The Problem of Evil
The Problem of Evil has a history of challenging the existence of God, albeit for good reason. In a world of rampant, grotesque, and persistent evil, it's difficult to understand why, if God exists, He would allow such awful things to occur. It would seem as though either God chooses to do nothing or, simply, that He isn't there to begin with. Evil, it is argued, is logically incompatible with the existence of God. So, since evil exists, God must not exist. The argument can also be formulated in the following syllogism:
1) If God exists, then God is omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect.
2) If God is omnipotent, then God has the power to eliminate all evil.
3) If God is omniscient, then God knows when evil exists.
4) If God is morally perfect, then God has the desire to eliminate all evil.
5) Evil exists.
6) If evil exists and God exists, then either God doesn’t have the power to eliminate all evil, or doesn’t know when evil exists, or doesn’t have the desire to eliminate all evil.
Therefore,
7) God doesn’t exist.
A Morally Sufficient Reason
At first glance, the argument seems pretty solid and the conclusion follows necessarily. In fact, all of those premises seem true, but they lack one very important aspect about God's character: His ability to bring about some good out of evil. We know this to be the case of Joseph and his brothers (Gen 50:20). This is most obviously true with the crucifixion of Jesus. We also know this to be the case in our own lives. Take, for instance, those of us who regard the vaccination of our children as a moral good. Of course, to the child, they only know the pain of the vaccination, unable to even conceive of the reason why their mother or father, who loves them dearly, would willingly allow someone to inflict such pain upon them. As we know, those parents have their children's best interest at heart and have a morally sufficient reason for permitting the pain that's inflicted on their child. Similarly, God could have a morally sufficient reason for permitting the evil in the world. If so, then the argument can be reformulated in the following way:
1) If God exists, then God is omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect.
2) If God is omnipotent, then God has the power to eliminate all evil, but might have a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil.
3) If God is omniscient, then God knows when evil exists, but might have a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil.
4) If God is morally perfect, then God has the desire to eliminate all evil, but might have a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil.
5) Evil exists.
6) If evil exists and God exists, then either God doesn’t have the power to eliminate all evil, or doesn’t know when evil exists, or doesn’t have the desire to eliminate all evil, or has a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil.
Therefore,
7) Either a) God doesn’t exist or b) God has a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil.
If it is even possible that God might have a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil, then the Problem of Evil is effectively neutralized. Therefore, there is no logical incompatibility between God and the existence of evil. For anyone who thinks otherwise, they would need to show that it is logically impossible for God to have a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil.
Evidence for God?
Interestingly, not only is the Problem of Evil neutralized, it turns out it is an argument for God's existence. If there are objectively evil things in the world, then we also know that there are objectively good things too. After all, as C.S. Lewis put it, you don't know a crooked stick is crooked unless you know what a straight stick looks like. The same is true about evil, you know what evil looks like because you know what good looks like too. As an example, it seems obvious that it is objectively wrong to torture a child for fun for the fact that we also know it is objectively good to love and care for a child. If it's true that there are objectively evil things and objectively good things, then we have identified a moral law. If there is a moral law, then there must be a moral law giver (i.e. God). Therefore, God exists.
Subjective Instead of Objective?
Of course, an objection might be raised that there aren't any objectively right or wrong things, just people's subjective opinion about right or wrong depending on the culture that they're in. For instance, someone might say "the holocaust wasn't objectively wrong, but rather I just disliked it. After all, the Nazi's thought they were right!" The same line of reasoning could be used regarding slavery in the antebellum south, saying "slavery wasn't objectively wrong since the American culture during that time had accepted it, it just became wrong as our culture decided it was wrong." Although many pay lip-service to this type of thinking, nobody lives as though morality is purely subjective or relative to their culture. If we were to travel back in time prior to 1865, would we really say that slavery was morally right? If you found yourself in Nazi Germany, would you really join the German SS in exterminating the Jewish population? If you were to find a child being tortured for fun, would you not immediately know it was objectively wrong, regardless of the culture?
Subjective Moral Values Destroys the Problem of Evil
If, however, we were to entertain the notion that morality is simply subjective or relative to our culture, then the Problem of Evil disappears for the fact that it is based on the notion of objective evil. As Dr. Louis Antony put it in her debate with Dr. William Lane Craig, "Any argument for moral skepticism will be base upon premises that are less obvious than the existence of objective moral values themselves." I agree with Dr. Antony, the existence of objective moral values seems obvious. The notion of subjective or relative moral values not only seems false, but unlivable. In which case, not only does the Problem of Evil fail, but it serves as evidence for God's existence.