Can any Jew, Christian, Muslim, Zoroastrian or Hindu really stand up to this argument?

Question

If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to
Then He is not omnipotent.

If He is able, but not willing
Then He is malevolent.

If He is both able and willing
Then whence cometh evil?

If He is neither able nor willing
Then why call Him God?

Answer 1

evil is not a thing evil is the absence of good just like dark is the absence of light and cold is the absence of heat

so he is both willing and able but evil is just the absence of something not a thing in itself

Answer 2

Who says God is willing to "prevent" evil?
In what way is He to "prevent" it?
He does not "will" it in a proactive sense. But He does create it by His holiness and goodness. All that which is not, is evil.

Listen to these words:
Matthew 7
10Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

11If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Should God have "prevented" these people? From living? Would you prefer a world of robots? No risk to the Maker?

Isaiah 45
6That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

"If He is able but not willing " ( how are you using the word willing ? in a proactive as opposed to a passive sense ?) He gave YOU free will NOT to do evil. It is people who are malevolent, not God.

1 Timothy 2
3For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

4Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

He is willing - where does evil come from? - here:

Genesis 8
21And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; *** for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. ***


Lamentations 3
37Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
38Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
39Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?


Call Him God as there is nothing higher and He made all things.

Answer 3

Simple answer for the Christians:

God is both will and able to prevent evil.
He did so through the cross of Christ

He does it by changing the hearts of people so that they no longer desire or practice evil
However, he allows them a choice whether to accept that salvation
If they do not, then they are excluded from the sin-free world he is creating.
Because he wants to include as many people as possible, he is letting evil continue for a short time to give more people a chance to repent and get saved.

So he is not only able and willing to do something about evil, he did it 2000 years ago.

Answer 4

Human beings can not understand God's decisions or His greatness. St. Augustine realized this when he was trying to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Evil comes from us. God is not responsible for evil people or things, he only lets these things exist because of us. Human beings are given the chance to decide on what they do and how they act. If they decide to be evil and create evil, then God lets them because He has promised us this kind of freedom. He is willing to help but will only help in a limited way that most of us will not recognize because of our choice. But it is also true that he always gives us chances to prevent the evil ourselves. It's for this reason that we still wake up every morning.

Answer 5

He is both able, and willing, and evil comes from us. Originally, Lucifer, an angel, in pride (a sin, and one which he had nothing in his nature to commit) attempted to usurp God's throne. He was banished and 1/3 of the host of Heaven left with him. He was banished to earth, tempted Eve into eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because he knew that if she ate it, Adam would. Eve was deceived and thus not directly responsible for her action, but Adam chose to eat, and by this sin entered into mankind. There was a divine purpose in all of this, of course, but God COULD have prevented it, and He still COULD stop it, but He doesn't want robots and He still has a plan that is unfolding even now. There is a day coming when all will know what His plan was, and all will fulfill that plan, for "Every knee shall bow, whether in heaven or on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Be thankful that God loved us so much that He sent His only begotten son to die for us so that we could be redeemed from our sins.

Answer 6

In Buddhism it is believed that evil is a result of a mind that is filled with ignorance. To escape the ignorant mind you have to learn that there is suffering, that the cause of suffering is this ignorance, that the cessation of suffering is possible and that there is a Noble 8 Fold Path that can be followed that leads to this cessation.

Where horrible events of nature, or so-called acts of God are concerned, it should be understood that we live in an imperfect world and all things in it are impermanent. A great part of our ignorance that causes us to act in unskillful ways comes from not "knowing" this. We grasp after items in the physical world (riches, power, lovers) only to find them ultimately unsatisfactory and this perpetuates the cycle of suffering (or turns the Wheel of Becoming).

To end the cycle you must learn to see the truth of yourself. This "self" is not real, it is a mental construct. It creates an ego who's entire function is to increase it's status as the real you. But you are not your thoughts, emotions and desires. Neither are all the things you see around you what you project them to be. This does not mean that the world is an illusion, it simply means that the world is what you make it when you are in illusion. If you can get your mind to be like a still forest pool, reflecting precisely what is around you, not judging, not grasping at it or pushing it away, then the cycle ceases. Your sense of duality ends and you see that you are not-self and that you and all the things around you are "empty" of a seperate self.

As for God, he neither controls this process nor, ultimately, is he a part of it.

Answer 7

A Good question. But be prepared not to get the straight answer. These lawyers of God will beat around the bush but will never give the exact answer for the question.

They consider that, whats happening is due to our free will (always the excuse) and it is a test. What bloody test when due to this you are supposed to be burning in hell fire till eternity??? Is that a justice of a loving and kind father? When god knows everything what is going to happen then why this explanation of free will is always given? either he dose not know and if he dose not then how could you say that he is omnipotent?

Answer 8

God is able and willing YET he is also love and love calls for free will for us humans to do what we want. For God to force us to do good is not really love. Even the devil God allows to do as he chooses, as he is a free created being. But God usually has a back up plan the devil can't refute and sometimes turns the devils bad intentions into something totally wonderful. Sometimes we can't see God's plan and sometimes we do later on.

Answer 9

G-d gave is free will for a reason - we choose to be evil - therefor evil happens- if He wouldn't have given us free will then the world would be perfect cuz He would be controlling it.
I look at life as an experiement of G-d's gone bad - He trusted us to use His gift of life and knowledge and we take it for granted - we use it for evil - don't blame G-d blame us.
Just because He only chooses to intervine when He fills the need does not make Him anyless all knowing or malecious.
G-d does enough good to counter the bad.
Truth is we only KNOW what we THINK we know of G-d there is not confirmation or fact of G-d existing until we die and meet Him in Heaven

Answer 10

God is willing and able to prevent evil by acceptance of His Son Jesus as your Lord and your Savior. Evilness comes from human beings. Not God. He has no need to be placed in a certain descriptive category by mere humans.

Answer 11

Its flawed logic. There are too many replies but I'll go with:

Its a test, therefore making it perfect would not make it a test anymore.
How do you know what evil is? So what if people die, everyone dies, its the long run which counts and nobody will be wronged. All affairs will be evened out and justice done.

Also the nature of something which is omnipotent cannot be questioned with human logic. We were living in caves not too long ago.