Questions that Contain Assumptions about Everyone: Almost everyone can admit that they don't really know if God exists, but how can some conservative Christians still believe that there is a God, he is good, he is omnipotent, but there still exists evil?

Most Christians when faced with this question will invoke "free will" and go beating round the bush which does not make any sense to atheists. I present a simpler explanation here: If there is no evil or at least examples of evil, then there is no way to determine if something is good. Hence, evil and good must logically exist at the same time, they are in one human feature package called "ethics". God is good in the sense he knows what he is doing, he created ethics, and we have faith that it is good for us and a necessary requisite of being human. Now then what about free will? Similarly, free will is in the same package with something even more important -- Love. If there is no free will, then humans cannot love or have preferences. Why? Think about this: If humans had no free will, then they would just obey God blindly. If he said, follow me, they would follow him; if he said, leave me, they would leave; then there is nothing to be said about love. Free will allows humans to choose sides, make sacrifices, make commitments and promises, show care and concern for one another when no one ask of them etc. all these are expression of love. Free will also allows humans to reject love coming from others, so that it makes love even greater when it perseveres. God is good because he enriches human lives. Although, I am not sure if God exists.

The short answer is God has a seven-thousand-year plan that is a handful of years away from entering the seventh millennium—during which he solves the riddle for everyone alive at that time. As for all who have ever lived and died never having known that plan and how God has a remedy for absolutely every evil and problem of humanity, at the end of that seventh millennium he will raise them all from the dead (including Epicurus) teach them the truth they never knew, then end death and suffering once and for all eternity. For more detailed information, these may be helpful: http://rcg.org/books/tapom.html http://rcg.org/books/yif.html http://rcg.org/books/ttah.html

Do not underestimate the power of Anecdotal Evidence and the emotional strength of a personal experience. It has caused great feats of courage and unimaginable madness of genocide.

If there is a God that parted the Red Sea and delivered me out of slavery, I would believe whatever he says. If a God is faithful to me, there is no reason that I am not faithful to him. It doesn't matter whether we can or cannot understand or make sense what he says, just trust him. I don't care whether there are other gods, this is my God and I trust him only. Why should I believe this Epicurus, did he delivered me out of slavery or is he smarter than anybody? How do I know he is not just murmuring things he doesn't understand at all. If you can show human logic is enough to understand God, I may start considering what he said.(I am just mimicing Moses.)

The Christian god is a belief, a story.  Just like Atheism is a story of there being no god.   There are ways to actually realize a supreme intelligence.  But, as the saying goes, "You cannot understand that until you yourself stand at the threshold of that awareness."  There are many who are standing there.  That is just the way it is, whether the little human ego likes it or not.

Have you ever owned a dog? Did you ever take your dog to the vet? Let me postulate this same question from the mind of dog Epicurus. "Is the human willing to prevent the vet, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then why am I in this crate? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him human?" Is it true? Because you not only allow but make your dog to suffer pain are you evil? Are you incapable of not taking him to the vet? No. The truth is that the dog doesn't understand why he has to get a shot and he never will. That doesn't mean it's bad for him and that doesn't mean you're bad for doing it to him. The problem is that the dog has a dog perspective and the vet is not compatible with a dog perspective. I'm not telling you you should or shouldn't believe in God, but am telling you that IF you accept that God exists (either because you believe it, or just for the sake of this argument) then you accept by his definition that he is all knowing and you are not. Therefore the only thing not logical here is your assumption that you have the perspective to make this argument. You should either believe that there is no God, or accept God and evil based on the idea of perspective, but this particular argument is no reason to accept or reject God. I've never understood why people put so much weight by it.

Why not consider your four points in reverse order? First, you say, there exists evil. Really? How do you make that claim? I'm having a hard time understanding how you're able to define something as evil. It would appear that you're trying to stand on a higher moral ground than the rest of us and make a claim about what you consider to be a seemingly lower moral ground. On what basis have you been able to climb to this high position so that you get the full vantage of the moral landscape and feel empowered to make a judgement like that.

I have been both an atheist AND theist of various kinds, so I hope this qualifies.  There's a movie made in 1980 called "Oh God Book II", and in it, "God" explains to a young girl why things are the way they are, and it makes sense to me.  I hope it's helpful.   8-) Transcript from the 1980 movie "Oh God Book II" -God: [answering Tracy's question about why there is so much suffering in the world] I know this sounds like a cop-out, Tracy, but there's nothing I can do about pain and suffering. It's built into the system. Tracy Richards: Which You invented. God: Right. But my problem was I could never figure out how to build anything with just one side to it. Tracy Richards: One side? God: You ever see a front without a back? Tracy Richards: No. God: A top without a bottom? Tracy Richards: No. God: An up without a down? Tracy Richards: No. God: OK. Then there can't be good without bad, life without death, pleasure without pain. That's the way it is. If I take sad away, happy has to go with it.

The problem of evil is one that is very often raised when discussing Christianity and atheism. For the sake of answering the main point of the question, I will not attempt to argue the existence of God, but will assume that you will allow it for the sake of argument. There are a couple of different points to be made here. First, the existence of evil is dependent upon the existence of some absolute good. We see this in the fact that evil actions always have some good thing as its end. Stealing is an attempt to fill some need or want, to gain a sense of satisfaction. Greed looks for money, something that is, of itself, good, but when pursued improperly, becomes quite bad. Even murder is an attempt at justice, satisfaction, or, in some truly sick cases, pleasure. However, you will not find evil being done for the sake of evil. Good is done for goodness' sake. One gives so that another may have, and they may receive some intrinsic benefit. However, one does not cause pain for pain's sake; even the masochist who causes himself pain receives some form of satisfaction. Therefore, we see that, while good may exist apart from evil, evil cannot exist apart from good. The second and third points wrap around each other. They revolve around the apparent conflict between God's perfect justice and His perfect mercy. This becomes the problem because of sin. According to scripture, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," and "The wages of sin is death." There are other good examples of scripture condemning sin, but these will suffice for the time being. The fact that all of mankind has sinned places us in a difficult situation. It means that we have made ourselves enemies to the king. The one who is the source of all goodness becomes the one we hat the most. Our very core longs for evil, but, knowing its evil, tries to hide behind excuses and cheap justifications to appease our consciences. "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." (Romans 1:21-23) This then, leads into the third point which is the true problem of evil. How can God be truly good and still allow humanity to remain unpunished? This hearkens to the apparent conflict between God's justice and His mercy. If He is just, we must be punished, but if merciful, how can He still be just, for he must either let everything slide, or else magically making it disappear unpunished. This is quite a conundrum. To explain the solution, an allegory may help. Suppose you owed me $1000. I would have a legitimate claim to it, whether you could pay or not. Now I could force you to pay me back by whatever means necessary, and I would have what is rightfully mine(justice), or I could choose to forgive the debt so that you owed me nothing, but I would not receive what I was owed(mercy). However, in order to satisfy both, another may step in and freely offer to pay in your place. I would be able to forgive your debt without sacrificing justice. This is a simplified allegory for the gospel, in which Christ freely pays for the sins of others. "For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."(Romans 3:22b-26) One day, evil will be put to an end, but God, wanting to show mercy, gives time for repentance, granting forgiveness through the substitution of our debt to Christ and Christ's righteousness to us. "Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?" (Ezekiel 33:11) However, He will one day put an end to evil, and give each what he is due. The reason evil persists is because He is still giving people time to escape their punishment. I know there are several off-shooting topics that could rise from this, but I'm going to leave it here. If you care to look further into this subject, I recommend reading Mere Christianity and Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis. I don't agree with him on every point, but by and large, he does a wonderful job of dealing with the issue. I hope I have been able to shed some light on your question. God bless.