The Problem of Evil and the existence of God

Oh Pro, how poor you are at debating. Let me dissect everything you've said, piece by piece. Is this your first time? "Thank you Hitch for posting something from a website as your entire response." First of all, my name is not hitch. Secondly, my entire response was not from a website. The first portion was highlighting how inadequate your "Definition" of evil was. If you had maybe consulted a source, like a dictionary or another ontological argument you might not have sounded like an amateur. Furthermore, the part I did take from a website is just showing intellectual honesty. The purpose of me getting on this website, is to spread the new Evangelization. It is exposing you to new sources you probably do not go to, and yes, this debate is AGES old. There is nothing new here. Anything I am going to say on my own, is either going to be derivative of something I read, or said not as well as someone else. So why would I pretend to be original in an argument that is not? Why would I not quote someone who has already said it, or says it better than I can? Hey, I could be like you and just an off the cuff definition of evil and look terrible. "Simply stating back to me the argument's premise that "God is all powerful..." What is the point of this debate if we cannot agree upon a premise? YOU started the debate and gave us that premise, I am agreeing with it. This is DEBATING 101. You set the premise, I accepted the challenge, and we move on. Any other kind of clarifications I thought we needed (e.g. define evil, which you totally sucked at) I asked for, and we moved on. You gave the premise that God Is all powerful, and are trying to make it seem like I am wrong for agreeing with the premise you proposed for this argument? I do not have to prove the premise you proposed for the real issue of "the logical problem of evil" GIVEN an all-powerful, all loving, God. Seriously, do you not see how silly of a complaint that is for you to make? You've totally shot yourself in the foot. You're arguing with what YOU wrote in Round 1. The question of this debate is: Given that God is all-powerful and all-loving, why is there evil in this world? The answer I give for that is that to not allow evil and free will would defeat man's capacity to not only commit evil, but to actually do good and love. My answer should actually have little to do with proving that God is all-powerful, because that is not what the debate is about. I was simply agreeing with your premise. "To upbraid my use of it as a 'vague definition' and to then go on and state that the only clear definition of 'evil' is..." OK. Again going back to DEBATE 101. Having clear, concise, and narrow definitions of the terms essential to your arguments and premise is paramount in having a good debate. Having vague terms is the opposite of that. Here is something for you to think about...how do you seriously know if something is evil? How can you, as an atheist, prove to the rest of humanity that human life is unique, and that there is such a thing as morality? How can you really objectively call something evil? If there is nothing beyond the material world in which we live, how can you say one system of thought is really better than another, or this action is moral and this action is not moral? Do you think maybe, in a debate about "Evil", you would really want to know what it is you are really talking about? "If you want to talk about divine command theory here, then please elucidate further. What is it that God sees as evil?" Well, you already got upset that I gave a definition of Evil "in my own religious framework", but now you're asking for me to give you a definition of evil...in my own religious framework. You're just...really bad at this. This comment of yours, and this one... "If we look to scripture, then we see that whatever god commands is good...rape, pillaging..." Are good questions to ask, but they require me to start quoting the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and seriously taking at length about in depth topics that would stray from the original argument. And if I quoted those sources, you would just dismiss them as rubbish, because you're an atheist, and do not subscribe to the Bible. So we would end up talking a lot about something you're not going to pay attention to anyways. But since we are talking about scripture, the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes, which are almost 3000 years old, address the very issue of "Why does Evil happen to good people" at length. This is not a new topic for people of faith, just for you apparently. And finally, you ask if we should comfort people who suffer by telling them that this is all part of a larger plan. Well, lots of people who go through suffering end up feeling that way. It's called providence. Do you really think you can see the greater good for all people and all creatures on earth? One way Christians comfort people when tragedy strikes, is to carry out the corporal works of mercy and spiritual works of mercy...we do not just walk by a rape victim and say, "Well, God wanted this...see ya." Here is a short video on Providence: I'm sure you won't watch it though, because atheists hardly actually look at the sources presented to them. Thanks for debating, hope you get better at it. Things you failed to counter or explain with regard to this argument: 1. That free will would be destroyed, if God allowed us to make no evil choices 2. That true love and true faith would also be destroyed 3. You have not given an actual definition of what you think evil is, even though you presented this argument