The Problem of Evil

When I was a Christian, I used to ignore the problem of evil. And though I never had a concrete answer as to why there was evil, I nevertheless continued believing for many years regardless. Sure, there was evil, but even if I don't know why it's here, surely God must! Or so I thought. Every now and then I'd ask the question "If God created everything, then did he create evil?". But if that was true, then how could God be good? Despite lacking an intelligent answer, I believed in God for many more years.

But since turning to atheism, or more accurately, non-belief, I've been able to have a better look at evil. Where as I used to ask questions only in so far as they did not change my belief in God, now I can look at things and not be worried about what effect they might have on my beliefs. I'm more interested in making intelligent, reasonable observations then using faith to support a worldview. so if anyone has any advice, criticism to make of me, feel free.

Anyway, back to evil. Now when I look at evil, I see something completely incompatible with an all-loving God. With the amount of evil in the world, how can one believe in a benevolent God? Especially an all-powerful one? A much better man called Epicurus summed this up nicely.

"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

The above quote highlights all logical possibilities regarding the presence of evil and a God. Reality simply doesn't add up. Christians believe that God is omnipotent (all-powerful) and all-loving, while seeing evil everyday. If God is all-powerful and all-loving, then where did evil come from? Surely, most Christians would say that God is willing that evil should be gone, and that he has the power to get rid of it, but if that's true, then why does it linger on?

What perfect, all-loving God would let any evil remain in the world if he had both the will and the power to destroy it forever? What perfect, all-loving God would create humans with the capacity not only to murder each other, but also with the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and terrible methods of torture?

Some will say that evil remains only because God lets it, but why would he let it remain if he had the power to remove it?

Even if we go back to the beginning of the bible into the garden of Eden, it still doesn't add up. God seriously fucked up. Here he is, creating the world in all it's glory in JUST 7 DAYS! He made it good and saw that it was good. He created man and gave him dominion over all the animals. Oh man, this God was the best. No one could outsmart him. No one could foresee more than him. No one was more powerful than he.

Adam and Eve are hanging out in the garden, having the time of their lives (well it's their first day isn't it...), naming the animals, when God gives them one rule. JUST ONE RULE! The rule was, don't eat from tree in the middle of the garden for you will surely die.

OK STOP.

Why the fuck did he put the tree there in the first place? Excuse the language, but wouldn't a God of supreme attributes know better? I mean, even I would know not to put a tree in the garden of Eden if I knew it would kill someone I'd created. But God, in his divine excellence, not only put the tree there, but he put it there with full knowledge that Adam and Eve would eat from it. You'd think he was trying to set them up, you know, frame them. And what do you know... they eat it, God gets mad, kicks them out of the garden, and eventually they die. Couldn't God have solved all the problems of the last 6000 years (well we are talking Genesis...), by simply not putting the tree in the garden? He would have been able to let humans go on living blissfully free, completely unaware of good and evil... but no, he created man in his own image, gave him a rule, gave him exactly what he needed to break that rule, cursed man, and now we get blamed for it? Give me a break.

An all-loving, all-powerful God is a logical impossibility. It is completely in contradiction to reality. I can't believe it took me so long to understand this. I'm open to a good explanation of why God put evil in the world, but please, tell me something I haven't heard before.