thanks, god.

[athoughtfulman]

I think that the whole 'problem of evil' argument which a lot of atheists use to discount christianity is often badly represented. I used to believe god is all good, and that his goodness is not necessarily seen in the day to day matters of us humans.

One way to look at it would be parents having kids. The parents might be absolutely amazing and do all they can to have their kid turn out to be good, responsible and successful, but that's not always what happens. Say the kid becomes a serial killer. Obviously the kid (or at least his behavior) is evil, but is that reason to say that the parents of the serial killer are evil too? It doesn't really follow. HOWEVER, this argument is seriously flawed. Sure, the parents may not be evil, but one might say that it was a deficiency in their parenting skills which let the kid turn out the way he did. Or that it was the parents lack of ability to control who the kid met, talked to, saw, watched, heard, and on. At some point, it comes back to something going WRONG with what the parents did, either directly or by lack of action.

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”
- Epicurus

So whilst it is possibly over simplistic to state that "God is good". It is essentially true, in broad terms.

The problem of evil either means god is not good, or that god does not exist.

"Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them." Matthew 7:20

If god is the creator of everything, the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good, being from which everything came, why is there evil? If the bible is the inspired word of god, let's apply it to god. The fruit of god is everything in this world, including everything evil. If jesus says that it is by someone's fruit that we know them, then god's fruit destroys the idea that he can be good.