At a certain college, there was a professor with a reputation for being tough on people who believed in God. At the first class every semester, he asked if anyone was believer in God and proceeded to degrade them and to mock their statement of faith.
One semester, he asked the question and a young man raised his hand when asked if he thought there was a God. The professor asked, “Did God make everything, young man?”
He replied, “Yes sir, He did!”
The professor responded, “If God made everything, then He made evil.”
The student didn’t have a response and the professor was happy to have once again proved God was a myth.
Then another man raised his hand and asked, “May I ask you something, sir?”
“Yes, you may,” responded the professor.
The young man stood up and said, “Sir, is there such thing as cold?”
“Of course there is, what kind of question is that? Haven’t you ever been cold?”
The young man replied, “Actually, sir, cold doesn’t exist. What we consider to be cold, is really an absence of heat… Absolute zero is when there is absolutely no heat, but cold does not really exist. We have only created that term to describe how we feel when heat is not there.”
The young man continued, “Sir, is there such a thing as dark?”
Once again, the professor responded “Of course there is.”
And once again, the student replied “Actually, sir, darkness does not exist. Darkness is really only the absence of light. Darkness is only a term man developed to describe what happens when there is no light present.”
Finally, the young man asked, “Sir, is there such thing as evil?”
The professor responded, “Of course. We have rapes, and murders and violence everywhere in the world, those things are evil.”
The student replied, “Actually, sir, evil does not exist. Evil is simply the absence of God. Evil is a term man developed to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. It isn’t like truth, or love, which exist as virtues like heat or light. Evil is simply the state where God is not present, like cold without heat or darkness without light.”
The professor had nothing to say…
via email from Bob Rosen, Sun, 06 Jun 2004 18:03:03 -0500And the doctor’s response: If God is everywhere, then how can there be an abscence of God, and therefore evil?