Why Does Evil Exist?

We've been learning about this question in Worldview class lately, and this week I've come face to face with people having to deal with this question every day.

To start this post off, I'll begin by saying that I feel things. Even if I am not experiencing someone's emotions, I still feel them. I don't know why, but I do! This week has been a flood of other people's emotions:)

Last night I spent about an hour just asking God why, asking God how he can be good, and yet evil still exists. What I learned in Worldview has been essential to my struggle with this issue, so I thought I would share it with you! (From my perspective:)

Many people use this logic to say there is no God:

-If God was all-powerful, he would not allow evil

-Evil exists

-Therefore, God does not exist.

But this doesn't deal with the real question we are all asking- why do bad things happen to me?
I want to know why I have to have physical pain every time I eat, I want to know why other people can experience such grief that I can hardly stand to think about it.

There are three different types of evil, natural evil- by natural causes, moral evil- from human choice, and maximum evil- against the innocent.

Of those three, what bothers you most? For me, and I assume most people, it is maximum evil. It isn't fair for first graders to be murdered, it isn't right that they don't have a chance to live. Us humans think that we are innocent.

But we are not.

God gave us a free will when he created us, or we would just be his puppets! He didn't want a bunch of children who had to follow him, but people who chose him! God gave Adam and Eve the command not to eat of the fruit- but they ate it. In their sin, humankind fell.

We are all sinners. We are all guilty.

But we have a Saviour. God looked with sorrow at his people, and made a way for the evil choice to be redeemed.

God promises that he will come again. He promises that he will destroy evil! We have to wait here- but we aren't alone. The Christian God, our God, is the only one who suffers with his people. You are not alone in your sufferings, God's heart is breaking with yours, he is weeping with you. To him, all these thousands of years are just a moment, because he is outside of time. God hasn't obliterated evil yet, but he will.

So the answer to the why question?

Evil is evidence of the fallen world, and our knowledge that there should be something different shows that we are longing for our eternal home: heaven. God knows our sufferings and feels them with us, he cares. 

~Avery