Christianity’s Thick Answer to the Problem of Evil

Great breakdown of an apologetics-based response to the problem of evil.

For those who have not done deep thinking in that area, the problem of evil is thus:

If God exists and is all good, and evil exists and is bad, then either God does not exist or is not all good. 

The Christian response is strong. The article discusses it --> here <-- 

The author addresses the problem by pointing to areas that make the existence of evil make sense in a Christian worldview: Jesus suffered, there is a greater good, humans have freedom which leads to the freedom to choose evil, there are dark forces at work in this world, and there are some things (mystery) that we just cannot explain. I would add some nuanced answers that the article's author doesn't directly address:

(1) How are we defining evil? There are some things that are clearly evil (the holocaust), and some things that are not clearly evil (a favorite pet dies). Sometimes we conflate hurtful things with evil. 

(2) There is room for individual good. Some individual growth comes through pain. The author talks about the greater good - like Joseph suffering personal wrongs that eventually resulted in the deliverance of Israel from famine. However, some harmful events in our lives, though, are used by God for our own personal growth in faith. 

The bottom line is this: Christianity provides the absolute strongest and most logically satisfying answer to the question of evil/the problem of pain. This world cannot offer a better explanation, especially one with the hope that the resurrected Christ offers!