by jimwalton » Thu Feb 13, 2014 4:56 pm
There are a couple of short replies to what you've said, but they all demand a much longer treatment.
First of all, it's true that God lets evil exist. For instance, doctors inject people with mild forms of diseases, because that's how to body produces resistance to them. Firemen start fires to burn towards the forest to stop other fires. Doctors cause great amounts of pain (surgery, cancer treatments) to bring healing. There are many examples that "evil" can actually be used for the good.
Secondly, for God to put a stop to all evil would make us all mindless robots. He'd have to control our bodies so we didn't walk in front of cars, accidentally slice our skin with knives, slip on the ice, etc. He'd have to control our minds so we didn't say offensive things, or interpret what others said as hurtful. But all that would make us automatons and not humans. There wouldn't be any such thing as love, peace, happiness. Certainly not human.
Thirdly, it's just not true that God has the power to do literally anything. He certainly can't act in contradiction to himself. He can't act in ways that are absurd (creating a square circle, for instance). He can't act contrary to his nature.
If you want legitimate love, you have to have legitimate choice. if you have legitimate choice (and not false choice), then there has to be just as much possibility (freedom) to choose the wrong as to choose the right. If the only way, then, to eliminate evil is also to eliminate love (as in the example of the doctor: the only way to eliminate the "evil" of surgery is to not operate, therefore allowing the problem to continue), then it makes sense to allow the "evil" because of the possibility of the greater good, and that's the only path to the greater good.