Suffering is of course evil as a definition (everything that happens that is evil all boils down to the person involved suffers). So if suffering is involved that means evil is in play (in 99% of cases). There aren’t many good people, when I say good I mean people who think of everyone else except themselves like the helpers at the September 11th terrorist attack.
There are many situations in the bible where there are incidents that involved evil. For instance Genesis 1-3 when eve had eaten the sacred fruit on “God’s” tree (she was tricked I have to say (by evil)). By doing this they were exiled out of Eden.
“3:1Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden? 3:2And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat: 3:3but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 3:4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 3:5for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. 3:6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.”- Genesis 3.
This shows us how easily Eve was persuaded to go against God’s wishes. This shows us never to test God, because it is like tempting ‘fate.’
The Atheist response to the existence of evil comes in two forms. The LOGICAL form, which states that evil, is logically incompatible with the idea of God and the EVIDENTIAL form claims that the existence of evil doesn’t prove that God isn’t real, but makes it more likely. Atheists cannot believe in the reality of God because evil contradicts it, pain and suffering would not exist if there were an all-loving higher power.
