Booger McLovin

If one were to stand on a corner and evangelize on any given evening in a major city, the number one question asked by non-believers is: “If God exists, why is there evil?”

I can answer questions about almost anything with what I believe to be a satisfying explanation. But the one question I cannot answer completely is “why evil?” I can articulate a response that offers hints at the truth, but in the end, I likely will not know the full answer until after my physical death.

So, let’s give it a swing.

Defining the Terms

I did not include “suffering” in the title of this article. The reason is that if we have free will, we must also have the capacity to feel pain—not just physical, but emotional. We must know when something is hot so we don’t burn ourselves; similarly, for true love to exist, we must risk the pain of rejection. We can table the discussion on suffering for now and focus strictly on evil.

What is evil? If you have studied this subject for longer than an hour, you have likely heard the question: “Is rape always evil?” Of course it is. I don’t believe any of us would argue that such an act could ever be “good.” But for rape to be truly wrong, there must be an objective standard for morality. The only viable candidate for objective truth is a Law-giver: God.

The educated secular philosopher might argue that culture collectively decides what is right and wrong. Bravo, culture. But that same mindset brought us the deadliest century in recorded history. Under the atheist leaders of the Axis powers, Pol Pot, and Kim Jong Il, we saw what happens when man defines his own morality. (The one exception being Japan’s Emperor, who claimed divinity and thus doesn’t get a pass in my book).

Therein lies the problem: Without God, evil still exists. Removing God doesn’t fix the problem; historically, it has only proven to make it worse.

The Paradox of Comfort

Let’s look at how separation from God manifests in the modern world. In Western Europe and nations like Japan and South Korea, we find cultures that have developed extraordinarily well. Because of scientific advancement, they have zero concern for famine; they have advanced medicine, welfare programs, and low rates of extreme poverty. As a symptom of this stability, they often have lower rates of violent crime. On the surface, it seems that being secular greatly lessens evil.

However, these nations are quickly finding themselves without children. In all of these regions, the native fertility rate is at extinction-level lows. Why? Within each of these nations, the fertility rate of the religious is far greater than that of the secular. They have different means of defining happiness and different views on the permanence of the family.

The “Universe 25” Warning

In the late 1960s, a scientist conducted an experiment called Universe 25. He established a colony of mice in an enclosure and gave them everything they could ever want: food, water, and bedding. They had to persevere for nothing. In the beginning, they had minimal suffering and minimal evil.

The population exploded. But before it reached its physical limit, symptoms of “too much comfort” emerged. The mice began concerning themselves with their own appearance more than their infants. Infanticide began, social bonds dissolved, and despite having every physical need met, the colony went extinct.

This experiment isn’t a “one-to-one” proof that human comfort leads to abortion or a declining birth rate, but the correlation is striking.

A Broken but Functional World

Perhaps a certain level of “evil” (or at least the potential for it) must exist. Perhaps in a free world, God gives us enough information to believe, but not so much that we are forced to. In order for us to truly know love, God had to create a world capable of supporting life in a way that scientists can study under a microscope—a world governed by laws, not constant divine intervention.

Ask any biologist why bacteria exist, and they will give you thousands of reasons. Ultimately, for free will to exist, we must live in a world that is broken, but functional. If everything were merely handed to us, we would fail to thrive or even reproduce. If God were undeniable, we wouldn’t truly love Him—we would be programmed to acknowledge Him.

The Answer in the Flesh

If you say you cannot believe in the Christian God because He is “evil” for allowing this world to exist, my response is simple: I don’t believe in that kind of God either.

Instead, I believe in a God who entered humanity. He took on the form of a man and chose not to exploit His divine attributes. Instead, He chose to live just like us. He was hungry, He grew tired, and He wept. He humbled Himself all the way to death—even death on a cross. That is the God I believe in. That is the God I worship.