"Why do bad things happen to good people?"
Imagine a world where they didn't. Good behavior would always be requited with rewards, instantaneously, and bad behavior, conversely, would receive instant punishment. The universe would be like a giant Skinner box, with results constantly conditioning behavior towards the ideal and normative
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the atheist looks around at evil, and in his outrage cries out: "why?!? to what end?!?"-- but his worldview does not admit formal and final causes or the reality of universals.
i flatly refuse to be put on the defensive by anyone who thinks the "problem of evil" is primarily a question of theodicy. the fact is that anyone who reads about rwanda --theist or atheist-- has a "problem of evil" to think through. which of them will actually be able to do it?
the theist knows there is a Judge and Lawgiver beyond death; he has put forth a plausible, if not always immediately satisfying, solution to the greatest human problem. the atheist, whatever else he may have, has no solution whatsoever-- nor even sufficient recourse of the categories in which one might emerge.
atheist: "if your god is so good, why is there so much evil?"
theist: "well, why do you think?"
atheist: "there is no reason, it just is that way!"*
theist: "then why do you object to it?"
atheist: "i just do! it's instinctive, of course!"
theist: "so, why are you asking me about the reasons for things when you don't care whether things have reasons?"
(*NB, of course, that all the secular theories --"evolution", "ignorance", "sexual aggression" and "improper resource distribution"-- can be reduced to: "it just IS that way!")
the fact is that the atheist cries out for answers spiritually, while stopping up his ears to all possible answers intellectually. why should i worry about theodicy when the atheist hasn't even the means to reason conclusively or coherently about justice?!? (cf. alasdair macintyre)
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