Q&A: Divine Ability
Divine Ability
Question
In the context of the question of suffering in the world, the Rabbi answered that the Holy One, blessed be He, created a natural system, and therefore natural evil follows from it necessarily. The Holy One, blessed be He, could not have created a world with stable laws of nature while at the same time preventing phenomena of evil from also resulting from them.
A. Why can't we say that God Himself could have created fixed laws of nature that at the same time do not produce evil? Why is it impossible to create matter that has no deficiency?
B. If that is the case, how do we know at all that God is good?
Answer
A. This question has already been asked here dozens of times. Please search.
B. Some would say that He told us so. And others would infer it from various philosophical considerations (for example, that perfection includes goodness, or that the implantation of morality within us shows that He is good and wants us to do good, etc.).
Discussion on Answer
In several places, for example: “The Lord is good” (Jeremiah 33:11; Psalms 34:9), and many, many more.
Thanks, I know Moshe Rat's answer: that if you allow for the possibility that He is wicked, then you have awakened Descartes' demon.
(It may be that he has a somewhat different answer, but that's how I remember it.)
Where did He tell us that?