The problem of evil is simultaneously one of the best arguments against God, and one of the worst. It's among the best because you can see why it might work, especially in the minds of the uninformed. But it's one of the worst in several ways, starting with the lack of excuse for being so uninformed. With such ease of access the internet, there is no excuse for not knowing the answer. Or, more accurately, answers. The problem of evil is so flawed that there are several answers.
One of them is that people who use the existence of evil as an argument against God obviously don't believe in Him. Yet, somehow, they still believe in evil. This, in itself, is problematic, because if there is no God, there is no evil. But we won't get into that in this article. Let us instead examine the self-destructive hypocrisy of the argument that if God exists, He is evil, because He created it.
If God does not exist, but evil does exist, whence commeth evil? You can speculate a lot as an atheist, but obviously, you cannot say "it was created by God". Yet, it exists. How, then, would it magically become God's fault if He existed? It wouldn't, and it couldn't, because the same thing that causes evil when you claim God doesn't exist must logically cause evil while He does.
As it happens, we are that thing. For 6,000 years, man has been in rebellion against God. From the moment Adam stole the forbidden fruit, right up until the present moment, mankind has been evil. That poses God with a bit of a dilemma. He hates evil, and of course it is well within His abilities to destroy it. But He loves humanity. Destroying evil means destroying people He loves. What, then, is He to do?
Thankfully, God knew we would fall into sin before it happened, and He knew how to solve it. Rather than punishing us as we deserve the minute we deserve it, He let history play out, setting into motion the plan He made before He even created the heavens and the earth. When the time was right, He sent Jesus to live a perfect human life, culminating with His death on the cross. There, Jesus suffered the punishment for all evil. All who repent of their sin, and believe in the Lord Jesus, will be forgiven for their sins, and restored to God. When this life ends, eternal life begins. There, there will be no evil, for the worst of sinners will enjoy the fruit of his repentance: A perfect relationship with God.
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An attempted response from an atheist
When this article was originally published as a post on the God Squad Apologetics Facebook page, an atheist attempted to respond with the following:
"Evil does not exist in the grand scale. In the end, it doesn't even matter. How can we possibly measure any of this? If a man walks in and shoots me dead, my loved one would call it ''evil''. However, the coffin guy wouldn't call it evil. If there are no dead people, how would he make his money? In an atheistic worldview, pain and evil are necessary. We just tend to call things that favour us ''good''. We kill other living things we eat for food. It seems good to us, doesn't it? If those animals have a concept of good and evil, they will definitely call us ''evil''? As an atheist, I believe it's all subjective."
This is a surprising display of honesty. Most atheists will attempt to defend the idea that good and evil exist, and seek to justify it within their worldview, which of course is the very foundation of the problem of evil argument. This one, however, acknowledges that in the "grand scale", he doesn't believe evil exists. It is, in his own words, all subjective.
To back up his claims, he posed a scenario in which he is brutally murdered by a gunman. His loved one would call it evil, the man who sells his coffin would not. Right? As it turns out, wrong. See, while undertakers do capitalise on the tragic inevitability of death, they are human, and so are rarely so selfish as to rejoice over murder. Even if murder puts money in their pocket, they still say the murder itself was evil. In fact, it is safe to say the atheist is being silly when he says "if there are no dead people, how would he make his money?" There are lots of ways to make money. Sell food and drink, build houses, clean cars, create luxuries. The undertaker profession is profitable only because people die, people do not die for sake of undertakers.
So, let's steelman his case and instead point out that there is one industry in which murder is rejoiced over: The abortion industry. The abortion industry makes its money primarily by murdering the most vulnerable members of society, and its proponents do champion the way in which it favors them. Specifically? Sex without "consequence".
Now, already we hit an inconsistency in calling babies a "consequence" of sex. To quote Ronald Reagan, "I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born." This points out the hypocrisy of calling children a "consequence" of sex, because we are all such consequences. But setting that aside, we actually see morality that is completely contrary to the atheist's standards in sex.
When you take away things like "unwanted" pregnancies, sex rarely harms us. When two consenting adults engage in sexual activities, who is harmed? Of course, there are still exceptions. STIs and STDs, for example. We would obviously regard someone who knowingly risks passing these on as evil. Notice first, therefore, that we hold the people accountable, not the disease. This distinguishes man from nature. We can be held accountable because we are not mere chemistry. We are morally distinct, and we know it.
But let's take the diseases away, and the "risk" of pregnancy. In fact, let's just talk about homosexuality. See, as an ex-gay, I have personal experience in this regard. When I became a Christian, I was gay. If I was not a Christian, I may well have continued to this very day. Now, the only non-benefit I have ever received from homosexuality is the guilt of having practiced it. Thus, it cannot be said that I call it evil because it didn't benefit me. Our sexual preferences, provided we can practice them safely, or at least practice them with the illusion of safety, are pleasurable to us, and so we are not always motivated to call them evil. Yet, guilt may still exist.
All of the above shows us that morality does not correspond to personal benefit. Indeed, sometimes, we act against our own interests, and we call that good. See, for example, this article discussing the moral implications of two friends who encounter a grenade.
All of this brings us back to the atheist's original question "how can we possibly measure any of this"? Answer: The law of God. See, the Bible describes morality as both an instinct that is inherent to man, and as something which can be refined by revelation. I like to compare this to fighting. Instinctively, we all know how to fight. You don't need to be taught that your head is especially important to protect, nor do you need to be taught that striking your enemy will cause them pain. However, it turns out, a shocking number of people don't even know how to make an efficient fist. You can take self defence classes, martial arts lessons, maybe even join the police or military, in order to increase your combat effectiveness.
In much the same way, the Bible tells us that all human beings have an innate knowledge that there is a God, and He has certain expectations of us. This is why we all recognise that things such as murder, theft, and adultery, are wrong, whereas we naturally obey our parents, or love our children. This, Scripture tells us, is the law "written on our hearts". But obviously, lacking direct revelation, we don't necessarily know God's laws. We can, sticking to our analogy, punch Satan, yet break our thumb due to an improperly formed fist.
This is ultimately why morality is objective, and we instinctively know it. Ultimately, we are not the judges, God is. And because God is the judge, it is He who determines right and wrong. He can tell us why even things which "benefit" us, in the short run, are not good, and in the long run, He will repay us according to all our deeds.
Or maybe He won't.
See, God, by His very nature, cannot tolerate sin. He must deal with it. This means if someone does shoot you in the head, or murder you in your mother's womb, or infect you with an STI, or even just commit some form of mutually consensual sexual sin with you, there must be consequences, as indeed there must be if you or I commit any of these deeds. Yet, in His love, God prefers mercy. Therefore, He has given us a choice. We can receive due penalty for our actions. However, the Bible certainly doesn't describe these consequences as being particularly pleasant. Therefore, option two is, as I stated in the initial article, to repent, and trust in Jesus as our Savior. Because He, though being innocent, died as a sinner, we, who are sinners, can be raised to eternal life as if we were innocent.