I really have been struggling to write on a regular basis these days and it is really starting to bother me. The only way, I feel, that I can get out of this rut is to follow the advice of one of the people I look up to, former Nike CEO, Philip Knight. Just Do It! So here goes…
I really am not one to watch the news but lately there is so much going on in the world that it has become hard to avoid. Some of the stories that are surfacing are just mind-blowing. It is really starting to put “life” in perspective. Today, I was working on a song-list for one of my clients and came across a blog post that really made me sit back in my chair and think. The blog post was authored by my client’s loved one who past away 2 years ago in a car accident. Ironically, this morning my father was involved in a car accident (don’t panic, he’s ok) and I couldn’t help but think what most of us tend to think in times like these, What if…”. As the title states, this is often a question we also ask ourselves during times of despair. Well, I hope this sheds some light on those questions for you as it did for me.
Who Created Evil?
As you read this, I challenge you to really let its meaning sink in
This eloquently answers one of the profound questions of life.Did God Create Evil?
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 principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.”
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?”
The professor replied “Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?”
The students snickered at the young mans 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 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 ÚF) is the total absence of heat. 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, “Well, 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 Newtons 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. “So I now ask you 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 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 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. Its like the cold that we feel when there is no heat or the darkness that we see when there is no light.”
The professor sat down.
The young man sat down. His name was Albert Einstein.
Sometimes we all need to be schooled.