What is the essence of evil?

Answer 1

The essence of evil is basically the essence of bad. The Devil is the king of evil and is the exact opposite of God. Nobody can really say that they know exactly what evil is because nobody really knows. All that we know about good and evil is from The Bible and past times.

Hope this helps :)

Blush4Me

Roman Catholic AnswerEvil is nothing, literally:

It is opposed to good and to perfection. It is not a pure negation of being, but a negation of good; it is the absence of a perfection that is due, in one word a privation, and as such (that is in itself) it is not real; it is however, real in so far as it presupposes the good which it limits; e.g., blindness of itself is not a reality, nor is sin, but blindness is in the body and sin in the soul. Evil then is founded on the good. A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, 2nd Edition, revised.

The definition of evil is a lack of God. God created everything in the world, and called it good. Anything that has being or existence is good. God created angels and men with free will so that they could choose. They do not always choose God, when they choose something other then God, they are committing sin and evil enters in. Think of it like this: if God was the sun shining in the sky, now, turn around, away from the sun. What do you see? A shadow. The shadow is NOTHING, it is an absence of light. That is what evil is. The devil, himself, was created good, it was only when he turned away from God and in on himself that he became evil.

The only one who has existed forever is God; he is the only beginning of everything, and he created only what is good. The Bible reveals to us a God who is pleased because he has created everything beautiful and good, with the goal of life and happiness.

Evil entered the world when God willed to create beings of extraordinary greatness because he made them intelligent and free. Freedom, both for angels and for men, is an irreplaceable greatness. Evil came into being because first an angel and then man abused this gift of God. Therefore, evil did not always exist. It originated when some of the angels rebelled against their Creator. Even then, God manifested His divine mercy and wisdom, because, even though he tolerates evil--he never rejects his creatures--nor does he take away their power to harm others--he is able to bring about good from evil. Therefore, even though diseases, suffering, persecutions, perfidy, and all the evil in the world did not originate with God, he can use them for our sanctification and, therefore, for our own good.

The first answer (above) is an heresy called Manichaeism, which is an heresy from the 3rd century that believes in a duality: there is an "anti" god who is the source of all evil and that evil and good are opposing things equal to each other. This has been condemned by the church.