http://www.good-will.ch/

Did God create everything that exists? Does evil exist? Did God create evil?
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 answered, "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 answer the professor's hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian 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 up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?"

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 F) 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 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 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 everyday. It is in the daily examples 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 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




Another approach would be to realize that no consensus exists over what is good and evil in a given situation. Some people believe that capital punishment is evil because it terminates a person's life prematurely usually without the person's consent. Other feel that it is good because its use lowers the area's homicide rate.Some believe that spanking children is good because it is mandated by the God's Word, the Bible, and because it is the only effective method of disciplining children. Others feel that spanking is evil because they feel it terrorizes children and realize that it causes higher rates of depression, anxiety acohol and drug abuse among adults who were spanked as children.The leaders of Nazi Germany felt that the Jewish holocaus was a noble calling that would make a major contribution to the betterment of Europeon society by making the area Juden-Frei (free of Jews). Essentially everyone today condemns the Holocaust and all other forms of genocide as the most serious evil possible.Some feel that same sex marriage is a profound evil because if it becomes widely available, more people will choose to become homosexual, and because it will damage and destroy the institute of marriage. Others feel that same-sex marriage is good because it extends all of the advantages of marriage to persons with a homosexual or bisexual orientation, and would lower the level of anti gay bigotry.[/font][font="trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica"]There are obviously very different views of good and evil in the world. Most individuals probably believe that absolute truth exists for them, and perhaps even for their culture and religious denomination or tradition. But when comparing the absolute truths as claimed by different individuals, cultures, and denominations, we observe great diversity and much mutual exclusivity. There is no agreement on what is good and what is evil. http://www.religioustolerance.org/culeins.htm

As a christian I am often asked to prove God's exsistence. Now that is not possible , only in ones heart will they know without a doubt and while that and faith can't be proven that doesn't make it any less real. Its like air you can't see it but you know its there. I came across this article and thought it was interresting. What do you think of Einsteins therory? Always a pleasure

There is no agreement on what is good and what is evil.

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Sorry I do have to disagree here. There are a few things that we all agree is evil murder, and theft are the two that pops to mind.

I really hate these little scenarios that are often passed around by Christians. They irk me the way they are worded like soft wimpy poor old student and the pretentious stuffy professor and the snickering of the classmates. Its SO PUT ON. Its annoying.

Sorry though, back to your discussion.

Very good read and enjoyed it

A man told his grandson: "A terrible fight is going on inside me -- a fight between two wolves. One is evil, and represents hate, anger, arrogance, intolerance, and superiority . The other is good, and represents joy, peace, love, tolerance, understanding, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, and compassion. This same fight is going on inside you, inside every other person too."

The grandson then asked: "Which wolf will win?" The old man replied simply: "The one you feed." Anon.



Sorry about the title I messed up the mods will fix it though.

Yes you do have a valid point how else can we explain the murders and child abusers if we can't call them the true evil they are?


Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed it I did too, Always a pleasure

This story is fake. There is no documentation of this ever happening in Einstein's life, but has become a popular chain mail message passed around the internet.

and

I came-- though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents -- to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve.



Why do you write to me "God should punish the English"? I have no close connection to either one or the other. I see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of His children for their numerous stupidities, for which only He Himself can be held responsible; in my opinion, only His nonexistence could excuse Him.


My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment.


--Albert Einstein

I think the bible demonstrates that god is just as evil as everyone else, so that argument doesn't work. Good and evil are just names we give to things.

Also Einstein was not a theist, so he wouldn't go on about the "gods love in your heart" thing.

Good and evil are matters of perspective and opinion. Most of what you consider good and evil depends greatly on situation and context. You will find events in your that you will not be able to clearly describe as good or evil. Small good actions can cause greater bad consequences. Sometimes things can be both bad and good at the same time. There are things that can be considered neither good or evil.

Good and evil/right and wrong are just concepts in our heads.

For example
I steal all your money. You will think its evil but I may think its good because I now have more money.
I murder a murderer. Murder is wrong but I believe that by killing one I saved many.
I give money to a poor guy. Perceived as a good deed...poor guy uses my money to buy a gun and kill somebody. Not so good of a deed anymore.
Man rapes women in an alley. Three people watch it happen from a window. They don't help which is a good thing, they don't stop it thats a bad thing. They fear that they may be harmed if they act so they do nothing, Self preservation is a good thing.
Cookies make you fat and that is a bad thing but they taste yummy which is a good thing. Are cookies good or bad?

The thread title is misleading and wrong. One, Einstein didn't actually say that. Two, the OP isn't trying to prove God exists but trying to prove that God isn't evil. So the answer to the question is by default no. Its also in all caps and I don't know why.

and therefore it is pointless to post.

What?? ......where you waiting on something added to the fact that....no.documentation of this ever happening in Einstein's life, its just used as spam mail!!! <--what else can be added???

actually that's an old native american saying !

I know i thought it was good.

Haha, I love the fact that someone made that story up and apparently put Einstein's name on it in order to make it look credible. Although I do wonder how that's supposed to prove the existence of god? It only 'proves' that, assuming the Christian god is real, he didn't necessarily create evil.

Here are some things that Einstein actually said:

"I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind."

"God does not play dice with the universe".

Einstein saw the order and majesty of the universe and labelled whatever it was that caused the order, god. He did not believe in a personal god at all.

Yahweh plainly states in the Old Testament that He is responsible for good and evil. He also states that he is jealous, and that the first born child and animals of every female of the Hebrew "belonged to him" (sacrifices), though later, he accepted treasure in lieu of human prey. This doesn't seem like a loving God, but then, half the ancient chrisitian world as well as the Persian believed he was a dragon and demiurge. And actually this makes a lot of sense, for it was recorded at least a 1000 year earlier that a Sumerian "Dragon God" did all the things Yahweh does in the Book of Genesis. And even in the Bible he is described as a winged, fire breathing that demands a daily supply of sheep and cattle.

Reap as you sow.

Good and evil are quite simply different ways to act, one giving you better things back, the other giving you worse things back.

Positive attracts positive in this case, and negative attracts negative (opposite of what a magnet would do)

These are govern by universal laws that are beyond our control just as natural laws.

Like the guy who said it is good for him to steal some money even though its bad for the person who owned the money. But in the end, when the cops find out who stole the money and puts him in jail where he most likely will not have a pleasent time, it came back to him and its not so good for him any more. In addition, the person who got the money stolen, his friends and family, the thief's friend and family, will have a bad opinion and relationship to him after, which further increases the bad getting back at him.

Same with the case of him being a murder killing another murder - he may have saved some people, but at same time condemned himself by most likely ending up in jail - and for quite some time, and again this is not good for him. Here to the opinion about the murderer from his friends and family, the friends and family of the murdered, and the public etc will most likely not be of the positive kind after. In addition the murderer may develop guilt and hatred towards himself for what he have done. So may he in the above example with the money.

So even if the bad/evil thing seemed good for the moment, in the end the result will be bad for the wrongdoer.

That's the law. A spiritual law that manifests in the physical, as well as it may manifest in the mental and astral.

Tried and tested

The bible thumpers will tell you differently... but coming to the theme, I think Einstein was agnostic... many of his references to a god prove that... he could not care less if one existed or not.

As for this fake... come on guys... get a life....

It goes to show that if you take Yahweh as a local deity he makes more sense, but when you lift him to the position of all powerful all knowing creator of the universe, things start to fall apart.

Good point about the demiurge. That easily explains why the God of the Bible seems rather naughty.

At the same time, this means, that if a deity made this world, we live not in a world of God but i a world by a lesser god, and then we can just speculate in our own creation and the purpose behind it, and if this lesser god / demiurge really want us to know what's going on or not.

Remember how angry he got when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of knowledge from the tree of life! They better not gain the understanding of the gods! This is of course very symbolical and the tree represents the same tree of life as in the kabbalah, and the fruit of knowledge represents ascending to higher understanding, or maybe we can even call it enlightenment.

So it seems the biblical god just wanted us to live like dumb little slaves knowing nothing, good thing those buggers ate from that apple I say!

And then we have Snopes

Yahweh is Christ.

Christ is the god of the old testament. He is not the god of the new testament. He refers to his father. He asks his father to take the cup away from him. He also asks why his father has forsaken him. Last time I checked you cannot forsake yourself at least not in this content.


of course this is all my opinion.

Sorry to mislead you, I was not aware this was "spam mail". I have never seen it, And while the all caped title may be misleading I do not believe God is evil and I was not really trying to prove otherwise because thats MY opinion and not everyone elses. I have seen scriptures and arguments on here trying to prove God is evil and I do not buy them nor think they are valid, you have the right to your own opinion and I respect that. Always a pleasure

That isn't actually what he is trying to prove, what he's trying to prove is that Evil is being far away from God.



I doubt this person would consider his act good. He is unlikely to deny the fact that he is a criminal.




giving money to the poor is a good deed, that person killing someone is a bad thing.



It still wouldn't make it a good thing, any decent person would feel guilty for not helping. A person who didn't help would at best describe himself as a coward, but would never consider what he did a good moral thing to do.



Cookies aren't bad it's the calories which are bad, dont eat so many and they are good.




No they are not, Good and Evil are as simple as if this thing were done to me would I consider it GOOD or EVIL. That simple.







Remember how angry he got when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of knowledge from the tree of life! They better not gain the understanding of the gods! This is of course very symbolical and the tree represents the same tree of life as in the kabbalah, and the fruit of knowledge represents ascending to higher understanding, or maybe we can even call it enlightenment.

So it seems the biblical god just wanted us to live like dumb little slaves knowing nothing, good thing those buggers ate from that apple I say!


Maybe he just didnt think they were ready but wanted them to make that choice, why else put the tree in the garden.