The most common answer here will be: evil must be allowed to have free will. This is simply not true. If we are speaking of an omnipotent God that created the entire universe and any extra dimensional space we can't observe, then couldn't he have come up with something better? If not and this was the only way free will could exist, then why have it when having it means horrible things will happen to your people? Babies being raped to death, mass genocide, beheadings, starvation etc. Wouldn't a God that cared about his people realize that free will is not worth the mass destruction caused by the human race? Not to mention such atrocities as disease, which is not a necessary component for free will's existence, that also flourishes in this environment here on earth. What is its purpose? The questions asked here are rhetorical, the main question stands.
1 Answers
Free Will is a Necessity for Love. Evil is a Necessity for Nothing.
God’s original creation was perfect. It included free will and did not include evil1. Why would God create free will? Because true love is impossible without it. God could be said to have created the capacity for evil, but that is not the same as creating evil. What the omnipotent God has always sought from us is love. That is the only goal. That evil could exist for a time is a byproduct of God’s created order, but it was never inherent in creation. Evil exists because we rebelled against God.
Could an Omnipotent God have a Purpose for Evil?
The crux of your complaint has to do with the consequences of someone else’s (evil) choices. Why does the all-powerful God allow innocent people to suffer the consequences of someone else’s choices?
In general, the unpleasant consequences for our rebellious choices is meant to help us by steering us away from those choices. How could the suffering of innocent people be justified? Perhaps we would not understand the very destructive, permeating nature of our sin if we did not observe the tragedy it foists upon others. We like to pretend that our sins only hurt us, but that is lie we tell ourselves in an attempt to make our sin seem less bad. Our sin affects people around us: people who depend on us, people who love us, people who expect us not to crash into them when they’re driving on the same road as us, etc.
The pain caused by the consequences of sin has the potential to teach us something important. Rather than imagining God to be vindictive in his punishment, it makes more sense to consider that if he loves us, he will want us to turn from our sin, and will use pain to get our attention. Ravi Zacharias tells a story of a girl who was born without the ability to feel pain. Her life is in constant jeopardy because pain is the means by which a normal human body tells you something is wrong. She feels none, and so she has no way of sensing the peril she is in and reacting to it. Our pain is unpleasant, but it is vitally important to our own well-being—even if the pain is because of someone else’s choices.
Could an Omnipotent God Use Suffering, Too?
This is not explicitly in the question, but it is in your remarks.
The corruption that our sin brought into the world means that pain and suffering are simple realities that will never go away in this life. What purpose could an omnipotent god have for allowing undeserved suffering?
Ever since the fall, the world has been corrupted. God’s perfect creation has been defaced and spoiled, and only in death/destruction will that ever change. The pain that we must endure in this life is certainly meant to produce in us a longing for that perfect world that we willingly abandoned.2
Jesus distilled the meaning of eternal life as “knowing God.” (Jn 17:3) This is the entire purpose of our existence. It was in the beginning, and still is, though now we have made it more difficult. The injustice we feel when witnessing or experiencing suffering should lead us to want something better, and the only satisfying object of that desire is God himself. Suffering has this purpose, at least. The death of a loved one should make us long for a companion who will not die. Loneliness and rejection should make us yearn for a friend who loves us and will not leave or reject us. The very things that we need are those things that mortal, fallible human beings cannot guarantee us, but God can provide those things.
The Omnipotent God did not design us for any greater purpose than loving him. While he has the power to prevent pain and suffering, he chooses not do so at least some of the time. Rather, he uses pain and suffering to help us understand the truth, because he loves us and wants us to love him.
1 What about Satan? Was he created evil? The fact that God condemns Satan for his choices at least suggests that he was not. We are not plainly told much of Satan’s origins, but the simplest explanation that makes sense of the facts we have is that he chose to rebel against God. The original assertion stands: God’s original creation did not include evil.
2 What about innocent children? Why do they suffer never having had a chance to make such choices? Some might argue that children are never wholly innocent, only ignorant, of their sin. The weight behind the question is about having to live with this pain, and being alive means having an opportunity to grow. The death of children is devastatingly sad, but it is not the topic of this question.
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Knowing God’s mind is impossible unless he tells us, and even then, it’s likely to be a simplified answer. Any attempt to answer the question is, at best, a deduction with a healthy amount of speculation. Such speculation can be checked against what is known, but no answer can be known to be true. The most we can shoot for is an answer that rings true, making sense of what we know to be true and our own experiences. – mojo May 14 '14 at 05:14
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Indeed. This is the human experience in all aspects of life, from Stone Age astronomy through Aristotle and Ptolemy to the Hubble Deep Field. It's no different with knowing God: he reveals what we're ready for. – Andrew Leach May 14 '14 at 06:38
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And the fact of the matter is that all observable evidence conflicts with the justifications that religious people put forth. It's quite simple, no loving, all powerful God would put mankind through such atrocities as the holocaust, mass genocide, starvation, murder, torture etc in order to "test" them. With the infinite amount of possible alternatives that an omnipotent God could come up with in order to test his creation, I doubt that such he would conclude that what we have is the best. – user3138766 May 14 '14 at 17:53
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1@user3138766 What observable evidence do you have to give you confidence in your assessment that "no loving, all powerful God would..."? – mojo May 14 '14 at 17:56
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You prove my point exactly. You people don't know what you even believe in. You believe in this all loving god but then when you come upon a question that ultimately leads to your God being evil, you justify that evil. You are a disgusting person. – user3138766 May 15 '14 at 02:00
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1@user3138766 By what standard do you objectively judge good and evil? – mojo May 15 '14 at 02:38
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There is no way to objectively judge good or evil. All I need as evidence is death and mayhem all around the earth running rampant. Take disease for instance, it is not a necessary component for the existence of free will, therefore why was it created? Why would your God that loves you so much want disease to cripple you and eat you alive, or maybe even your entire family will become diseased and they will die before your very eyes. This is when you will be enlightened, as there is no logical explanation for why your God, an all loving God, would do that to you. – user3138766 May 15 '14 at 02:42
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@user3138766 I claim that death (and pain/suffering) entered the world when human beings rebelled against God and chose death for themselves. Disease, for example is just one of many means by which death and suffering come. – mojo May 15 '14 at 02:46
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If God is all powerful and all knowing, then he would have foreseen the destruction that his creation would impose on itself. No all powerful, all knowing, omnipotent God would make such a mistake. The truth is, you know it inside. You do not want to let go of this because you feel like you will lose something great. Trust me, your loss is really a gain. – user3138766 May 15 '14 at 02:50
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1You say that my God is an "all loving" God as if you're using a Christian description of God. Christianity does not claim that love is God's only defining characteristic. He is also wise, just, and righteous. – mojo May 15 '14 at 02:51
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The truth is, I want to know the truth. You have not yet offered me something substantial to replace my worldview. You recommend discarding the one I currently have, but is yours more logical? Does it provide a better explanation of reality? – mojo May 15 '14 at 02:54
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My view logically disestablishes your view. You said, "Christianity does not claim that love is God's only defining characteristic. He is also wise, just, and righteous." This statement itself proves that you are backing away from the premise that your God is all loving. This should awaken you from your blindness. Why are you following a God that you know is evil? I do not seek to explain reality because there is simply no way to do so with our current understanding of nature. All I ask of you is to think very hard about who or what you are worshiping. – user3138766 May 15 '14 at 04:32
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Where does the premise that "my God is all loving" come from? This is an incomplete description of the Christian god. Can you demonstrate that this is a standard Christian understanding of God? Your view might logically disestablish a god who only loves and nothing else, but this is a straw man fallacy. The Christian god isn't so one-dimensional. – mojo May 15 '14 at 04:59
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You will never get it will you? I'm finished arguing, it is useless. – user3138766 May 15 '14 at 15:27