Christianity 101 - If God is so good, why is his world so bad?

Question

I'm starting this to help clear up some questions I commonly find here. This may be somewhat long:

More people have abandoned their faith because of the problem of evil than for any other reason. It is certainly the greatest test of faith, the greatest temptation to unbelief. And it's not just an intellectual objection. We feel it. We live it. That's why the Book of Job is so arresting.

The problem can be stated very simply: If God is so good, why is his world so bad? If an all-good, all-wise, all-loving, all-just, and all-powerful God is running the show, why does he seem to be doing such a miserable job of it? Why do bad things happen to good people?

The unbeliever who asks that question is usually feeling resentment toward and rebellion against God, not just lacking evidence for his existence. C. S. Lewis recalls that as an atheist he "did not believe God existed. I was also very angry with him for not existing. I was also angry with him for having created the world."

There are four parts to the solution to the problem of evil:

First, evil is not a thing, an entity, a being. All beings are either the Creator or creatures created by the Creator. But every thing God created is good, according to Genesis. We naturally tend to picutre evil as a thing—a black cloud, or a dangerous storm, or a grimacing face, or dirt. But these pictures mislead us. If God is the Creator of all things and evil is a thing, then God is the Creator of evil, and he is to blame for its existence. No, evil is not a thing but a wrong choice, or the damage done by a wrong choice. Evil is no more a positive thing than blindness is. But is is just as real. It is not a thing, but it is not an illusion

Second, the origin of evil is not the Creator but the creature's freely choosing sin and selfishness.

If the origin of evil is free will, and God is the origin of free will, isn't God then the origin of evil? Only as parents are the origin of the misdeeds their children commit by being the origin of their children. The all-powerful God gave us a share in his power to choose freely. Would we prefer he had not and had made us robots rather than human beings?

A third part of the solution to the problem of evil is the most important part: how to resolve the problem in practice, not just in theory; in life, not just in thought. God's solution to the problem of evil is his Son Jesus Christ. The Father's love sent his Son to die for us to defeat the power of evil in human nature: that's the heart of the Christian story. We do not worship a deistic God, an absentee landlord who ignores his slum; we worship a garbageman God who came right down into our worst garbage to clean it up. How do we get God off the hook for allowing evil? God is not off the hook; God is the hook. The Cross.

Finally, what about the philosophical problem? It is not logically contradictory to say an all-powerful and all-loving God tolerates so much evil when he could eradicate it? Why do bad things happen to good people? The question makes three questionable assumptions.

First, who's to say we are good people? The question should be not "Why do bad things happen to good people?" but "Why do good things happen to bad people?" The question is not why the glass of water is half empty but why it is half full, for all goodness is gift. The best people are the ones who are most reluctant to call themselves good people. Sinners think they are saints, but saints know they are sinners. The best man who ever lived once said, "No one is good but God alone."

Second, who's to say suffering is all bad? Rabbi Abraham Heschel says simply, "The man who has not suffered, what can he possibly know, anyway?" Suffering can work for the greater good.

Third, who's to say we have to know all God's reasons? Who ever promised us all the answers? Animals can't understand much about us; why should we be able to understand everything about God? The obvious point of the Book of Job, the world's greatest exploration of the problem of evil, is that we just don't know what God is up to. What a hard lesson to learn: Lesson One, that we are ignorant, that we are infants! No wonder Socrates was declared by the Delphic Oracle to be the wisest man in the world. He interpreted that declaration to mean that he alone knew that he did not have wisdom, and that was true wisdom for man.

http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/evil.htm

So to the question: what is your opinon?

Answer 1

Very well said. Evil is a result of man's folly - choosing to be God rather than worship (read, live by) Him. The price for separating oneself from God, the only Reality, source of all, is to separate oneself from the only source of life. Hence, enters evil, the antithesis of life. If God is good, and God is life, then life is good, provided we live by what is only the one true life.

If, in the beginning, God looked at all He created and saw that it was good, then evil must not have been a creation of God. Evil is the result of the denial of what is good, which requires ego and selfishness from free will and the pure intent, or lack thereof, of the soul. And was not God good by at least warning man not to reach for the tree of knowledge? Was He not asking for only one thing in return for life - faith?

Answer 2

Sorry missed the question in the long attempt to answer what you already knew.

As an atheist I'm not angry at a non-existent entity, that would be rather foolish. It would seem to me that C.S. Lewis really didn't want to be an atheist nor did he fully believe that he was.

The "problem with evil" is not so much that it exists, but for 2 reasons: 1. As a result of original sin, ALL of creation was punished for all succeeding generations. 2. The concept of god having to resort to such a drastic system in order to get followers that loved him for him is laughable at best. -- Put it this way, I could easy come up with a system where the world could chose to love me or not without the need for those choosing not to, to be condemned as being evil.

Answer 3

Simple, cause the one that is ruling is not the good God but the evil god Satan. 1 John 5:19 "We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the [power of the] wicked one"
2 Corithians 4:4 "among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through. "

Answer 4

So you just popped in to proselytize, I guess?

Here's my take:

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?"

-- Epicurus

If God were all-knowing and all-loving, he would have foreseen evil and would have had no choice but to prevent it. He never needed to sacrifice a son to forgive our sins. He could just as easily have forgiven us with a snap of his fingers. None of it makes any sense.

And don't even get me started on "Satan is the god of this world." What, does that mean Satan is stronger than God? That God just handed it all over to Satan and said "Have fun, I'm outie"? Give me a break. This takes us right back to Epicurus.

Oh, wait, I know. "Free will." Bzzt. Again, if God is all-knowing and all-loving, he would have to both prevent us from doing evil and forgive us for ever committing it.

Answer 5

God is imaginary.

That's why a supposedly perfect and all loving god doesn't fix the world
That's why nothing happens when you pray to God.
That's why you cannot perceive God with your senses
That's why God is conceived differently in every culture
That's why nobody can prove that God actually exists

Because God is imaginary
Being angry at or making requests of an imaginary being is pointless and delusional.

Answer 6

Well I didn't read your whole lengthy question, so I'm just answering to the first line.

Easy...God gave everyone free will. Mankind sinned and has been using that free will to sin ever since. Many people don't care about what's right or wrong; they do what they want.

Answer 7

I believe that God has reasons for allowing evil to exist that we simply cannot understand. However, we can have confidence in God knowing that His ways are above our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). As the Bible says, the just shall live by faith (Hab. 2:4).

It is possible God may be letting evil run its course in order to prove that evil is evil and that suffering, which is the unfortunate product of evil, is further proof that anything contrary to God’s will is bad, harmful, painful, and leads to death.

Additionally; God maybe uses suffering to do good. In other words, He produces patience through tribulation (Rom. 5:3). Or He may desire to save someone through it. For example, Joseph who was sold into slavery by His brothers. What they did was wrong and Joseph suffered greatly for it. But, later, God raised up Joseph in Egypt to make provisions for the people of that land during the coming drought of seven years. But not only was Egypt saved, but also so was his family and brothers who originally sold him into slavery. Joseph finally says to them, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good" (Gen. 50:15-21). Of course, the greatest example of God using evil for good is the death of Christ. Evil people brought him to the cross, but God used that cross as the means to save the world.

Answer 8

Read the Bible, God is not the God of this world ,satan is thats why it is so evil.

Answer 9

bullshit. you can rationalize and logically explain this to the SIMPLE man but your crap doesn't hold weight. if you think some invisible all- powerful being is looking down on us, you are sadly mistaken my friend. i have no resentment toward god, i just think he doesn't care if you can balance your checkbook.

Answer 10

YOU ask the questions.

WE provide the answers.

If you want to get on your soapbox, ask one of your friends to post your question for you.