Whether the Supreme Good, God, Is the Cause of Evil?
Objection 1: It would seem that the supreme good, God, is the cause of
evil. For it is said (Isa. 45:5,7): "I am the Lord, and there is no
other God, forming the light, and creating darkness, making peace, and
creating evil." And Amos 3:6, "Shall there be evil in a city, which
the Lord hath not done?"
Obj. 2: Further, the effect of the secondary cause is reduced to the
first cause. But good is the cause of evil, as was said above (A. 1).
Therefore, since God is the cause of every good, as was shown above
(Q. 2, A. 3; Q. 6, AA. 1, 4), it follows that also every evil is from
God.
Obj. 3: Further, as is said by the Philosopher (Phys. ii, text 30),
the cause of both safety and danger of the ship is the same. But God
is the cause of the safety of all things. Therefore He is the cause
of all perdition and of all evil.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (QQ. 83, qu. 21), that, "God is not
the author of evil because He is not the cause of tending to
not-being."
_I answer that,_ As appears from what was said (A. 1), the evil which
consists in the defect of action is always caused by the defect of
the agent. But in God there is no defect, but the highest perfection,
as was shown above (Q. 4, A. 1). Hence, the evil which consists in
defect of action, or which is caused by defect of the agent, is not
reduced to God as to its cause.
But the evil which consists in the corruption of some things is
reduced to God as the cause. And this appears as regards both natural
things and voluntary things. For it was said (A. 1) that some agent
inasmuch as it produces by its power a form to which follows
corruption and defect, causes by its power that corruption and
defect. But it is manifest that the form which God chiefly intends in
things created is the good of the order of the universe. Now, the
order of the universe requires, as was said above (Q. 22, A. 2, ad 2;
Q. 48, A. 2), that there should be some things that can, and do
sometimes, fail. And thus God, by causing in things the good of the
order of the universe, consequently and as it were by accident,
causes the corruptions of things, according to 1 Kings 2:6: "The Lord
killeth and maketh alive." But when we read that "God hath not made
death" (Wis. 1:13), the sense is that God does not will death for its
own sake. Nevertheless the order of justice belongs to the order of
the universe; and this requires that penalty should be dealt out to
sinners. And so God is the author of the evil which is penalty, but
not of the evil which is fault, by reason of what is said above.
Reply Obj. 1: These passages refer to the evil of penalty, and not to
the evil of fault.
Reply Obj. 2: The effect of the deficient secondary cause is reduced
to the first non-deficient cause as regards what it has of being and
perfection, but not as regards what it has of defect; just as
whatever there is of motion in the act of limping is caused by the
motive power, whereas what there is of obliqueness in it does not
come from the motive power, but from the curvature of the leg. And,
likewise, whatever there is of being and action in a bad action, is
reduced to God as the cause; whereas whatever defect is in it is not
caused by God, but by the deficient secondary cause.
Reply Obj. 3: The sinking of a ship is attributed to the sailor as
the cause, from the fact that he does not fulfil what the safety of
the ship requires; but God does not fail in doing what is necessary
for the safety of all. Hence there is no parity.
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