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.
Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits
energy, and heat is what makes a body of 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 no 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 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 that 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 crimes 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 do 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 man's name--Albert Einstein.
