If God Created Heaven and Earth, Did He Create Evil Too?

I remember learning in middle school science or someplace that there is no such thing as cold. There is only heat. More on that in a moment.

But first, Mental Floss Presents Condensed Knowledge, in a chapter about religion, discusses “The Problem of Evil.” The authors present five propositions:

              1. God is omnipotent, or all-powerful.

            2. God is omniscient, or all-knowing.

            3. God is omnipresent, or everywhere.

            4. God is benevolent, or all-good.

            5. Evil exists.

“Logically, one of these statements must be false. Why? Because a god who has all the characteristics of propositions1-4 cannot allow evil to exist.” (https://lightsailed.com/catalog/book/mental-floss-presents-condensed-knowledge-a-deliciously-irreverent-guide-to-feeling-smart-again-editors-of-mental-floss/9780061747649/)

But if there is no evil, how do you explain murder, war, violence, North Korea? St. Augustine, I think, had the right idea. He rejected the fifth proposal. “Augustine knew that if evil exists, and if God is the creator, then God had to create evil, so he argues that evil is ‘the absence of good.’”

Now back to cold. Heat is energy that speeds up molecules. Cold is the absence of heat, or the slowing of molecules. Hence, there’s no such thing as cold; it is merely the absence of heat energy. So it makes sense to me that here is no such thing as evil. God didn’t create evil. Instead, evil is the absence of good.

Condensed Knowledge claims that Christians have trouble accepting St. Augustine’s view because it “sacrificed too much of the Christian worldview since the fight against evil is central to their beliefs.” So what? Why can’t we promote good instead of fighting evil? That brings up the movie and the concept, “Pay It Forward.” By promoting good, we are eliminating evil. By turning up the furnace, we are eliminating cold.