The Real Problem of Evil

Copyright 2020 by Donald R. Tveter, don@dontveter.com

Beta version from May 7, 2020

This document may be freely distributed provided it is complete and unchanged.


If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be.
-- Yogi Berra


After I became a Christian, at first, I just read and studied the Bible to find out what was in there. Several years later, I started looking at the science issues involved in the Bible, you know, like miracles and evolution vs. creation, for instance. Then I ran into the atheists on the internet in some discussion groups. I found out that they had no understanding of Christianity at all. They had no idea what God is really doing in this world.

One of their favorite arguments against the existence of God is their problem of evil argument. It looks like it started with the old Greek philosopher, Epicurus. In short, the argument says that if God existed He should have made the world a nicer place than it is. Since there is plenty of pain and suffering in the world, either God does not exist or He does not care about us or He is just not powerful enough to stop evil. But this argument against God starts with a false assumption.

The faulty assumption is that in a perfect world, people would automatically BE perfect. There would be no problems at all. No sickness, no hatred, no diseases, no natural disasters, no selfishness. Everyone would be perfectly happy with a perfect world and behave themselves perfectly. But, of course, WE know people won't be perfect even in a perfect world. You can go all the way back to the Adam and Eve situation where Adam and Eve were in paradise and they sinned anyway. Sin is just something that naturally occurs to us. We take to sin like ducks take to water. God knows we will sin. God knew Adam and Eve would sin. God also knows that if we are exposed to the pain and suffering that come from sin, that some of us will stop wanting to sin. We will want a better, perfect world. And we find out that God can give us that better, perfect world if we will surrender our selfishness and let Him make us over into perfect people.

I actually like to think of sin as selfishness. In selfishness, we decide what is best for us, not what is best for everyone else. In being selfish we don't do what God wants, we do what WE want. So I am often going to use selfish and selfishness in place of sin from now on.

Well, I need to describe the situation here on Earth in more detail and then I will give you some examples of what atheists have said and show you why they are terribly wrong.

So another way to describe our situation here on Earth is that God is EDUCATING us about selfishness. God is educating us about selfishness by letting us go around doing many of the sinful (selfish) things that we want. God knows we really NEED that first hand, hands on EXPERIENCE with selfishness. This is not just something we can learn about by reading a book. We need to experience real pain and suffering. God knows we need a real taste of Hell, right here on Earth! Besides our personal suffering, we can look at all the crazy things going on in the world. We have wars, natural disasters, crooked politicians, greedy people, diseases and here in Lima, we have people driving cars who make left turns from the right lane and right turns from the left lane! Of course, if you are really smart, you can read the Bible, take God's rules seriously and avoid a lot of pain and suffering. There is a strange little quote, and no one knows where it actually started. It is, "Learn from the mistakes of others because you'll never live long enough to make them all yourself". That's great advice but God knows we still need a sample of the real thing, of real pain and suffering when we sin.

One of those issues that atheists always make a big deal about are natural disasters. For instance, some years ago there was a terrible earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia that killed 250,000 people. The atheists were saying, "Where was your God then?" I have not had time to check with the atheists on the net lately but I am absolutely sure they are talking about the corona virus and saying "Where is your God now?". But then I say, well, lots of people simply don't want God around. So it is not surprising that God is showing us what a world without Him is like. God is, in effect, saying, "Oh, so you don't want me around? OK, fine, then YOU figure out a way to prevent earthquakes, diseases, storms and death. Those are your problems now, not mine, because you don't want me around! You don't want to listen to me!"

So God injects pain and suffering into the world to get people's attention. People are busy with work, family, sports, politics, entertainment, SOCIAL MEDIA, (that's a big one these days, SOCIAL MEDIA). And there are all sorts of other things people think about so that they never bother to think about life, death, God and eternity and why the world is so messed up. If God gives a person a heart attack, a stroke, cancer or something else that causes pain and suffering, then a person is forced to stop all that busy stuff and actually think about life, death, God and eternity. If pain and suffering is what is needed to get people to think about these things and it gets people saved, then producing pain and suffering in the short run is really quite a good deal in the long run. I am sure that the corona virus is God's plan to get a lot of people saved RIGHT NOW.

Then I ran into a case in a Facebook discussion group where a woman was complaining that it was cruel and unfair of God to inflict painful, fatal cancers on children. Her thought was that little children are innocent so why should they have to suffer? This is a good question. The answer is that it is not just the person who suffers that God is working on, who is being educated about sin, it is all their family and friends that God is working on. Of course, most of all, it would be the parents of the child. These people all need to step back from their busy lives and do some thinking about life, death, God, eternity and what is really important in the long run. And now, note: when that innocent child gets to heaven it will be very happy to know that what it had to suffer got it parents and perhaps other family members saved.

Now notice that God did not exempt Himself from suffering. Jesus was as innocent as a baby. He did not sin at all. Yet He died a very painful death on the cross. In order to get us to pay attention to Him.

Of course now, with the corona virus, a lot of people are suffering too. But in the end, maybe not right now, but in the end, you will be happy with God's plan to get lots of people saved RIGHT NOW by using the corona virus to make people stop and think about important things. Can you imagine that? Some day you will be happy about the suffering you are going through now!

Here is another example from the atheists that I ran into in a Facebook discussion group. It had to do with the case of God allowing people to rape children. It said:
You either have a God who sends child rapists to rape children or you have a God who simply watches and says: "When you're done I'm going to punish you".

If I could stop a person from raping a child, I would. That's the difference between me and your God.
So, first, the person who said this believes she is superior to the God of the Bible because she cares more than God. Of course she doesn't even believe in the God of the Bible, she just wants to embarrass Christians who do believe in the God of the Bible.

Atheists always inspire me and this case was no exception. So I posted a reply. The following is an improved version of that reply.

So you want God to intervene to stop children from being raped?

But would you like God to intervene to stop you from speeding on the highways? (Because speeding kills!)

Would you like God to intervene to stop you from lying? (Because lies hurt people too!)

Would you like God to intervene to stop unmarried people from having sex? Because even if it feels good now, sooner or later sex outside of marriage will cause suffering. Maybe disease. Maybe it will produce a child without a father who grows up to join a gang and kills some people. Or maybe the child will become a drug user and a drug seller. And that ruins more lives.

Then would you like God to intervene to stop abortions? Because, abortion is, after all, murder!


I can imagine what people would say if God did intervene in these and similar situations. Can you imagine what they would say?

Well, another classic case is the case of Nazi Germany. God could have stopped Hitler from invading his neighbors and killing lots of people, but He didn't. Does this prove there is no God? No. It was actually done to show us how bad people can be. It really showed the German people how bad they can be! If God did not show us exactly how bad people can be, we would never know exactly how bad people can be. So it is like I said, life on Earth is designed to be educational, not perfect.

So it is time to summarize the situation. Once people here on Earth have been educated about evil and what a world without God is like, God basically goes around asking people if they are happy with this world and themselves or would they rather be perfect and live in a better, perfect world. This better world is a world WITH God and it can only be achieved by giving up your sinful (selfish) nature and asking God to make you over into a new and perfect person. Clearly, some people do accept the lesson and go on to follow God. They make it to that perfect world. Clearly other people (and the Bible says most people) are content with the way they are. So they're happy with being sinful (selfish) people. They go on to Hell, a place that is filled with totally selfish people.

Then the flaw in the atheists' Problem of Evil argument comes from the fact that FIRST, FIRST, God must educate us about good and evil, which is to say unselfish and selfish. Once you are educated, you can choose the life you want for all eternity. So THIS world is perfect for God's goal to educate people about good and evil. I can't emphasize that enough. God's goal in creating this world AS IT IS, is to educate us. It is PERFECT for educating us about good and evil. Heaven would not be heavenly if it was filled with totally selfish people. So people who want to be selfish have to be "weeded out". And that is what is done here on Earth. We have to go through this education before we can qualify for heaven.

One final thought. It turns out, there is a REAL Problem of Evil. The real problem of evil is why so many people want to be sinful (your could say, selfish, or evil) rather than good and why do so many people not want there to be a God? Why don't people want to be happy with God? Why would they rather be unhappy without Him? It doesn't make any sense, does it? There is THE real problem of evil.