Essay on God Did Not Create Evil

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As stated by St. Augustine, God did not create evil; it is the absence of good. Many religions have traditionally conceived of God as being all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good. One of the most difficult puzzles facing anyone who believes in such a being is to explain why there is so much evil in the world. People believe God created everything, including evil. Augustine felt the same way. He was always searching for the truth so he joined the Manicheans to unravel the mystery. Because the Manicheans believed that there are two opposite forces, they considered good and evil as equal and opposite forces. He eventually left them and he was left there trying to find the answer by himself. He attempts to explain it by saying that God did not create evil but only good because evil has always been there and God made sure to eclipse that with his goodness. Augustine explains that God could not have possibly made this much evil and suffering in the world. God loves all and presumably not allow any unnecessary suffering to exist. By Augustine’s understanding, God has only created good. Evil is not a substance, it is an empty void in which God’s goodness is completely absent from it. So how can we possibly do evil? God has enabled us with free-will. With free-will, we as humans can decide for ourselves what to do and how to act. Augustine argues that evil exists because we have free will. God enables humans to freely choose their actions and deeds, and evil inevitably results from these choices. Even natural evils, such as disease, are indirectly related to human action, since they become evil only when in contact with people. I believe that there are different levels of goodness. Absolute goodness is Jesus Christ while those tend to do bad things is less good, nonetheless, we are good. If we acknowledge the fact that we are doing bad things and still continue doing it, then

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