Why Did God Create A World Where Evil Exists? Part Two.

You don’t need to be an ivy league graduate to see it took a designer—a creator—for our solar system and the earth’s macro and micro ecosystems to mesh perfectly into the single most amazing, artistic invention known to man: nature. An amazing Architect laid out this world, applying governing principals to form and maintain the earth that are way beyond what any random process could create or sustain. To claim otherwise is simply illogical and implausible. If time and chance could create without a creator/designer, then it follows that time and chance would have just as much opportunity to un-create, and our universe would indicate far more chaos.

As it is, we know that nature can and does create random, destructive phenomena like droughts and hurricanes. As an integral part of nature, people can also create awful forces such as pollution and war. In May of 2008, Cyclone Nargis killed 250,000 people, potentially. Another million plus may have died in food and water shortages afterwards because the Western world didn’t know how to interact with the Burma government, so officials in power refused to let aide in.

Our world has a few screws loose and is off kilter somewhere, which causes us to question the validity of a good God or Creator. Some people say He’s just checked out. These catastrophes create unimaginable suffering and tend to bring out the worst in people, but they can also bring out the best in us as our spirits rise to overcome tragedy and society becomes richer through the pain of our shared experience.

This unpleasant problem of tainted beauty is the question of an atheist, too. You’ll find their real argument—and they may have many good ones before you sort to the bottom of the pile—is regarding an offense. They are offended that God could create a world that contains the chaotic fruit of “The Tree of Good and Evil.” That evil could corrupt creation and be found in humans who are in the image of God is offensive to them! Atheism subsequently becomes a moral argument, not a scientific one. It typically doesn’t do you any good to argue about evolution or the existence of God—that is a waste of time with an atheist. Go to the root. Deal with the offense: God allowed evil…

Deep down, the kind of God we all want to believe in is a good and kind God. Looking through our world, at first glance, it looks like God made a big mistake or forgot to be kind. There is too much evil and way too much suffering and death! It’s a royal setup for an offense. Atheists then deny God because He appears NOT to be what their hearts really long for: a good God who should have created a good world that is free of evil; and so, they take offense with God.

This offense—because we buy the lie that God has compromised—is the base of all rebellion and sin acted out by people on our planet. Offense with God and offense with our brothers. When the serpent had a conversation with Eve, he introduced an offense: that God was holding back from Eve and Adam. Satan started Eve and Adam on the treacherous path of offense by first blaming God for withholding good (and evil). Then Adam blames his wife. Eve blames the snake. Cain then is jealous and kills his brother. It is all rooted in offense.

For those of us who think we are beyond offense, be advised that disappointment is the common backdoor offense uses to enter our hearts. But for those of us who choose to be aware that offense in our hearts is the fruit of the wrong tree, we choose a path of life that travels between vistas of beauty and pain. And on that journey, we can choose whether the tension these views create will breed vibrancy or jadedness.