http://www.aquinasonline.com/Q.....devil.html

or see more detailed explanation here

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05649a.htm

Just to give a quick example, considering that “an evil thing is first a thing. Consequently it has some existence, and so has some good, of which God is the cause.”

An earthquake wiping out a city may seem to be evil, but it is not absolutely evil in all aspects, it may have have some good points or “higher” good, (which we may not be able to understand with our “Impure Reason” as you should know from your blog). It may lead to some good in future, such as new soil or a good habitat for some future generations of life in the area. (Theologically, an earthquake may also be a part of divine judgement on such a city, such as Sodom, so there may be more good hidden in wiping out depravity and evil.)

I think you are being a bit overly sensitive. Read my post again, I am not disagreeing with you.

My point was that the attribution of the question to Einstein is incorrect. If you knew that when you posted it, then you could be seen as lying, and that weakens your argument.

That probably sounds impersonal to you, but it is pure and true in its logic since you cannot ever refer to ev^il without also referring to the loss of good. As such absolute good (God) must exist for their ever to even be a consideration of the loss of Good i.e. ev^il

That’s an urban myth. As much as I support the message, the story itself isn’t true:

http://www.snopes.com/religion/einstein.asp

Does evil exist?

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 principal that our works define who we are then God is evil.”
The student became quiet before such an answer.

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?”

“What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?” The 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. Everybody and every 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 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; 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 too little 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 every day. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and 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 not like faith, or love, that exist just as does light and heat. 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 mans name — Albert Einstein

What is evil? We normally associate it with physical or mental pain/hardship caused by the randomness of the world or by the intentions of humans. We never say that one animal’s treatment of another is evil (unless the recipient animal is human) while we quite readily use this to describe human behavior.

Is evil really more than that? Does the concept of evil require that there be purpose? And is evil also the frustration of that purpose?

Are there any accessible discussions of evil. I am sure there are lots of obtuse philosophical treatises but was looking for something simple. And also I hope this doesn’t start a discussion of this here since I was just curious.

Of course you can map it. It is possible to take any two or more things and map out a hypothetical relationship. The question is not whether it can be mapped, but whether the map reflects reality, which is very much an open question.

In addition, you are incorrect that Darwin’s theory would predict that “the degree of relatedness” can be mapped. Darwin’s theory knows no such constraints. Everything is possible and anything goes. Based on Darwin’s musings, we might as well have a hundred different genetic codes. Or one. DNA might be quickly modified. Or slowly. Genes might be conserved from generation to generation. Or not.

Common descent may in fact be true, but you don’t get there with Darwin’s completely vague, outdated and simplistic view of biology.