One of the most annoying arguments against the existence of God (from the perspective of the believer) is that of the "Problem of Evil." To sum it up very simply, the problem of evil says this:
God is all-good, all-loving, and all powerful. Evil plainly exists in the world. Therefore, either God cannot suppress evil, in which case he is not all-powerful, or God does not choose to suppress evil, in which case he is not all-good, and probably not all-loving. In either case, God does not exist as defined in the Bible.
Many, many theologians over the centuries have tried to explain how the above is incorrect. I've seen many attempts to do so, and some are just ludicrous.
One, for example, says that evil is not actually real in a positive sense (as opposed to goodness), but rather, a lack of goodness. Therefore, evil has no more reality than, say, the hole in a bagel. When you make a bagel, you don't put together the bagel dough and the hole. Rather, the dough is the sum total of the bagel. The hole is just "lack of bagelness." Those who make this argument (though probably not with reference to baked goods) say that evil is nothing more than a "byproduct," so we shouldn't regard it as something that had to be created by God.
This is, of course, hogwash.
Evil is not merely the absence of good, because good and evil are not the only two options with regard to behavior. There is a neutral state in between, actions that are neither good nor evil. Theologians who seek to dismiss evil cavalierly, as with the "byproduct" analogy, are not being intellectually honest. It takes a deliberate effort to commit an evil act, and (if we're talking about creation) a deliberate act by the creator for it to exist at all. Otherwise, we'd all be running around committing acts only of good or indifference, but no evil.
The other big issue with regard to evil is how many theists will dismiss apparently evil acts committed by (or permitted by) God. For example, the recent atrocities committed against America by certain hijackers. The entire atheist community is able to point to these events and say, "Why did your all-loving God allow such a horrendous thing to happen?"
And this is a very valid point. Throughout the ages, there have been atrocities, many of which (such as the holocaust) make this event pale by comparison. Would an all-loving, all-good God allow such evil acts to happen? If so, how could he be loving or good at all?
Many theists will say, "Those actions were caused by humans. God gave us free will, for better or worse, and he won't stop us from exercising it."
This raises three flags in my mind:
The first is that if there's an all-powerful God, then we most certainly do not have free will. (See related article here.)
The second is that, if God won't alter the actions of humans exercising their free will, why do people pray? Praying is often an appeal to God to do exactly that, to stop someone else from exercising their free will. So praying would effectively be a waste of time in these instances. (For that matter, it's always a waste of time. Not just because there's no God, but because even if there were, what kind of fickle creator would it be if his decisions, which should be perfect decisions, could be swayed by the prayers of even one individual?)
And the third is that this whole argument is just stupid. Would any good and loving parent allow one of their children to hurt or kill another child? Is there anything loving or good about permitting such a thing?
Now, many will counter this by saying, "God does everything for our own good, even if it may not seem that way at the time." To which I say, "If God is that inscrutable… if actions that seem heinous to us are actually loving and good from God's perspective… then how can anyone, and I mean anyone, claim to know anything about this creature?"
Another insipid remark: "God takes some people early because he needs or wants them with him in heaven." Please. God is allegedly perfect, which would mean that there is nothing in the universe that he either needs or wants. Further, to an eternal being, a human lifetime is but the blink of an eye. Is God so impatient that he can't wait another few decades before the person dies of natural causes?
And what about suffering? The theist will claim that suffering is good for the soul, or some other claptrap. God makes us suffer because it builds character or something. Get real. If God wanted us to have character, he could surely figure out some way other than suffering for us to gain it.
And there are some other things that totally perplex me. For example, after the World Trade Center towers crashed, rescue workers moved in to begin digging out the rubble, searching for survivors. Why, I want to know, did God decide this was a good time for it to rain? Weather doesn't have free will. God caused or permitted it to rain on these rescue workers, slowing their progress and making it dangerous for them to continue. Why would a loving, good God do that? To build more character? These people have character out the wazoo. No one could possibly deny that.
But what about non-humans? I heard on the radio not long ago that there was a nasty hailstorm recently. Golf ball sized hailstones. (Maybe God was on the driving range.) And during this storm, fifteen hundred white pelicans were killed. Pummeled to death by God's golf balls. Since animals allegedly have no souls, God certainly wasn't bringing them to heaven. And unquestionably, these animals suffered. So the question is why. Why would God (all-loving and all-good, remember) deliberately kill fifteen hundred white pelicans - an endangered species, by the way - in such a terrible fashion? Why would he kill them at all? And how in the world can anyone say it was done out of love and goodness? By any human understanding, such an action should qualify as evil, if anything could.
So… the problem of evil. Quite a quandary for the believer.
But for the non-believer, it's easy to understand. There is no evil, because there is no God. Evil, as I've written elsewhere, is a purely religious term. Bad things do happen, obviously, but they are much easier to understand when God is out of the equation.
