God exists, Evil Exists… Is that a problem?

Many people who believe that God does not exist will cite the fact that evil exists to disprove God. And even many who are Christians have serious problems with it. I’ll try to give a cliff note version of a compilation of several books and websites, along with my own thoughts, I have read on it and if you are interested, check them out for more in depth answers. Let me start with an email forward I received last year.

Does evil exist?

The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists? A student bravely replied, “Yes, he did!”

“God created everything? The professor asked.

“Yes sir”, the student replied.

The professor answered, “If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil”. The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, “Can I ask you a question professor?”

“Of course”, replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?”

“What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?” The students snickered at the young man’s question.

The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.”

The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?”

The professor responded, “Of course it does.”

The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”

Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?”

Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”

To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”

The professor sat down.

The young man’s name — Albert Einstein.

Well, I highly doubt that was Einstein who said it. And if may not have even occurred, but regardless, I think it is an interesting take on evil with some truth to it, so I wanted to share it to those who haven’t had it forwarded to them.

However, many will go more in depth with a philosophical argument. Their argument is essentially the following:

1. The Christian God is all-powerful and all-loving.
2. If he is all-powerful, then he is able to end all evil.
3. If he is all-loving, then he wants to end all evil.
4. But evil still exists.
5. Therefore, the Christian God does not exist.

Well, as a Christian, I agree that the first one is true. The Bible supports that claim. As for number 2, if you believe in free will, then you can say that God cannot prevent evil committed by beings who freely choose to commit those evils. In the movie Bruce Almighty, it expressed a similar problem.

BRUCE: “How do you make someone love you when you can’t affect free will?”
GOD: “Welcome to my world, son. You come up with an answer to that one, you let me know.”

In a world of free will, God cannot make anyone love Him and He cannot make anyone not commit evil, accidentally or intentionally. Therefore, you can cross out number 2 and you don’t have a problem.

1. The Christian God is all-powerful and all-loving.
2. If he is all-powerful, then he is able to end all evil.
3. If he is all-loving, then he wants to end all evil.
4. But evil still exists.
5. Therefore, the Christian God does not could still exist.

However, if you subscribe in God’s ultimate sovereignty with predestination, then, the problem seems to get even stickier. Because if everything is predestined, then God seems to have predestined evil to occur. So back to our original problem.

1. The Christian God is all-powerful and all-loving.
2. If he is all-powerful, then he is able to end all evil.
3. If he is all-loving, then he wants to end all evil.
4. But evil still exists.
5. Therefore, the Christian God does not exist.

I am now going to use the following website if you want to see this more in depth.

For the moment then we will concede 1 and 2. However, while a non-Biblical definition of love seems to support the truth of number 3, a Biblical definition of Love and a Biblical definition of God do not necessarily contradict. The Bible talks about God’s love and evil through the Old and New Testament without seeming to see the two as opposites. So really, the non-believer must prove that a Biblical definition of God and a Biblical definition of God’s love are incompatible. It’s hard if not impossible to do so! However, even if you concede number 3, you will see it does not have to lead to the premise that God must not exist.

1. The Christian God is all-powerful and all-loving.
2. If he is all-powerful, then he is able to end all evil.
3. If he is all-loving, then he wants to end all evil.
4. But evil still exists.
5. Therefore, God has a good purpose for evil.

1. The Christian God is all-powerful and all-loving.
2. If he is all-powerful, then he is able to end all evil.
3. If he is all-loving, then he wants to end all evil.
4. But evil still exists.
5. Therefore, God will eventually destroy evil.

As the author of the website says, “Without immediately stating whether or not we think the above two arguments are valid or invalid, the point is that in a valid argument, the premises must necessarily and inevitably lead to the conclusion. However, in the argument from the problem of evil, the premises by no means necessarily and inevitably lead to the conclusion. Therefore, the argument from the problem of evil is invalid.”

The author ends his article with the following statement:

“I am able to show that the existence of evil does not contradict the love of God or the existence of God. In fact, the very concept of evil presupposes the existence of the Christian God. This God decreed the existence of evil for his own glory, and every aspect and instance of evil is under his precise control, and there is no standard higher than God to judge this decree as wrong. One day he will banish all sinners to endless torment in hell, so that every
instance of murder, theft, rape, and even every word that a man has spoken, will be accounted for. He will thus justly punish all sinners who have not trusted Christ for salvation, but his chosen ones will surely be saved.

“But how do you deal with evil? Given your worldview, how can you even have a meaningful and universal concept of evil? How do you explain its origin and continuation? Can you offer an effective or even guaranteed solution to defeat evil? Can you set forth universally applicable and binding reasons against such things as genocide and racism? How can your worldview make moral demands on someone that does not subscribe to it? Given your worldview, is there final and perfect justice for anyone? If not, what is your solution or explanation for that? How can you define justice in the first place? Why must a person from another nation or culture recognize your so-called rights?

“If you cannot give adequate answers to these and thousands of other questions on the basis of your worldview and intellectual commitments without self-contradiction, then it is evident that the existence of evil means the destruction of your worldview, whereas it poses no threat at all to mine. You are a hypocrite for even mentioning the problem as an objection to Christianity”

I won’t deny that is pretty hardcore right there. But the author hits a chord I am familiar with. Christianity has such a double standard against it. If people applied the same skepticism to non-Biblical history as they do to the Bible, purely on a historical basis, we would have no virtual account of Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, or many others. And while people will be quick to use evil and other things to disprove God, their own world view often does not seem to adequately explain it either.

The point of the series I have been writing on this blog with evolution, creation, etc, are not to prove God exists. Although I think that is the rational conclusion. However, they are written to prove that evolution, string theory, evil, etc, do not disprove God, even though they are commonly cited to do so.

Whatever you decide, it’s a big decision. Don’t eliminate the Christian God as a possibility because others may have closed their mind to His existence. Their arguments against Him are not as strong as they would like to think.
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Update on 4-17-07

Given the troubling and sickening actions perpetrated yesterday at Virgina Tech by Cho Seung-Hui, it is no surprise that I noticed this was by receiving a large number of hits today. The question of “Why?” this could happen, how this could happen- it’s troubling. I can say that I am sure God is even more repulsed by this action, and yet, to many of you reading this, that may not be enough. You may wonder, “Why didn’t God stop this?”

We can never know that for sure in this life. Romans 8:28 states that in “In all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, in accordance with His purpose.” I have no doubt that good will come of this, much like the way that the nation rallied together in the wake of 9-11. That said, clearly, it was a horrible and tragic action that may shake much of our faith in humanity. Don’t let it. We can’t change the past, but we can change the future. Clearly, Cho Seung-Hui had issues; that goes without saying. But surely his violence was at least partially facilitated by the treatment he received from others. It was not a logical or proportional response, by any means, but in the news that is thus far released, he was described as a loner without many friends. The note he wrote prior to his massacre in the classroom contained an explanation of his actions and states, “You caused me to do this,” ABC News reported. It also railed against “rich kids,” “debauchery” and “deceitful charlatans” on campus, according to the Chicago Tribune.

To honor those who lost their lives, we must make that tragedy mean something. We must look within and change. Or else, we might be feeding the hatred of the next Cho Seung-Hui. For more of my suggestions on where we go from here, check out my post written yesterday on Another School Shooting. God bless.

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• It “feels” like it’s okay, so it must be…
• The Importance of Prayer
• Those Who Lie Beneath Aim to Elevate the Evil

~ by unclewormwood on January 3, 2007.