Evil and Suffering fails

I addressed your question in Round 2. I stated that God created evil so yes, it is therefore part of his "plan". The question I asked was how it is possible for God to have created evil and the explanation I gave dealt in part with your assertion that if God created evil then God must be evil. I stated evil is not materialistic and there is not an object or something observable that we can say, look here, this is evil. In this respect someone can be evil but not THE evil, God included. I will expand a bit on what I said before to try and answer your question again and try to prove that God is not necessarily evil just because he created or caused evil. God is Holy and demands that those who want to be with Him must also be Holy. This is not an unreasonable thing to ask because from practical experience in this present world we can observe that people like to group together to form bonds or enjoy each other"s company etc. based on like-mindedness (although like-mindedness is not necessarily the only reason). If you want to join the group you must conform to the group"s requirements, if not, then the group will probably not allow you to join. God cannot demand of people to be Holy without telling them what is expected of them or what they must do to be Holy. Therefore God gave the law to serve as a School master to teach people what good and evil is so that they may know what to do, to be with God. When God said: "Thou shall not kill" the knowledge of evil was automatically imparted because now people had a choice to kill. When God said: "Thou shall not steal" the knowledge of evil was automatically imparted again. I do not see the logic in asserting that if God created or caused evil that He must of necessity also be evil. Let me give you an example to first show that the arguments premise (God created evil) and conclusion (Therefore God is evil) is not very logical by using an analogy. Evil exists in this world at present. Let"s imagine for a moment there is no God. If God does not exist then evil must have been created or caused by something else because it is a present day reality. If you believe in evolution as the cause for everything then evolution caused evil. If evolution then caused evil then evolution must be evil. You might say that evolution is not a person or personal but that does not change anything. The premise is something caused evil (it can be God, evolution, or even a rock etc. depending on how far your imagination can stretch) and whatever caused evil must also be evil. Some say evolution is a science and not just a theory. If this is true should we therefore conclude that by association science is also evil? Of course not, and in the same way it is not logical to say God is evil because He created it. Scientific processes were used to create the Atom Bomb that was in turn used to kill many people. Depending on which side of the bombing you were, should we therefore conclude the scientists were all evil men who made the bomb? This particular atheistic argument has too many variable applications when applied to God and thus becomes contradictory in its conclusions. The contradictory conclusions question the validity of using this type of argument in order to prove something. For example: God created or caused evil, therefore God is evil contradicts God created or caused good, therefore God is good. Which one is correct? According to structure they are both supposedly valid arguments but according to logic they cannot both be true when used in the context of trying to label God. Intention determines whether an action or some object will be regarded as good or evil. The action or object in itself is not necessarily good or evil. The same flower a Bee uses to make honey from is used by the Spider to make its poison. This is an important distinction to make in order to understand the nature of evil and to make sense of it all. For example, consider the following contrasts: Killing someone without any good reason is regarded as an evil act. Killing someone in self-defense is not regarded as an evil act. Using a gun to kill someone does not make the creator of the gun evil. Using the same gun for self-defense does not make the creator of the gun good either. Therefore God"s intent for creating evil will determine if He is evil or not. As stated in the Bible, the reason why God created evil was to warn and teach people and to give them the knowledge not only to live in peace with each other, but also to be able to have communion with God Himself. God is fair enough to promise rewards or punishment for those who choose one of the options thus warning them what the consequences of their decisions will be in advance. It is therefore not unreasonable of God to allow evil because it is a basic principle found in all societies all over the world that people get rewarded for doing good but punished for doing evil and people everywhere agree that it is fair. If someone raped your daughter and punishment is given, will you stand up in court and say: I do not agree that this man must be punished for raping my daughter? The knowledge of evil becomes a guide to enhance and complete our understanding in order to be properly informed when making decisions and to understand the consequences and implications of our decisions. God gives many admonitions in the Bible to warn us of the dangers evil presents to ourselves, society and future generations. How can it be said that God is evil if he created evil in order to inform and teach us so that we can know what is the best option to take when confronted by certain decisions? How can God be evil if He warns us about the danger of engaging in evil acts? He clearly has our best interest in mind. The examples mentioned should be enough to point out that to simply say God is evil due to an association with evil is unreasonable. I also do not see the logic in your argument that if evil was a part of God"s plan that He then must be THE evil. As mentioned, evil is not confined to any ONE object or being. Evil is based on knowledge. Knowledge is a familiarity, awareness or understanding of someone or something " Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, communication, and reasoning - https://en.wikipedia.org.... God had a plan when He created the universe and when He was finished saw that everything was good. When he created Adam he warned Adam not to eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but Adam chose not to heed the warning. It does not make sense that an evil God, who created evil, will warn someone not to engage in evil. Therefore your conclusion that God must be evil contradicts the good intentions of God to provide man with the knowledge to overcome evil. Last but not the least, God can still exists even if he is evil and the creator of evil. I will state again that the evil/suffering argument is insufficient to disprove God"s existence because it cannot conclusively prove that an evil god is not responsible for evil and suffering in the world. Evil exists. Evil can therefore not be used to prove non-existence. By association god must exist because evil exists, if god is said to be evil. Please see the comments section for my response about visible proof for God. I could not post everything here due to the character limitations.