Things God did not Create

There is a “proof” of the non-existence of God that I have heard a couple of times. It goes something like this:

Person 1: Did God create everything?
Person 2: Yes, God created everything.
Person 1: Does evil exist in the world?
Person 2: Yes, it does.
Person 1: If evil exists, and if God created everything, then God must have created evil.
Person 2: But God is not evil nor the author of evil.
Person 1: Therefore, God did not create everything, and therefore God must not be the Creator of everything, thus God doesn’t exist.

The typical answer to this argument goes something like this: evil occurs when God’s rules are not obeyed. Evil is the absence of good, therefore evil does not exit. This is analogous to darkness. Darkness is the absence of light, darkness is not a thing in and of itself. Similarly, evil is the absence of good, evil is not a thing in and of itself.

I’ve found the argument that “evil does not exist” a little unsettling. First of all, how can “good” exist but not “evil”? Both words are used to describe actions: so and so did a good thing, or so and so did an evil thing. Both evil and good have the same origin (a person’s thought or will determines his actions) so how can one exist and the other doesn’t?

Second, the comparison to light and darkness doesn’t hold up. Yes, darkness is the absence of light, but darkness describes a physical phenomena, and God created the physical world. Look at Gen. 1:2. It describes the newly created world as being dark. Therefore, God did create darkness, and if God created darkness, then the analogy would indicate that God also created evil.

I think the solution to the opening “proof” of God’s non-existence is simply this: God did not create everything.

“Heresy! How can you say such a thing?”

Before the stake and firewood are brought out, let me explain. There is a slight of hand going on in the opening argument. When person 2 affirms that God created everything, what he means is that God made the whole universe. However, when person 1 categorizes evil as something that exists (and therefore, part of everything), he is using “everything” to mean the sum total of all things, events, and ideas. So there are two definitions of “everything” being used: “everything is the whole universe,” and “everything is all things, events, and ideas.” These two definitions may seem to be the same, but they are not. Allow me to elaborate by describing those things, events, and ideas God did not create.

First of all, God did not create Himself. He is eternal and has therefore existed from eternity past and will exist to eternity future. Besides, it is impossible for something to create itself. At its creation, something comes into existence, by definition. Yet, something must be in existence in order for it to create anything. So for something to create itself, it would have to be in existence (in order to create itself) and not in existence (it doesn’t exist prior to its creation) at the same time, breaking the law of non-contradiction. Therefore, God could not have created Himself.

While I’m using a logical argument, let’s touch on the fact that God did not create logic. The laws of logic are part of God’s nature, and therefore they also apply to His creation. The law of non-contradiction exists because God is eternal, unchanging, and consistent. The principle of uniformity (not to be confused with the principle of uniformitarianism, the former being the idea that natural laws apply everywhere over time and space, the latter being an idea about the rate of geological actions) also exists because God is eternal, unchanging, and consistent (for a further explanation of how logic is an expression of God’s nature, see “The Ultimate Proof of Creation” by Dr. Jason Lisle, pg. 196-198). God did not create wisdom for wisdom is an expression of God’s thoughts (Prov. 3:19, if God used wisdom to create the earth and heavens, wisdom must have been around before God began creation, before He created anything). God did not create ethics for all the moral laws He gave to man are an expression of His nature. All of these things are an expression of some part of the nature of God. If God did not create Himself, then He also did not create His nature, therefore He did not create those things that are an expression of His nature.

There are things that man created that God did not create. Since man was made in God’s image, we have creative abilities. If we have the ability to create things, then there must be things we created that God did not. For instance, God did not create the internal combustion engine. Now, man does not have the ability to create things out of nothing, so the physical matter that comprises the parts of an internal combustion engine was not created by man. However, the design was created by man. Some might argue that there are physical restraints that have to be met in order for an internal combustion engine to function, therefore man may have simply “discovered” how to build an internal combustion engine rather than actually designing one. While there are physical constraints (such as temperature, forces, available materials, and so forth) that dictate some aspects of the design of an engine, the exact design was created by man. Consider: there is the familiar piston engine and there is the Wankel rotary engine. Both are internal combustion engines, both function under the same physical conditions, but they have different designs, both of which were created by men.

So what can be concluded? There are three things God did not create: Himself, expressions of His nature, and designs made by humans. Therefore, God did not make everything if “everything” means all things, events, and ideas. So how does this relate to the existence of evil? God did not create evil. Man created evil when he rebelled against God in the Garden.