Note 5 — IX SATAN AND EVOLUTION

Some passages in the Old Testament (notably Isaiah xlv. 7) state that God “created evil;” and results attributed by one author to Satan (1 Chron. xxi. 1) are attributed by another to “the anger of the Lord” (2 Sam. xxiv. 1). Much of course depends upon the meaning of the word “evil;” and I am knowingly guilty of talking absurdly when I first define evil as “that which is not in accordance with God’s intention,” and then proceed to say that “God did not create evil.” But all people who discourse philosophically on this subject talk far more absurdly than I do: for I am consciously, but they are unconsciously, illogical. The belief that God “created evil,” whether held or not by the authors of any of the books of the Old Testament, is against the whole tenour of the teaching of Christ.