“No one who does good work will come to an evil end.” – Bhagavad Gita 6.40b

The so-called “problem of evil” generally assumes that God is not the culprit. 

Now this is a massive topic that many a philosopher have spilled ink on before, so I will not pretend that this little blurb comes anywhere close to the depth of those thoughts. However, I do want to offer my own input based on my experiences with religion. 

Growing up, I learned that God was nothing but good. He was all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present. I was far too young to even understand the concept of evil, so these facts went unquestioned. 

Eventually, Satan was introduced as the embodiment of evil, but even then, developing little minds cannot grasp what this really means. Books and movies feature “bad guys,” but “bad” is not “evil.” Up to a certain point in one’s maturation, “bad” is more akin to “other” than it is to “evil.” Many people still have not passed this point. 

I remember in one class – in fourth grade, I believe – my teacher said, “Satan doesn’t want you on his team. He just doesn’t want you on God’s team.” To someone a few years younger, this admittedly quite American analogy might be appropriate. In an ideal world, someone in fourth grade should be on their journey to truly understanding such a fundamental part of their faith. 

Perhaps this is intentional. 

See, the problem of evil emerges once reason applies a little pressure to religion. Most are content to accept that God is all-good and all-powerful but allows evil, but that conclusion does not sit well with many. And it shouldn’t. An all-good God who demands sole worship must measure up to his own standard. 

The simple fact is that God either cannot be all-good or cannot be all-powerful while allowing evil. If God can eliminate evil and doing so results in no harm, then any other action with regards to evil must be immoral. 

A natural response to this is that God has a plan that we cannot understand. Even if this is true – and it must be taken entirely on faith – it does not hold up to logic. And, if people were made in God’s image, our minds must work in some way similar to his. 

A natural response to this is that God is not bound by laws, but this still generates more questions. If humans must follow a moral code instituted by God, but God is exempt from this code, then all morality is arbitrary and there is no true “good” or “evil.”

The notion of free will plays into this as well. There is the idea that God allows evil because evil is a consequence of free will. But, if God is all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing, what good is there in knowingly and willingly creating a system in which so many are doomed to an eternity of torture?

In all these lines of thought, evil has one ultimate source: God. And this was admitted by my teachers, that God did, in fact, create evil. He has a plan though, so no need to fret. What never sat right with me, even as a devout Christian, was the knowledge that so many good people would be doomed to eternal torment simply because they picked the wrong God. 

This is where that quote from the Bhagavad Gita comes in: “No one who does good work will come to an evil end.” It is quite clear that many who do good work do come to evil ends in this life. In both my worldview and the Christian worldview, the end of this life is not the end. But in the Christian worldview, many who do good work still meet an evil end and an evil eternity. 

The problem is not evil, but an evil God. I do not believe God is evil – I also do not believe he is all-powerful. Immensely powerful, yes, but not infinitely so. I also believe evil is not the result of anything or anyone in particular. It simply is – a natural entity as old as good, and it oftentimes acts on good people of its own volition. And God is powerless to stop it. Again, if God is all-good and all-powerful, evil simply does not exist. 

But, as it stands, the dominant idea of God in Western civilization is one that could eliminate evil effortlessly yet chooses not to, and in doing so dooms billions of souls.