Why Is There Evil in the World?

http://www.angelosubida.com

It is always tragic to see evil existing in the world. Murder. Prostitution. Corruption. Stealing. Marital Infidelity. Broken Families. Immorality. Rape. Child Abuse. Starvation. Illness. Hatred. Wars. Can all these be products of evil in our midst?

Holding on to a chocolate candy in his hand, 9 year-old Paul was sharing part of it to his 3-year-old sister Angel. Angel suddenly got agitated and tried to grab all the candy from her brother. As her brother refused, you could hear Angel yelling and shouting! Did Angel learn to be that way? Did she not perceive that her behavior is bad? Or, can she be excused since she's only 3?

For over 2000 years, the problem of evil has been dealt with in Scriptures. Paul the Apostle wrote that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." We can
trace evil to the reality of sin in human nature. When God created us, He didn't violate our freedom of choice. Yes, we have free will and we can make choices! But our choices can be affected by our own sinful desires, our circumstances, or our perceptions.

God so loves man that He gives him a free will. As C.S. Lewis put it, "Free will, though it makes evil possible, is the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having." If I must choose, I like to choose to believe in a world of good people. I desire to believe in a world free of evil or evil persons. However, we know that reality is another matter. Honestly, evil obviously exists in people and the world around us. And it's not a matter of imagination!

Why is there evil? Most likely we cannot fully fathom its mystery this side of heaven. But we all have freedom and ability to choose. And it has always been man's abuse of free will that is the source of evil, not God. The only thing worse than evil is the inability to recognize it.