The Problem of Evil and the existence of God

Haha, well that's a vague definition of evil if there ever was one. So is smoking a cigarette evil? What if someone kills a home invader that was about to rape his wife? It is harmful to all parties involved (physically, emotionally, mentally, psychologically) and I do not think anyone "desires" to suffer a home invasion that results in death. So is that evil? Is that really your definition? Look, let's just go with this. This is an age old argument. I am not going to pretend like I am the one who came up with a "theist's" response to this argument. So just try and refute this: "Firstly, God is all-powerful. God could eliminate evil from the world. This is true and accurate. Secondly, God is "all-loving" or infinitely compassionate. This is true, but there is an implicit third premise in this argument " that infinitely compassionate means that He would wish to prevent "evil" acts and is prepared to take the necessary steps to do so. Thirdly, the term "evil" is never defined in this argument " what is evil? Asking the atheist will not get a clear answer " given the fact that the only clear definition is "that which is against God" and the atheist denies the existence of God. The atheist will probably give examples of evil " the Holocaust, child rape, murder, war, starvation. All of these things are certainly unpleasant, and many of them are actively evil (some of these things are simply the natural results of evil, selfish actions, and others " like hurricanes and floods " are just natural disasters). The unspoken premise in this argument is that an all-loving God will intervene to prevent what the atheist defines as unpleasant. This is a key issue " if God interfered prevented everything that was genuinely evil (i.e. what He saw as evil) then no-one would be able to deny His existence, no-one would be able to have premarital sex, no-one would be able to advocate or have an abortion and so forth. This would result in the complete subjugation of free-will. This is a necessarily logical step " God cannot prevent evil without removing free-will from people (and removing it not just to a degree of coercion " i.e. "Do as I say or you will suffer" - but rather totally removing it so that humanity has no free-will whatsoever and cannot choose to do anything.) If there is no free-will and humanity cannot choose evil, then humanity cannot choose good either. A rock has no free-will; it is not a moral thing, but neither is it amoral. It simply exists. So, what does it mean for God to be all-loving? It means that He wants us to choose Him and choose the good. He wants us to reject evil. God's highest good is the correct exercise of free-will to choose Him. He sees death and suffering as, while very unpleasant for humanity, not evil in and of themselves. Death and suffering are often the results of evil actions, but they are not evil themselves. God is both infinitely loving and infinitely just; in His love He gives everyone the chance to know Him and respond to Him, the chance to choose good. A person who has chosen God and who is killed by an evil man is in a better position than the evil man; he is going to Heaven. God is interested in allowing humanity to choose Him, not in trampling over their wills and turning them into inert objects who have no ability to choose good or evil." ^ From www.catholicbasictraining.com Thanks.