The simple solution is that there is no "evil."
I like the story The Egg by Andy Weir. It gives an example of that idea.
Alan Watts also talks a lot about that sort of thing.
I mean DUH, obviously it is impossible to have any objective morality without appealling to my own personal, internally inconsistently defined God whose written word I am certainly interpreting correctly after being filtered through tens of thousands of writers and editors and translators through thousands of years, whose objectivity morality also 'works in mysterious ways' whenever it seems contradictory!
Its simple!
Who are you to challenge God's word?
This is sorta the beginners philosophy question. There are plenty of answers, it's not the "gotcha" it appears to be. Those answers unroll into all sorts of branching other conversations but they exist.
Maybe it's because free will exists.
Maybe there's a greater purpose for what we call "evil" that results in more good.
Maybe it's a definitional thing, where "evil" to us is always going to be the most-evil existent thing so if existing evils were gone "evil" would still exist but it would consist of aggressive kitten licks or something. So "evil" can't not exist, but it's not because God can't get rid of what we call "evil" now.
Or maybe he’s just a cunt, what with all the murdering people.
I know this is a circle-jerk meme, but I'mma pitch my two cents anyway.
If we are talking about the Abrahamic god... "he" is both good and evil. So no; to be omnipotent one must also be responsible for evil. Kinda duh.
I could go on, but that right there is pretty much all that needs to be said regarding that god in particular. Good and Evil are man-made concepts, and subjective as all hell.
Where God is humanist principle, and God is a humanist, then circularly, principle exists without micromanaging intervention in perpetuity.
The old testament is extremely problematic. Israelite hasbara coup. Polytheistic relgion at the time was Canaanite. The descendants of Noah's grandson. El was main god, that Israel is named after, and all other god's were his offspring. Greek rule over the region, had Greeks say that all of the major Canaanite gods were the same as the Greek gods, with El as Zeus. Yahweh was the tribal god of Israelites. But it is basically very easy for any priest to invent a new god, based on narrower factional/fertility needs to collect revenue for rewarding the priest to champion your tribe/goals contrary to humanism.
The problems with old testament start with 10 commandments
There is no god before me (Yahweh), is a coup over El.
"Though shalt not covet/idolatrize" was an insurection cry over Canaanites where Yahweh orders the Israelites to destroy all idols of Canaanites instead of valuing their silver/gold content. El/God had no desire to repress worship, and their priests accepted offerings and sacrifices, so why not idolatry.
"Honour thy father/parents" codifies law at the time that gave parents the right to have the state execute their children for "dishonour".
Just as all Churches today have as mission to maximize their power through alliance with state/authority/hierarchy, so have all religion through time. A cult is simply a religion without state approval. God exists without church corruption. Prayer has no measurable effect, but Abrahamic religions being rooted in a lie could be one explanation. Still, that evil exists, doesn't imply that humanism/principle doesn't exist, just that you individually have the power for evil, and tyranny/autocracy has power because you are deluded to allow/tolerate it, and evil happens from the greed and desperation it fosters. Evil exists because we are too collectively stupid and gullible to organize ourselves around evil.
https://www.naturalfinance.net/2022/11/the-invention-of-truth.html
Assuming Christianity and that the lore was real there's more fundamental questions.
Can you perceive the universe accurately and fully? If good and evil exist, are you accurately observing them?
If this world is like an illusion and eternity will be in heaven or hell, what does it mean to do good or evil here on earth? You commit evil and it will propel you towards hell, the"real", while the people who suffer from your evil fare better here in the "illusion." It's like evil is when someone kills their own soul, and has less to do with the literal consequences here in this universe.
Related the the first question, what about the fact that their god is literally defined as good and is essentially an Eldritch being that exists within the very unfolding of history itself? Stepping into this lore and trying to trap this thing with a simple, elegant rhetorical cage is like... trying to catch Cthulhu with a cage.
If this were multiple choice, then I would go with #2.
Able and willing are fine and dandy until you have free will to deal with. You can tell people the right way to be all day, but in the end you gotta come down and throw some bitches around like rag dolls. We all assume god has the ability to do whatever they want, but we never think they have rules they are forced to exist by. Rules that keep the very fabric of existence from unraveling. In short, if god is capable of being omnipresent, and omnipotent, then our ability to express free will is in danger because they could just force us to be whomever they choose, with how things are setup it makes a lot more sense gods a smoker, drinker, pissed off, and being forced to fix this shit manually while a ton of shit heads keep trying to force everything in the wrong direction. Gods an admin in a free will zone, and has specific abilities they can rely on to resolve issues, but it can take time like cleaning up the streets of rancid goulash vendors. But really, that implies we are all just visiting a zone, and once we leave it gods not god, just an admin in a zone we are no longer a part of.
Well that's just because God works in mysterious ways you lil silly Billy.
If anyone actually cares, this is the muslim answer to how a good God can allow evil and why humanity was created with all its flaws
It's an important question and worth taking the time to watch the video
I'm not trolling and this is not intended to make anyone angry.
<spoiler title>
You don't have any control over what other people believe. You can disprove them, humiliate them or assault them with a baseball bat and they will still believe what they believe. I know you're angry, but hurting people who did nothing to you doesn't make you right, it makes you an asshole.
