I've made the point in my previous blogs that the problem of evil can only be assessed by theists as evil points to a standard which points to a standard giver. So while the problem of evil may exist for atheists, their world view does not give them the resources to required to wade into the problem. That makes this problem an "in house" problem.
So, what do we who are "in the house" do about this problem? How do Christians deal with evil and suffering? I'd like to split this into two topics. The first is the origin of evil; the second the persistence of evil. Let's start with the origin of evil as I think that is the most difficult hurdle.
Remember, in order to make evil possible we need two conditions to be satisfied: 1) We need a standard or purpose to be violated and 2) We need a being with the capacity to do the violation. So to make evil an impossibility, we need to do away with either 1) or 2). Since we derive 1) from God's own immutable nature, good luck getting rid of that. On the other hand, would we want a world in which we got rid of 2)? Removing our ability to violate God's standard would result in our losing free will or the ability to choose. We'd be little more than biological robots. So evil was made possible by two good things, God's holy nature and our free will.
As to the origin, the beginning, the realization of evil? Satan and his fallen angels and we in Adam are to blame. We, in Adam, brought about the realization of evil for the human race and our physical universe. So really, when we have a problem with the origin of evil, we have a problem with ourselves.
The persistence of evil to follow in my next post...
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