..for literally is the truth.

Eg a politician says "I will finish the unfinished business and keep the backhoes and bobcats out of the Daintree" (the last of the worlds oldest ecosystem)

Should this statement be taken literally..and if you relax the standard of "literal" what will be the result ?

 

[painted wolf]

who's standard of Heaven do we use? My religion has no hell so then what do I use as my standard?

This is why it is difficult at best to pin down a definition of 'evil'.

wa:do

 

[SSN]

very good

 

[stemann]

I'd say society puts the label of "wrong" on things it doesn't approve of. Evil, i think anyways, is a whole different thing. I mean in America smoking pot is wrong...not Evil. The nazis were Evil, Stalin was Evil.

I can't believe how you start out so logically, then contradict yourself! What basis do you have for claiming the NAZIs or Stalin were Evil? I could claim anything was evil; the first part of your quote was logical, your concept of evil is defined by society and your conscience.

I liked that you prefaced that with the 'cyber-myth' disclaimer, but I like the story, and the fact that someone had to think of that theory. It is a wonderful way of putting into words what I feel!

That theory was made about 2000 years ago by Iraneas, who cliamed that evil was a privation (ie not an actual thing, just an absence of good). Actually it might have been Saint Augustine, I can't remember exactly, it was someon aroun the 2nd-5th Centuries AD anyway.

Although I'm not claiming that Einstein didn't come up with this independently; for all I know he might have.

 

[standing_on_one_foot]

I can't believe how you start out so logically, then contradict yourself! What basis do you have for claiming the NAZIs or Stalin were Evil? I could claim anything was evil; the first part of your quote was logical, your concept of evil is defined by society and your conscience.

Anything else you can really define it by? I don't think it means it doesn't exist. Even if it is something constructed by society. Things like language and money are constructed by society too, and don't have outside meanings, and I think they're real. Society needs right and wrong. Maybe it doesn't exist outside of humans (I mean, does the universe really care that much about what we do? Probably not), but that doesn't invalidate it. It just isn't as easy as it being something that exists without us. I still hold that the Golden Rule's a decent starting point.

 

[AtheistAJ]

Although I'm not claiming that Einstein didn't come up with this independently; for all I know he might have.

That young man couldn't have been Albert Einstein, or at least the one I'm thinking about, as when asked in a letter by a child does he pray and if so to who, Einstein said. "...every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe - a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is indeed quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.". So I doubt he would have generalized the word "god" like you portray he has.
Anyway I see your story contradicting if you're trying to prove Christianity, as if provided "evil" is purely lack of "good", than devils do not exist. But it's only religion that portrays god as love, so scientifically it is not proven "god" is the source of love. Which leads me to my next point, "love" or more correctly emotions are all in the brain. People who are missing that part of brain have none, and there can't be complete lack of temperature. Even-460 degrees is some temperature, as the way dictionary describes temperature - "The degree of hotness or coldness of a body or environment.". Which proves emotions and elements are not related. If anything, sharing of emotions is "love" as emotions are the source of love, so the only way love can be transmitted is between living things. If god is love, and "love" is in your brain, than god is but in your brain.
But I don't think you should have swatted words "good" and "God". And whatever happened to the textbook correctness of the young man when he said "love is in the heart"?

Also, the Genesis nowhere states that light and heat are related, as according to it's interpretation of creationism, plants that absorb light to live were existent before it's creation, and light and stars being the source of heat were created separately.

 

[Katzpur]

I don't care if it's true or not. I don't care who said it. I thought it was a great story. It's one I'm going to hang on to.