I love these comments from both sides of the equation. Perhaps God is the equation ??? lol
Anyhow regarding the problem of evil, a quick comment on its complexity because it has a few categories. There is human evil which covers a lot in its own right, but there is also natural evil that is relevant to belief in a God. Natural evil could include human evil but is often separated for convenience. Natural evil apart from human evil is to do with things like earthquakes, animal savagery, natural disasters including those originating from outside the earth itself, like meteorite strikes that injure or potentially wipe people and life off the map. How could a God figure into this is the question of course?
Another subset of the problem of evil includes biblical interpretation of the character of God and how to approach the bible itself in the first place. Does it say anything true about God at all? And if not does that mean a God doesn’t exist? If it does have some things right about God to what extent and how does that work? Of course at this stage we are in the realm of theology and that strays into the domain of the metaphysical and that depends of course on the question of supernatural forces being true or not which brings in the limits of science question. One subject always goes into another but this is a subset of the problem of evil fortunately and not the main categories of the subject.
The interesting question to me is what is evil anyway? Evil seems to be relevant only where intelligent beings are concerned who can conceptualise it. If there were no life in the universe would evil still exist? Well the forces we associate with evil certainly should. If one galaxy crashes into another is doesn’t complain, indeed no one even cares, but if it had a mind it probably would. Good and evil seem to be in nature merely the forces of chaos and entropy/decay and order creation and the two are intimately interlinked things of course. The word evil gets used when these forces affect living beings. However evil is more than a word because when animals are affected by these forces as we are, they don’t call it evil or even think objectively about it in abstract terms, but they resist it and the pain nonetheless. So in a more primitive sense it is evil to them as well.
Does it matter though? Does it matter if all life gets destroyed by natural forces as seems destined to happen to all life in the end? Well, as a rock doesn’t care about being pulverised but a cat does, I guess then it would matter to life if life is wiped out. So evil exists as long as living beings exists, although the forces are the same whether life is here or not. So evil is a property of consciousness really.
This if true is interesting because natural forces aside, one human can decide to do bad to another, independent of natural forces of chaos and order. This is also called evil but evil from intent, which is associated not with rocks, order or chaos but living consciousness. God if he exists apparently has intent also. (I do believe in God) In a universe governed by two main forces associated with good and evil, can any intent that produces an action introduced into that system, result in anything other than good or bad? Perhaps good and bad have to exist for freedom to exist. Else no creative forces, no evolution, no free will?
This was a quick outline of the issues and problem the way I see it, with a few ideas throw in.
