Evil — Does it really exist?
A university professor at a well-known institution of higher learning 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, he certainly did,” the student replied.
The professor replied, “If God created everything, then God created evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil.”
The student became quiet and did not respond to the professor’s hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that religious faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, “May I ask you a question, professor?”
“Of course,” replied the professor.
The student stood and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?”
“What kind of question is that? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?” laughed the professor.
The other 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. Every body or 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 Fahrenheit) is the total absence of heat, and 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 when we have no heat.”
The student continued, “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 wave lengths 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, “Does evil exist?”
Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the prevalence of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”
To this the student replied, “You are wrong once again. Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. Like the words darkness and cold, evil is a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. 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 dismissed the class.
The name of the young student? Albert Einstein. This story actually occurred.
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