How can a good God allow so much Evil in the World?

In the James Bond movie, Casino Royale, Bond’s employer, M, says to Bond, “arrogance and self-awareness seldom go hand-in-hand". This statement is true for atheists, especially when they challenge God’s existence. One question they often ask is, “How can a good God allow so much evil in the world?”. They ask this question as the set up for some sort of “Gotcha” moment. The problem here, is that they are lacking the self-awareness to realize that in their attempt to “get” the Christians they ask this question to, they are actually conceding the existence of God and are instead questioning his nature. After all, how can any kind of God “allow” anything if he doesn’t exist to begin with? How can God have a nature if he doesn’t exist? The question of “How can a good God allow evil?” is doubly fallacious. It is a Loaded Question being utilized as a Red Herring.

A Loaded Question is an accusation disguised as a question. In order to ask a question, there must be an agreed upon truth. For example, in order for the question of “why is the sky blue?” to be asked, it must be agreed upon by both the asker of the question and the person being asked that the sky is indeed blue. If the sky is not blue, or if the person being asked doesn’t believe the sky is blue, then the conversation falls apart. A Loaded Question, makes an accusation rather than questioning an agreed upon fact. In the case of “How can a good God allow so much evil?” the accusation being made here is that God is not good.

A Red Herring, on the other hand, is a statement, or a question meant to distract from the actual subject being debated. It is frequently used when a person is losing a debate. When people are losing an argument, they will resort to all sorts of distractions and will do whatever they feel they must to steer the conversation away from the topic they are wrong in and instead drive it towards something else entirely. The question, “How can a good God allow so much evil?” concedes God’s existence and steers the conversation away from the question of God’s existence and instead brings God’s nature into question. If this question is entertained by the Christian, then they are instead debating whether or not God is good, evil, or neutral.

Now, against my better judgement, but with the understanding that the topic at hand is God’s nature and not his existence, I am going to entertain this question. I firmly believe that God is, in fact, good. I also agree that it is a dodge to blame all the evil in the world on free will or even the Devil because, let’s be honest, God created the Devil. He also gave us all free will. In the movie, “Nefarious”, the demon that possessed the inmate Edward, explains Hell’s side of the War in Heaven. He explains that from the moment of the angels’ creation, they pondered their existence and realized they had wills of their own. They viewed it as “slavery” to have free will, but get punished for using it. I find this point of view interesting, but at the same time incorrect. How can God give us free will and then punish us for using it? He gave us the option. He gave us the abilities to choose whether or not to follow him. A tyrannical, or evil, God wouldn’t give us the option. He wouldn't allow us to do anything against him. He would have only have created good things and wouldn’t have given us the inclinations to do evil. The twisted part is, we would still perceive him as good simply because we would be ignorant of evil. The difference here being we have a perception of good and evil and we still believe that God is good.

Before the abolishment of slavery in the United States, slave owners kept slaves ignorant of life beyond the plantation. Slave owners kept them ignorant of freedom, wages, and fair treatment. Most of them died on the same plantations they were born on. Not many slaves attempted to flee their bondage, prior to the Underground Railroad, due to the fact that the plantations were all they knew. Such would be the case for us here on earth if God did not give us the options to make our own choices, even poor choices. So, I put it to the atheists, what part of having consequences for your decisions do you have an issue with? The “choices” part? Or the “consequences” part? I don’t have any problem with the consequences of my actions because I always try to make the right choice.

Nobody complains about the positive outcomes of their good choices, but many people complain about the negative outcomes of their poor choices. They get angry and point their fingers at God because they don't want to admit that their terrible experiences are their own fault. Yet they never seem to give God credit for anything that goes right in their lives. They take the credit for themselves. Got a promotion and a pay raise at work? "I deserve it". Got fired from your job? "It's God's fault".

Now I put the challenge to you, reader of this article: either give God credit for everything in your life, both positive and negative, and recognize that Evil is a side effect of free will or continue to deny his existence and own up to all aspects of your own life, even the bad parts. I don't personally care which you choose, but be consistent and stop being a hypocrite.