If God Is Good, Why Is the World So Full of Evil?

The short answer: The Bible doesn’t hide from evil. It names it, grieves over it and promises to end it. Much of the world’s evil comes from the real freedom God gave people, and creation itself has been broken by sin. And God hasn’t stood at a distance: He entered our suffering at the cross, and He will one day make everything new.

(Book 1 answered the personal question of losing someone you love.) This chapter is about the bigger picture: the news. Earthquakes and floods. Children starving. Wars, trafficking, racism, cruelty that makes you feel sick. Someone puts it bluntly: “If God is all-good, He’d want to stop evil. If He’s all-powerful, He could. Evil exists. So either He isn’t good, or He isn’t powerful, or He isn’t there.”

That’s the hardest objection to Christianity, and it deserves honesty, not slogans.

First, notice what the objection assumes

To say “the world is full of evil” is to say some things really are wrong, not just unpleasant or unpopular. But where does that standard come from? If there is no God, the universe is just atoms bumping into each other, and “evil” is only a feeling. Our outrage at evil is actually a clue that there is a real standard of good, and so a real Good behind it.

Where evil comes from

God made the world good: “God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). He made people able to love, and love has to be free. A robot programmed to say “I love you” doesn’t really love you. But a world where people can freely love is a world where they can freely refuse, and hurt each other.

Most of the suffering on the news is caused by people: greed, violence, neglect, injustice. God takes it personally. “Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker” (Proverbs 14:31).

What about earthquakes and diseases, which nobody chooses? The Bible says that when humanity turned from God, the whole creation was affected. It “was subjected to futility” and is “groaning together in the pains of childbirth” (Romans 8:20, 22). The world is still beautiful, but it’s out of joint.

That doesn’t mean every disaster is a punishment. When a tower collapsed and killed eighteen people, Jesus asked, “Do you think that they were more sinful than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you” (Luke 13:4–5). Anyone who says victims of a tsunami deserved it is contradicting Jesus.

Honestly, we can’t explain why God allows each particular evil. The Bible doesn’t pretend we can. One of its prophets prayed, “How long, O LORD, must I call for help but You do not hear” (Habakkuk 1:2). Complaints like that are in the Bible.

God didn’t stay out of it

Here’s where Christianity is different from every other answer. God didn’t watch suffering from a safe distance. In Jesus He came into it: hungry, betrayed, tortured, killed. The cross was the most unjust thing that ever happened, and God turned it into the greatest good, the rescue of the world. It’s the pattern Joseph saw long before: “what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good” (Genesis 50:20).

Why doesn’t He just end it now?

He will. But think what ending all evil today would mean. It wouldn’t only mean stopping dictators. It would mean stopping every liar, every bully and every selfish heart, including yours and mine. Peter says the delay is mercy: God “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

And the end of the story is certain: “we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). God says, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).

What do we do in the meantime?

Christians aren’t meant to sit around waiting. “He has shown you, O man, what is good” (Micah 6:8): to act justly and love mercy. For two thousand years Christians have built hospitals, fought slavery, rescued orphans and run towards disasters, not away from them. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

Think about it: Why do you think evil makes us so angry, if the universe is just atoms? What might that anger be pointing to?

Go deeper: The Key Teachings of C. S. Lewis — Lewis argues that a world where free creatures can truly love must also be a world where they can hurt one another, that most pain is caused by people, and that God’s love, unlike mere kindness, won’t leave us as we are. Start with chapter 10, “The Problem of Pain”.