Is Evil Created by God? A Powerful Classroom Debate

A professor at a university presented the following question to his students: “Is everything that exists created by God?”

One of the students answered bravely, “Yes, it was created by God.”

“God created everything?” the professor asked.

“Yes, sir,” the student replied.

The professor continued, “If God created everything, that means He also created evil, since evil exists. According to the principle that our actions define who we are, God must therefore be evil.”

The student fell silent after hearing this response.

At this point the professor was very pleased with himself. He boasted to the class that he had once again proven that belief in God is a myth.

A Student Challenges the Argument

Another student raised his hand and said, “May I ask a question?”

“Of course,” the professor replied.

The student stood up and asked, “Does cold exist?”

“What kind of question is that? Have you never been cold?” The students laughed at the young man’s question.

Is Cold a Real Thing?

The young man continued, “In fact, sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is actually the absence of heat. A person or object can be studied according to whether it possesses or transmits energy. Absolute zero, minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit, is the complete absence of heat. All matter at that temperature becomes inactive and incapable of reaction. Cold does not exist. We created that word to describe how we feel when heat is absent.”

What About Darkness?

The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?”

The professor replied, “Of course it exists.”

The student answered, “Sir, you are mistaken again. Darkness does not exist. Darkness is actually the absence of light. We can study light, but not darkness. We can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the different wavelengths of each color. But we cannot measure darkness. A simple beam of light can enter a dark space and illuminate it.”

“How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present, do you not? Darkness is simply a concept people use to describe what happens when light is absent.”

Does Evil Truly Exist?

Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?”

This time the professor answered uncertainly, “Of course. As I have already said, we see it every day. Cruelty between people, countless crimes and acts of violence throughout the world. These things are nothing but examples of evil.”

The student replied, “Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist by itself. Evil is the absence of God. It is similar to darkness and cold, a word created by people to describe the absence of God.”

“God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith and love, which exist like light and heat. Evil is the result of the absence of God’s love in a person’s heart. It is like cold, which comes when there is no heat, or like darkness, which appears when there is no light.”

The professor fell silent and sat down.

P.S. The student’s name was Albert Einstein.