Whence Then is Evil?

Beth and I have had a few conversations lately.  About the T-shirt, about some of the things that went on this summer....even some spiritual discussions.  The other night at dinner she told me that she wore the T-shirt to get people to think.  It works. 

Like Mother, like daughter.  I write here on this blog to get people (including myself) to think.  She scrawls words on a T-shirt or on a poster board...or, at her Dad's, she is even allowed to scrawl words and paint eclectic pictures on her bedroom wall. 

It is clear Beth has a problem with the way God runs his creation.  I think her issue with God is an old one and has been around a lot longer than the nearly 17 years she has been alive.  It has dogged Christians and atheists alike.  I was very active on a yahoo e-list a few years ago where we discussed it often and thoroughly.  Enough that we dubbed it with a nickname...

The POE

The Problem of Evil. 

How do you get around the problem of evil?  How do you come to terms with it?  How do you deal with it, explain it, understand it, live with it?  How do you forgive God for it? The following three statements are true..but they don't add up.

There is a God. 

He is good.

Evil and suffering exist.

Or how about the way an ancient Greek philosopher named Epicurus, worded the quandary...

"Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?"

I know the paradox so well.  I dealt with these questions myself for a long time. I told her this morning on our drive to school that for about five (recent) years, I was oftentimes totally ticked off at God. Between the POE, substitutionary atonement and my struggles with free will/predetermination, my relationship with God was very strained. For several years I was barely on speaking terms with him.  I read about him...talked about him...thought about him, but rarely talked to him.  When I did talk to him, all of my conversations with him were guarded, I didn't trust him, expected the worst from his hand. I had a major chip on my shoulder/axe to grind/bone to pick. I was pissed. 

But unlike Beth, I could not just discount his existence.  Believe me, there were times that I would have if I could have.  But, I couldn't write him off or explain him away as someone's fantasy. I KNEW he existed.  One day about ten years ago, he "touched" me..like a tap on the shoulder accompanied by a whisper in my ear that said "See, I really am here."  After that there was no way to declare him dead.  It was just not an option. 

Did I find the answer to the POE riddle, the key to the lock, the missing piece of the puzzle, the explanation that made it all fit.  Nope. But I am still looking...