“Does evil exist?” A professor 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”, the student replied.

The professor challenged the student, “If God created everything, then God must have created evil as well. Since the quality of our work determines who we are, we can conclude God is evil”. The student felt overpowered by the professor.

Another student raised her hand and said, “Can I ask you a follow-up 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 students snickered at the young girl’s question.

The girl replied, “In fact, Sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; 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, it is wrong, Sir. Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. We can study light, but not darkness. In fact, we can use a prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. Darkness is a term used conventionally to describe what happens when there is no light present.”

Finally, the young girl asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?”

Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course, as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the multitude of crime, hatred, and violence everywhere in the world.”

To this, the student replied, “Evil does not exist, Sir. Evil is simply the absence of good. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that we have created to describe the absence of good. God did not create evil. When there is an absence of good (because of ignoring the presence of God), we experience evil.”

The professor was dumb-founded.