[GCFL-discuss] Does Evil Exist?

[Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List]

I received this from a friend in DC, a former landlord, a U.S. citizen
originally from Ethiopia. It is a wonderful story, and quite believable.
It also runs along nicely with the joke a while back about whether God
created Satan, and adds a humorous counter-point to whatever serious
discussion we may have had about it. 

Siarlys

> Did God create everything that exists? Does evil exist?
> Did God create evil?
>
> A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning 
> 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, he certainly did," the student replied.
>
> The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God created 
> evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principal that our 
> works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."
>
> The student became quiet and did not respond to the professor's 
> hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, 
> boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the 
> Christian faith was a myth.
>
> Another student raised his hand and said, "May 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 other 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. Every body 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 F) is the total absence of heat; and 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 no 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 everyday. It is in the daily examples 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 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 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 man's name -- Albert Einstein. A true story.