Question:
Did G-d create evil? Surely G-d made everything. So although it is people who
actually do evil, it was G-d who must have created the idea of evil. But if G-d
is good, how could He create evil?
Answer:
Here's the paradox: Goodness exists because G-d desired it; evil exists
because G-d doesn't want it.
If a human wants something, but doesn't actually do anything about it,
nothing happens. You may want a piece of cake, but a cake will not materialize
unless someone bakes it.
But when you're a Divine Being, your desires create reality. With G-d, just
wanting something makes it exist. After all, He is all-powerful; if He wants it,
what can possibly stop it from being? He wanted a world, so it was. He wanted
goodness, so it was.
Now the same applies to G-d not wanting something: it too becomes reality. If
G-d decides He doesn't want something, then that decision itself makes that
thing exist. G-d's all-powerfulness means that even His not-wanting creates.
Evil is what G-d doesn't want. So it exists.
But evil doesn't exist in the same way that goodness exists. G-d wants
goodness, so its existence is true and everlasting. Evil exists as a negative,
something G-d doesn't want, so its existence is flimsy and temporal. Evil is no
more than an undesirable non-entity, a path not to be taken. By doing evil acts,
we give evil more credit than it deserves. Our bad choices make evil into a
truer existence than it really is.
In the end, evil can't prevail. It is an unwanted ghost, a
temporary illusion, a thin facade. Over time evil dissipates, no matter how
menacing it may seem. Wicked empires crumble, rotten ideas become exposed, and
goodness eventually shines through. That's what G-d wanted all along, but He
leaves it to us to achieve.
The only way to banish the ghost of evil is to turn on the light of good.
