Here is a post by Michael Egnor at Evolution News. He is responding to complaints by an atheistic evolutionary biologist named Jerry Coyne about the problems of evil and suffering.
Excerpt:
There are, of course, countless attempts to understand how an infinitely good God can allow evil. I believe that it is because he gives us freedom, and freedom entails the possibility of evil. My dilemma is with natural evil. Why did God not stop the Indian Ocean tsunami? Why does he allow innocent kids to die from accidents or disease? There are theories to account for natural evil. I still don’t know.
But there’s an issue with Coyne’s question. This is it: I believe in God, and as such the question, “Why is there evil?” is a natural question for me.
But what warrant has Coyne to ask that question? Coyne is an atheist, and therefore he believes that there is no transcendent purpose in the world. And Coyne is a Darwinist, so he believes that there is no purpose in the origin of man. And Coyne is a materialist, so he believes that the human mind is, in some way, merely the brain — evolved meat.
Does it make sense for an atheist to ask, “why is there evil?”
This might might be a fun question to ask your co-workers, family and friends who are atheists. What do they mean by good and evil? Is there a way humans ought to be that is independent of personal preferences and arbitrary cultural conventions? Is there a way that the universe ought to be? If there is no way the universe ought to be, then what are we to make about atheist complaints about evil and suffering?
Leave a comment with your story, but try not to get fired. Just ask questions, don’t fight. Unless you know what you are doing!
I’ll leave some hints in the tags for the post about what I would say to answer the problem of natural evil. Here is my full response to the problem of evil. Here is my full response to the problem of divine hiddenness. And my full response to the problem of those who have never heard of Jesus. And my full response to the problem of religious pluralism. These are all from the index of Christian arguments and rebuttals.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
Why is there evil? There’s no answer. Evil is just what we call things we don’t like. Different people have different evils. One person will call something good that another calls evil. It’s chauvinistic for a person to claim that there’s an absolute evil, let alone try to say what causes it.
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Yes’ that’s a great summary of the atheistic view. It’s right and wrong based on personal or cultural preferences. The theistic view is that the person who creates and designs the universe has the authority to say how their creation and design “ought to be”. If there is no Creator and Designer, then there is no real “ought to be” that is authoritative.
Thanks for your comment.
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1. Just so. Which God’s “ought to be’s” should we use? Why?
2.Actually, I think that the atheist position is untenable – no way to prove the existence or non existence of something that must be known by faith.
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1) That’s a question of moral epistemology. I am talking about moral ontology.
2) I can make arguments against God’s existence deductively and inductively. They suck, but they are there to be made.
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