If you wish for your children to love you, do you afflict them with all manners of suffering? No, you nurture them and build them up.
How did evil come to be if not by gods own hand?
Something, that is not god, created itself?
From what I recall, man is
free and chose to detach himself from God (
If we are to assume that God represents all that is good.), which means it was 'self induced suffering'.
Again, where in the bible does it show God created evil? All that is given to us is that man was tempted and man chose to give in to his temptation. It's not exactly about placing a fruit in the Garden of Eden. The object itself wasn't evil, it was man's
choice to go
against God that was considered a sin.
In the end I can imagine you're thinking, "Well, then why bother?" in terms of what Aquinas was referring to, God bothered because he could only accept authentic love. After all, God is all that is true and good. God does not need us, but if we are to assume that God is all that is true and good, why should we assume he would accept anything less? (However, I guess this is resolved in the new testament?) In the case of Christianity, we inevitably end up returning to the issue of choice and God's love. In order to know love and to love, you must first be
conscious of this idea of love. Second, you must choose to believe and live by it. "Evil" is when Man, who is free, does not wish to be with God or know God (all that is good). If we consider evil as not some 'independent' thing that exists outside of Man, who taunts and haunts mankind, instead understanding the nature of freedom and choice we have with God, then perhaps things will start to make sense.
FYI: I'm not religious.