Did God Create Evil ?

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 answer 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. Accordingto the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absenceof heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has ortransmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have ortransmit 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 doesnot 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 ofeach 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 acertain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't thiscorrect? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens whenthere 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'sInhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violenceeverywhere 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. Itis just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe theabsence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of whathappens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's likethe cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comeswhen there is no light."The professor sat down.The young man's name - Albert Einstein