Without God is there only evil? The Bible says in a few places that God does only good things and is full of only goodness: James 1:13 - 1 John 1:5 - 1 Corinthians 14:33. I think we can Biblically support very well that God is not the origin of any evil.

However, what does the bible say about good and evil coming from mankind? Are people actually capable of good without God or would there be only evil in the world if God took a vacation?

I am looking for answers that examine the various passages of the Bible and do not give too much 'this is my interpretation' talk.



I have already considered Gen 6:5, but ultimately decided that the verse explicitly refers to those people at that time who all perished in the flood.



I am getting a lot of feed back that I need to define good and evil here so that it can be answered correctly. I disagree. Those are the Bible's words not mine. Even in this answer David Morton says I need to define them but later says "At that point [God leaving], 'good' simply disappears. It's not that we can or can't do good. It's that good ceases to be good, and begins being something else."

Is that not exactly the answer to this question? How we define good apparently does not matter to God. Isaiah 55:8-9
From a Christian perspective, without God there is nothing.  Scripture tells us that God continually sustains everything. Without God's sustaining power, all creation would cease.


  Colossians 1:15-17 (ESV)
  15&nbsp; He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16&nbsp; For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17&nbsp; And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.


This tells us that without God, there is no evil, nor good. Without God, there is nothing at all.

Addressing whether man can do good without God:

Man is capable of doing good things, but only because we were created by God with the capacity to do so. He has "written the Law on our hearts", and given is a conscience.

Based on that, the answer to your question - can man do good without God - is "no". Even if God took a vacation, our ability to do good is still a result of Him creating us with the capacity to do so. Even if He took a vacation, any goodness in us would still be due to Him.

As a side note, people can be good without religion, but not without God, as noted in a comment on my answer here.