The problem of evil

If there is a God, is this God good? This question rests at the base of the problem of evil. Most folks (I am guessing here) can look around and see much good in the world. The earth itself is beautiful, animals are fascinating, the produce of the earth in all its varieties is beneficial to humanity, and humanity has created many goods from the earth and from our own inherent creativity (like music and the visual arts). So, first of all, where did all this good come from? If we posit a supreme being that created good, then we have to ask about the converse side of things - where did evil come from?

Before we go any further, we better define evil. We could simply say that evil is the opposite of good, and then we are left with the work of defining good. Another approach would be to say that evil is that which is morally bad, but then we have to find a way to define what we mean by morally bad (I take a stab at this below). We could say that evil is that which is harmful to people or the natural world, but there are limitations to this explanation as well.

On the other hand, even if evil is difficult define, we know it when we see it. One kind of evil is called natural evil. If a hurricane, tornado or a tidal wave wipes out towns full of people, we recognize this as evil. The evil may be from nature, but it is still evil and if we believe that nature is the creation of God, then we are back to the problem of God and evil once again.

Another kind of evil is moral evil. Moral evil is the wrongdoing that human beings perpetuate against each other. Moral evil is another basis for questioning the existence of a good God. If God is good and we are created by God, as Christians, Jews, Muslims and others believe, why is there so much evil done by human beings?
Doesn't any kind of evil call into question the notion of a God, or at least, the idea that God is good?

If God is good it would seem to follow that either God would not allow evil, or that God is not powerful enough to stop evil. One answer to this dilemma is to say that what we consider evil is really good in disguise. This answer suggests that if we could see the big picture as we presume that God does, we would understand that evil really is part of a greater architecture that turns out to be good. What this answer does is ask us to suspend judgement upon evil based on our limited knowledge of all things. Many people do not find this suspension of judgement to be satisfactory, so we are pushed for another more satisfying solution.

The classical Christian explanation for evil grounds itself in free will. In this understanding, God is all-powerful and could decide to not permit evil, but to do so would violate the free will that He has given to His creatures. In order to give His creatures freedom, God has decided not to use His power to elimate the choices of evil that His creatures can make. This answer is also unsatisfactory to some, and so, we are left to say that while there are plenty of reasons to believe that God is good, for some, the problem of evil will always be a difficulty.