"Let There Be Light", Why God Didn't Create Evil

I have always been fascinated by the subject of "light".  It was the first "substance" created by God. It is mysterious in that, science cannot explain what it is, except to say that it consists of a massless particle/wave called a photon, and always travels at the same speed. Einstein built his General Theory of Relativity around it, and his formula, E=MC2 contains it in the form of C, the speed of light.

I find it referred to many times in the Bible, in such passages as

Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world.

16: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Revelation 21:22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

God created the Light and saw "It was good".

What is the relationship between "light" and "goodness"?

 The Essenes were a religious sect who had a base on the Dead Sea. We got the Dead Sea Scrolls from them. They had different religious views from the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jerusalem that resulted in their moving away from Jerusalem to live an isolated existence.

One of their beliefs was that the final battle over the earth would take place between the "Sons of Light" and "The sons of Darkness". The Sons of Light were God's angels, and the Sons of Darkness belonged to Satan.

I don't take credit for the following analogy, but it illustrates the nature of "goodness" better than any dissertation that I can think of.

Evil is not the opposite of Good

If "evil" was the opposite of good, it would be equal to good in strength. Evil is no more the opposite of good than cold is the opposite of heat. Coldness is limited and finite. Nothing can be colder than 273 degrees below zero degrees Celcius. Heat is infinite and unlimited. You make a substance infinitely hot. You cannot make a substance infinitely cold.

Darkness is not the opposite of light. Darkness is what you have when there is no light. Light is unlimited whereas darkness is finite and limited.

What does this have to do with good and evil? Evil does not exist unto itself, it must always be compared to goodness. EVIL IS THE ABSENCE OF GOOD, just as cold is the absence of heat, and darkness is the absence of light. Therefore, Good can be infinite, but evil is limited and finite.

Everything that has God's presence has good in it because God IS Good. Evil is the absence of that goodness.

Goodness is like a spot on a wall that is lit up by a flashlight in the darkness. When you turn the flashlight off, the darkness returns. Whenever you take God out of something, the darkness that existed before his presence returns.God's goodness is like an invisible light that shines on the world and everything He created. Only Satan and man can remove that light.

We wonder why things go so wrong in government and institutions, like school, today, and we continue to remove the name of God from every monument, statue, public buildings, and schools. Whenever you remove God, all that is left is a vacuum of darkness that is quickly filled by evil.

Without the presence of God's goodness, only evil thoughts prevail, along with confusion about what is right and wrong. We see that every day in our nation, schools, and government. The perfect example of this is Columbine High School.

Without God's presence, our lawmakers have no concept of what morals are, and attempts to fabricate "artificial" moral laws end in only more confusion over right and wrong.

We have taken the light out of our nation and replaced it with man's concept of morality, and wonder why there is darkness. God didn't create the darkness. It was present before the world was, and exists only because it is the ABSENCE OF GOD.

GOD DIDN'T CREATE HIS ABSENCE, AND THERFORE DIDN'T CREATE EVIL. That is what evil is, and why it exists. Only where we permit God to be present do we eradicate evil.