St. Augustine

From an explanation that that was given to St. Augustine, “the cause of evil is the free decision of our will, in consequence of which we act wrongly� (pg 161). In other words the decision of our will is that we make our own decisions and our destiny is what we make of it. In life, majority of people have moral beliefs (to do what is right and not what is wrong) and we know the difference. It is up to us to make that decision as to what we are going to do in a particular situation. Hence, if we act wrongly, we will endure the consequences and basically go to hell, or experience his righteous judgment; which ever that may be. Throughout the reading, it was evident that Augustine did not except the explanation that was given to him. He wanted to see evil and understand evil for himself and not having faith kept him searching.
Discuss the accounts of the origin and construction of evil?
When St. Augustine began his search to understand evil, he had a lot of questions. Augustine wanted to know what was the origin of evil that caused the devil (once an angel of God) to turn into evil especially when an angel is made the supreme creator. He later found that “what is indestructible is better than anything

hing liable to be destroyed” (pg 162). Throughout his search he believed that people are not forced into anything that they really do not want to do. Augustine believing that our power is greater than our will supported that. This means that the angel that now is a devil and is evil chose that way of life. The devil’s will was obviously stronger than his power.

The last question is very confusing. It took days before I could even answer the question. After consulting with a different person, I also learned truth into what they thought of ST. Augustine. They thought that he was a big contradiction. However, I did not know if that was entirely true considering that they only read book VII. On the other hand he does confuses, makes you wonder about your own belief, and question his (St. Augustine’s) faith in God and belief about the devil and evil.

In continuing his search for evil, Augustine declares that our fear is evil. Although he is unsure of this Augustine says “either the evil we fear exists or our fear itself is the evil” (pg 163). However he does not understand where it comes from, especially if the good God made all things good. St. Augustine continues his search until he learns that “everything that exists is good and so is evil” (pg 174). Meaning that evil was once good and it was its will that made evil the way that it was. It does not necessarily mean that evil exist. Personally, after reading and trying to find what Augustine thought was the origin and nature of evil, led me believe that God is supreme. He is made perfect. And if he did not make people as himself that would mean that we are not perfect. And when people are not perfect they tend to do evil things. Also our will and our power and our wills are not stronger than god’s so of course there will be a struggle with in ourselves. No one is perfect. Even the person that goes to church every Sunday does not curse, and follows the bible is not perfect. They still tend to do things that are bad. Or maybe it was a good deed but not a good deed at that time or that situation.

On the beginning of page 165 starts the journey that leaves Augustine rejecting astrology is one of his accounts of evil. Augustine re