This video is making the rounds on FB with my arminian friends. Are these suppositions that Einstein espoused? The video says that it is a commercial in the Republic of Macedonia, by the Ministry of Education and Science. It is to promote education. It sounds good but does it pass muster?

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Traci
Lynnwood OPC
"I have taken all my good deeds, and all my bad deeds, and cast them through each other in a heap before the Lord, and fled from both, and betaken myself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in him I have sweet peace."--David Dickson

I look forward to reading the responses of others, but I am wondering how evil is the absence of something.

Sin/Evil is much more than the absence of God or His love - it is the presence of something that is actively set against Him. That, by definition it seems, could not be described merely as an 'absence.'

This very much betrays Arminianism - wicked men are not simply those unredeemed by God who would love Him very much if properly introduced. They know Him, reject Him, and fight him with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength.

That is to say that evil includes, in some sense, the lack that he asserts. But it is certainly not limited to it.

If evil wars against God (and it does), then this is as much nonsense as saying terrorism does not exist - there is only a lack of love for the targeted city/people. Wars cannot be accounted for by merely noting a lack of harmony.

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Jeremy Gage
First Baptist Church
Durham, NC

"No heart can conceive that treasury of mercies which lies in this one privilege, in having liberty and ability to approach unto God at all times, according to his mind and will." - John Owen

If evil is sin,
and sin is disobediance to God's law,
then evil is disobediance to God's law.

If good is righteousness,
and righteousness is obedience to God's law,
then good is obedience to God's law.

If the propositions are true, then one could say, logically at least, that evil is the absence of good because evil is an absence of obedience, which equates to good.

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Andrew DeShazo
Husband of Kathryn
Father of Phillip-Giles B. DeShazo
Deacon
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN
"From out of the depth of unbroken Infinfity arose the Question, "Who am I?" And to that Question there is the answer, "I am God!" -Meher Baba, died 1969.

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Christ, died 33 AD, ressurected three days later.

I probably should watch the video, but I have a bad connection right now. But it's pretty clear that evil is not the mere absence of good. The Garden of Eden had an abundance of good; evil was introduced.

On to the more interesting question:

"Is . . . cold just the absence of heat?"

Anybody who has spent a winter or two in the Northern Great Plains, especially during a spell of minus 40 or minus 50, knows that cold is an active agent. It isn't the absence of something--it tries to creep in and get you. It presses everywhere.

I used to ask my physicist friends to come help with calving in February and then tell me cold is just a lack of heat. . . .

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Raymond Victor Bottomly
Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Tacoma, WA

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I would say that evil is not merely the absence of goodness: it is a twisting of what is good and a turning it against its original purpose. Thus reason is turned toward rebellion, a healthy sense of self-worth becomes pride, marital relations become perversions. I can't name a single sin that is not, in the end, a perversion of something good.

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Philip
Potomac Hills Presbyterian Church (PCA) Leesburg, VA
Attending Reformed Presbyterian Church, Lookout Mountain, GA
Student Covenant College

The Importance of Being Orthodox

This concept has made the rounds on the Internet before in written form. It's nothing new.

BTW, I didn't know that they spoke German in Macedonia.

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Wes Bredenhof
Pastor, Providence Canadian Reformed Church
Hamilton, Ontario
www.bredenhof.ca
Gospel Talk Radio Program

The video portrays Einstein who was German.

Cold is the absence of thermal energy, not heat. Individual particles of matter have kinetic energy and are bouncing around (or wiggling around for solids), and that is thermal energy. Cold is indeed what we call having less of this energy. Technically, heat is the transfer of thermal energy and so is not the same thing as thermal energy, so cold is not the absence of *heat*.

It seems to me that comparing this to evil and good without any proof that good and evil have a similar relationship as cold and hot is stupid. You could compare any pair of opposites to any other pair of opposites, and use that to prove all manner of ridiculous things.

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Austin
EE student at Texas State University
Member of Church of the Cross (PCA) in San Marcos, TX
Ps. 8:3-4 "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"

Would the earth have been called cold or dark or void before the heat, light, and stuff came along? Void means empty right? Out of nothing God created all these things.

I found the video very nonsensical.

Firstly what is meant by God's Love in the statement.
"God did not create evil, evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love in his heart"

Secondly it says before that.
"Evil does not exist"

If evil does not exist then it cannot be punished.

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Bryan Riddle
1689 London Baptist Confession
Bethel Baptist Church Owasso, Oklahoma

Does it only exist when manifested in human agents? Does it exist outside of a being, angelic or human, manifesting it? Is it eternal or created?

We generally speak of evil as a privation, not (in its strict sense) as a contrary. But the "type" of privation is not a simple privation, but carries a few subtle nuances. If we let Aquinas speak here from his treatise De malo:

But things of which one is in accord with nature, and the other a departure from nature, are opposed as possession and privation of a quality, not, properly speaking, as contraries. And there are two kinds of privation: one, indeed, that consists in the privation of existing (e.g., death and blindness), and one that consists in the process inducing privation (e.g., sickness, which is a process inducing death...). And we sometimes call the latter kind of privations contraries, since they still retain part of that of which they are being deprived, and it is in this way that we call evil a contrary, since it remains partially good and is not deprived of all good. (On Evil, trans. Richard Regan)

This basic Thomistic conception is absorbed into and invigorated by Reformed thought. We are probably all familiar with the words of the catechism:

What is sin?
Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

Sin, in other words, is a lack of rectitude as defined by the law, a want of conformity to the law; or, as we would say, the formal cause of sin is anomia, or lawlessness.

It goes beyond, however, a simple privation, and is such an one as actively corrupts its subject, "by which not only is the due rectitude taken away, but also an undue unrectitude and depraved quality laid down, infecting all the faculties (Turretin, Insitutes, IX.1.V; see whole discussion in topic 9, question 1)". As he further clarifies, any positive being which is attributed to sin can be absolutely or physically, but only logically and ethically.

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Paul Korte
OPC
Flint, MI

They who perceive in themselves discoveries of the divine goodness, so full and absolutely perfect, and who make them the subject of earnest meditation, will never embrace new doctrines, by which the very grace they feel so powerfully in themselves is thrown into the shade. --John Calvin

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We have a Worldview class at church and this very argument has been raised, "Evil is the absence of good just as darkness is the absence of light". My unasked question was "Are we speaking of evil as wickedness and iniquity or any event that would cause harm to human beings in some way?" People will say that harm to infants is "evil" for example.

The comments here are very helpful to me. Leave it to the PB!

Evil was introduced (thank you victorbravo), evil twists and distorts good (thanks to p.f. pugh), evil is actively set against God (thanks smhbbag) and evil /good does not have the same relationship as hot/cold (thanks austinww). I think I shall quote you all come next class!

-----Added 9/25/2009 at 10:22:11 EST-----

...and thanks to you, Prufrock, for your Turretin quote. Oh, the mind of that man...

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Donald P. Grubb
theol46@embarqmail.com

Berean Baptist Church, Mansfield, OH
Mansfield, OH

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.
The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

I see how I misstated my statement. I meant that if Evil does not exist then people cannot be punished for it.

To go any further than to clarify my statement would just be my random bablings. I am not a philosopher and the so called "problem of evil" has never been a problem for me so I have not spent much time thinking on every aspect of it. I just hold that God can be good and sovereign and allow, even decree evil, to occur because it serves a greater Good His glory. Other than that I dont think about it nor really care to spend much time on it. I dont mean to sound to harsh towards you or any others searching for answers in this area or who enjoy discussions in this area it is just not a topic that particularly interests me.

I have heard this argument from hyperpreterists. I am wondering if this understanding is necessary for their paradigm. Or maybe they just spend too much time on the internet?

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http://www.villagecommunitychurch.org/


"Preparing a sermon is like cooking a meal. You need pots and pans and utensils, but you don't bring them out to the table where people are eating." Derek Thomas


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Bryan, I am no philosopher either. I am just faking it and trying to pick up what I can along the way. Shhh don't tell anyone.

Jonathan Edwards would totally agree with this video.

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY: Essay

(Haven't read this yet, but after much disagreeing with the video in a hostile manner, I gave it some thought and realized that it makes so much sense. You can believe this, and it does not go against God's sovereignty one wink. Mentioned this to my husband and he recommended this essay. I'm going to read it tomorrow)

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Megan Meisberger
River Hills Community Church - EFCA (yes... same as charliejunfan)
Janesville, WI

Wife of matt.meisberger

<---- Naming my first son after him. My husband was saved while reading Religious Affections.

Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, has some stimulating reflections on the matter:

From the chapter, Maker of All Things—Maker of Ill Things
(Comments in brackets are my way of avoid excessive typing)

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Ruben
Moderator
F.P.C.I.
Indiana

Vanities and disguises have covered us, and thereby we are naked; licenciousness hath inflam'd us, and thereby we are frozen; voluptuousness hath fed us, and thereby we are sterved, the fancies and traditions of men have taught and instructed us, and thereby we are ignorant.
John Donne

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Calvinistas Conversando
Teología en Mexico
The Howling Wilderness

Ok, so I read AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY: Essay
It's Jonathan Edwards (excerpt from The Freedom of the Will) and it really helped me understand this subject.

The video does sound like it is an affront to God's sovereignty, and it might be trying to be. But if you just think about its idea alone, it's really just saying that God didn't cause sin, which isn't the same as ordaining sin. He ordained it, but he didn't cause it.

Now, if the video is trying to say that God isn't sovereign over the entry of sin into the world, it's using means that are inconsistent with this notion.