Editing Maimonides (section)

===The problem of evil===
Maimonides wrote on [[theodicy]] (the philosophical attempt to reconcile the existence of a God with the existence of evil). He took the premise that an omnipotent and good God exists.<ref>{{cite book|author=Moses Maimonides|title=The Guide to the Perplexed|year=2007|publisher=BN Publishers}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Joseph Jacobs|title=Moses Ben Maimon|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=905&letter=M&search=maimonides#ixzz1GVE5kJqV|encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia|access-date=13 March 2011|archive-date=23 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523165222/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=905&letter=M&search=Maimonides#ixzz1GVE5kJqV|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Shlomo Pines|title=Maimonides (1135–1204)|journal=Encyclopedia of Philosophy|year=2006|volume=5|pages=647–654}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Isadore Twersky|title=Maimonides, Moses|journal=Encyclopedia of Religion|year=2005|volume=8|pages=5613–5618}}</ref> In ''The Guide for the Perplexed'', Maimonides writes that all the evil that exists within human beings stems from their individual attributes, while all good comes from a universally shared humanity (Guide 3:8). He says that there are people who are guided by higher purpose, and there are those who are guided by physicality and must strive to find the higher purpose with which to guide their actions.

To justify the existence of evil, assuming God is both omnipotent and omnibenevolent, Maimonides postulates that one who created something by causing its opposite not to exist is not the same as creating something that exists; so evil is merely the absence of good. God did not create evil, rather God created good, and evil exists where good is absent (Guide 3:10). Therefore, all good is divine invention, and evil both is not and comes secondarily.

Maimonides contests the common view that evil outweighs good in the world. He says that if one were to examine existence only in terms of humanity, then that person may observe evil to dominate good, but if one looks at the whole of the universe, then he sees good is significantly more common than evil (Guide 3:12). Man, he reasons, is too insignificant a figure in God's myriad works to be their primary characterizing force, and so when people see mostly evil in their lives, they are not taking into account the extent of positive Creation outside of themselves.

Maimonides believes that there are three types of evil in the world: evil caused by nature, evil that people bring upon others, and evil man brings upon himself (Guide 3:12). The first type of evil Maimonides states is the rarest form, but arguably of the most necessary—the balance of life and death in both the human and animal worlds itself, he recognizes, is essential to God's plan. Maimonides writes that the second type of evil is relatively rare, and that humanity brings it upon itself. The third type of evil humans bring upon themselves and is the source of most of the ills of the world. These are the result of people's falling victim to their physical desires. To prevent the majority of evil which stems from harm one does to oneself, one must learn how to respond to one's bodily urges.