[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!

I like to say (with an eye to Chinese Buddhism) about humankind and creation, "Not good, not bad, both good and bad, neither good nor bad ...but FALLEN -- but in their origin and destiny (as offered, though some will despise it) very good, as God himself said."

I do not get involved in the theological debates over the origin of evil vis-a-vis God the Creator being Good.

After all, God intentionally put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the midst of the Garden of Eden.

And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. - Gen 2:9

Indeed, it seems to me that a person cannot truly appreciate light if he had never seen darkness, good if he had never seen evil, courage/fear, joy/sorrow and so on. And I truly believe our time here on earth is like a base camp for eternity – that we learn more and better through such contrasts ... dare I call them "dualities?"

The LORD hath made all [things] for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. – Proverbs 16:4

God's Name is I AM.

[Mad Dawg]

I wasn’t addressing origins but rather proposing a Biblical term which affirms the “Very good” of Genesis while avoiding simple dualism and addressing the evil we see within and without.