If there's no God, then why is there so much good in the world?

Answer 1

have you never looked at the practice of a little thing called Logic?

Where is the logical connection between the presence of good in the world and the necessity for a God?

Are you talking about the same God who was used as the reason for the murder and torture of millions of women in the middle ages for supposed 'witchcraft'? The same God who inspires suicide bombers and warfare on his behalf?

It's little short of a miracle that there is good in the world while humans insist upon clinging to a system of belief that encourages a total lack of intelligent thought and advocates the suppression of the enquiring instinct.

We do not need God in the world to have, and to be, good. There is no connection between the two whatsoever. Atheists, like many other people in the world, have internalized a system of morals which prohibits hurting other people, and they do not need the bribery of heaven or the threat of hell in order to stick to their own morals, and what their senses tell them is 'good'.

Answer 2

Because the argument that neither Good or Evil could exist without God doesn't hold water. It's a false dichotomy.

Generally the response that people give to the question that inspired this one -- "If there's a God, how can he allow so much evil and suffering in the world?"--is that Free Will is necessary for real moral judgements and actions to take place. The answer goes on to say that God gave men Free Will in order to allow them to choose to be Good or Evil, and so make that distinction important and meaningful for every individual.

If God simply programmed you to be all Good or all Evil then there wouldn't be any moral way to judge you, right? Because it wouldn't be your fault if God made you without Free Will. So Free Will is important, in fact necessary, for Good and Evil to exist in our world. Do you agree to that?

Let's reverse something else then. Does Free Will presuppose God? I would say no, it doesn't... Without a God to program you as inherently all Good or Evil, or to dictate the will of individuals directly, Free Will must reign. What else but God could program an entire planet, or universe, of intelligent beings to behave entirely in ways that are always good or entirely evil? So why, if God isn't necessary for Free Will, is God necessary for Ethics or Morality to exist?

So in short, Good and Evil exist because of Free Will.
The existence of God is not necessary for the existence of Free Will. Therefore the existence of Good and Evil do not prove the existence of God.

I've got a related question for you. When was the last time that you made an ethical or moral decision that was not in your immediate self-interest? One that you had to stop and think about, maybe overcome some temptation to decide on. Did you choose Good or Evil? Do you have Free Will?

You won't catch me asking "If there's a God, how can he allow so much evil and suffering in the world?" Like I say, the question doesn't allow for Free Will. My answer to that would be "There isn't a God--or at least not one like you're thinking of--and people often choose Evil over Good, causing much suffering."

Answer 3

The existence of BOTH good and evil is difficult for atheists to argue around. Their only reasonable response in order to get past the moral argument for the existence of God is to deny that morals exist.

Most will not and, I believe, cannot do this, though. If they say they can deny right and wrong make them prove it. Do something exceptionally evil, such as mutilating and torturing their 4 year old daughter. They will have to concede that what you did was not evil and they will have no right (because rights stem from the moral ideas of justice and fairness) to retaliate or be angry with you.

Once people recognize good and evil as real, it should not be long before they begin to recognize the existence of the One Who is Good and above all Good.
Once people ignore the truth of good and evil, it should not be long before they begin unknowingly serving the evil one.

Answer 4

If there is a god, why is there so much bad in the world?

Answer 5

The inverse is also true....if there's no satan, why is there so much bad in the world? I don't know if you're asking this to be sarcastic or what, but either way....there's your answer. Where do good and bad come from if not from God and satan, respectively.

Answer 6

Your question itself insinuates that all goodness begins and ends with God. Therefore underestimating the sheer goodness of flaura, flora and humanity.

Answer 7

A person much smarter than me once said, "I do not know if God has created man, but I do know that if God did not create man, then man would have created God. "

Answer 8

There is a God..
he gave us brains to use..... we either chose to be good or bad ppl..... we chose wat we want, we chose to tach our children watever we think...... we do alll theeeee chosing... God is here with us, and he is guiding all of us, anyway..... there is the good and the bad in this world.. we just have to try and make the right choices

Answer 9

Because people are naturally good to better mankind. It's called altruism.

Answer 10

"Good" is not dependent upon God.

Moral goodness is that which allows / promotes the living to flourish.

Incidentally, I am a believer.