Aquinas for Dummies - The Donut Hole - The Problem of Evil
So far in this series, Aquinas has talked about ball kicks, cookies, balloons, gold stars and cosmic archery. Today we take on the question people have been asking since about five minutes after Eden.
Genesis tells us that God looked at everything He had made, and behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:31). Fine. So where did all the bad stuff come from?
Flat tires. Kidney stones. The coworker who hits "reply all." The neighbor who borrowed your ladder in 2019 and still has it.
Did God make those too?
Aquinas's answer is surprisingly simple, and it all comes down to a hole.
Evil Isn't a "Thing"
Walk into a room at night and flip off the light. The room fills up with darkness.
Except it doesn't. Nobody pumped darkness in through the vents. There's no Darkness Company sending you a bill every month. Darkness is just what we call it when the light is gone.
Cold works the same way. Your air conditioner doesn't necessarily manufacture cold. It removes heat. "Cold" is just the name for the heat that isn't there anymore.
Aquinas says evil is like that. It isn't a substance God created and sprinkled around the world. It's the name we give to some good that's missing. The technical term is privation, which is philosopher-speak for "a hole."
The Donut Hole vs. the Sock Hole
Not every missing thing is a problem, though.
A donut has a hole in the middle, and nobody files a complaint. The donut is supposed to have one. If it showed up without a hole, you'd assume it was a jelly donut and move on with your life.
A hole in your sock is a different story. Big toe out, cold foot, and mild humiliation if you have to take your shoes off at a friend's house. Why is that hole bad when the donut hole is fine?
Because a sock is supposed to be whole. Something good should be there, and isn't.
Aquinas uses a similar example. A rock can't see, and nobody holds a fundraiser for the rock. Rocks aren't supposed to see. But when a man loses his sight, he's missing something a human being is meant to have. That's a real loss.
So evil isn't just "something missing." It's something missing that ought to be there.
You Can't Have a Hole Without a Sock
Try to picture a hole in a sock, minus the sock. Go ahead. I'll wait.
You can't do it. A hole has to be a hole in something. Throw the sock away and the hole goes with it.
Evil works the same way. It can't stand on its own. It's always a hole in something that is, underneath, good. Sickness needs a body to attack. Rust needs a car. A lie needs the truth to twist.
That means nothing is 100% evil, top to bottom. Even the devil was created good, as an angel. He's a sock that's mostly holes, but there's still enough sock left to hold the holes together.
Bottom line: good is the real thing, and evil is the hole. Evil is a freeloader. It can never win outright, because it needs the good just to exist.
So What About the Bad Things We Do?
Fair enough, but people do evil on purpose. When somebody steals the last slice of pizza out of the office fridge, the one with your name on the box, aren't they creating something bad?
Look at what they actually wanted. The pizza. And pizza is good. (This, by the way, is settled theology.)
The problem isn't the pizza. The problem is that they went after a good thing the wrong way. It wasn't theirs. Nobody asked. Honesty and fairness should have been part of that moment, and they weren't. There's the hole.
Aquinas says every sin looks like that underneath. Nobody wakes up and chooses evil just for the fun of it. We chase something that looks good, like pleasure, money, comfort, or being right, and we chase it in a way that tears a hole in our love for God and for each other.
The good news: God is in the sock-mending business. That's what Confession is for. Need some? Go here: CONFESSION HELP
Even Simpler
Here's the whole thing on a napkin:
God made everything, and everything He made is good.
Evil isn't a "thing." It's a hole where some good is missing, the way darkness is missing light.
Not every missing thing is bad (donut holes are fine). Evil is a good that's missing where it ought to be, like a hole in your sock.
You can't have a hole without a sock, so evil only exists inside something good.
When we sin, we go after a good thing the wrong way, and that tears a hole.
God didn't make the holes. He made the socks, and He's the only One who can sew them back up.
Stay tuned for next episode…
