Where is God When Bad Things Happen? Why Natural Evil Must Exist 
by Rich Deem 

Introduction

The presence of natural evil in a world supposedly designed by a loving God is a formidable barrier to faith for many people. For example, atheist philosopher Brian Marston says, "Although an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good God could be justified in allowing moral evil, such a God is never justified in creating a world in which natural evil occurs."¹ Nicholas Tattersall defines the evil that is incompatible with God's existence as "gratuitous evils."² This essay will not deal with moral evil - inappropriate actions taken by free will beings resulting in hurt to themselves or other free will beings. The free will defense explaining the presence of moral evil is delineated elsewhere.

I am convinced that the majority of people who make the claim that natural evil must be eliminated by God have not considered the implications of their ideas on the way the world would operate if they were in charge of the earth's design. Are these "natural evils" really gratuitous or do they serve important functions in the earth's design? This page is a comprehensive examination of what the world would look like if atheists would have had the ability to create a "better" universe. So, for the purpose of this essay, we are going to assume that the atheists are right and that all forms of natural evil must be eliminated from the universe.

Rejected Christian responses

Numerous Christians throughout the ages have argued for specific explanations why there is natural evil. Some have suggested that natural evil was created by Satan and his angels. We reject this argument because nowhere does the Bible suggest that Satan has creative ability or took part in the way the universe was designed. We also reject the argument that all natural evil is required for spiritual growth. Some natural evil may pull at our hearts to encourage us to get involved in helping others. However, many forms of natural evil probably do not consistently result in a greater good in this way. So, we reject the argument that spiritual growth is the primary reason for the existence of natural evil. Young earth creationists say that that fall of Adam and Eve resulted in corruption of the physical creation, and that all the bad things are the result of sin. We reject this explanation, since the Bible makes it clear that the physical laws of the universe were in full operation before the fall. In addition, it is not clear from their explanations how sin caused all the "bad" processes to begin. Ultimately, even their explanation must put the blame for the existence of natural evil upon God. However, instead of designing the universe with natural evil, young earth creationists believe that God's curse upon the creation went way beyond what the Bible indicates. Another popular Christian response is that all natural evil is due to the judgment of God. Although the Bible indicates that God has used "natural" processes in judgment (e.g., the Noaic flood) and will do so in the future (e.g., earthquakes and drought), not every natural disaster that occurs can be blamed on God's judgment. So, we also reject judgment as the primary reason for the existence of natural evil.

The purpose of natural process

The physical world is subject to a number of laws that govern its operation. There are four fundamental forces of physics that operate in our universe:

1. Strong nuclear force (keeps protons within atomic nuclei from flying away)
2. Weak nuclear force (responsible for phenomena within the atomic nucleus, such as radioactive decay)
3. Gravity (attraction between masses)
4. Electromagnetic force (which governs interactions of charged particles)

These laws are absolutely essential for the proper operation of the universe as it exists. Without these fundamental laws exhibiting the exact values they do, the universe would consist solely of charged and uncharged particles and random forms of electromagnetic energy floating through space. We are going to go with these laws for now, since designing a universe with completely different laws would amount to mere hand waving (Anything is possible in philosophy, but science is a little more demanding). However, we will discuss alternative kinds of universes later in this essay.

God's requirements for the universe

First, we need some minimum requirements that the universe must possess in order to comply with God's stated purpose for designing the universe, according to the Bible. So, this essay will not address possible purposes for the universe as delineated in other religious writings, which, I believe, do not provide much of a challenge to the non-belief of skeptics. Therefore, I do not intend to defend the easily refuted claims of other religions or atheists' ideas about how best to create the optimal universe. None of the requirements below represent some fringe Christian beliefs, but are central to the tenets of all Christian beliefs. Justification for each requirement is listed below. Any atheists' claims that these requirements are not central to Christianity are spurious, at best. Here is the list:

1. The universe must allow for the existence of sentient creatures.
2. These sentient creatures must have the ability to make moral choices.
3. The universe must operate by physical laws that are reliable, so that the sentient creatures will be able to interact reliably with their surroundings and each other.
4. The universe must declare the power and glory of God

Sentient creatures

It seems somewhat unnecessary to defend the existence of sentient creatures, but for the sake of completeness, let's examine what the Bible says on the issue. According to the Bible, God created the entire universe,³ including time.⁴ Towards the end of God's creative acts, He created soulish creatures, including human beings.⁵ Human beings were given dominion over the earth to manage and protect God's creation.⁶ Such a task could not have been accomplished by non-sentient creatures. In addition, the Bible makes it clear that God wants to be in a relationship with human beings.⁷

Moral choices

Atheists may not agree that sentient creatures must be allowed to make moral choices, but the Bible clearly states that this is one of the fundamental purposes for which the universe was created.⁸ Since we are arguing against the existence of the God of the Bible, we must accept the requirement as absolutely necessary.

Reliable physical laws

The universe must operate through reliable physical laws, since it would be impossible for sentient creatures to make sense of a universe in which the physical laws were randomly applied. The Bible explicitly says that God fixed the laws that govern the universe.⁹

Power of God

According to the Bible, God isn't a wimp. In fact, the Bible says that God's power is unlimited¹⁰ and that He created the universe through His awesome power.¹¹ According to the Bible, one of the reasons for the existence of the universe is to declare God's power and glory.¹² So, we wouldn't expect the universe to look wimpy, but it must demonstrate God's power and glory.

Eliminate all the negative

Our strategy to examine the claims of atheists is to eliminate all the "nasties" that they say a loving God would never have allowed into His creation. We will do this by attempting to eliminate the underlying causes of all this natural evil. In theory, when we are finished, we will be left with atheism's "perfect world." For the sake of being thorough, I intend to eliminate all forms of natural evil, including those that might, at first glance, seem trivial. The following is a list of natural evils, according to atheists:

• Collisions in the universe (Crabtree, 2007¹³)
• Earthquakes (Tattersall, 1998,² Marston, 1998,¹ Crabtree, 2007¹³)
• Volcanic eruptions (Marston, 1998,¹ Crabtree, 2007¹³)
• Landslides (Tattersall, 1998²)
• Floods (Marston, 1998,¹ Crabtree, 2007¹³)
• Hurricanes (Marston, 1998¹)
• Tornadoes (Marston, 1998,¹ Crabtree, 2007¹³)
• Lightening strikes (Rowe, 1979¹⁴)
• Fires (Tattersall, 1998²)
• Painful death from an incurable terminal disease (Marston, 1998¹)
• Infectious disease (Crabtree, 2007¹³)
• Animal pain (Rowe, 1979¹⁴, Marston, 1998¹)

Let's start with the universe and work down in scale until we get to human beings.

Meteorites

Every year, a few people are killed by falling meteorites.¹⁵ Although an extremely rare event, you probably wouldn't want a meteorite to land on you. So, we must eliminate this form of natural evil. It seems like a trivial matter - God waves His hand and all the billions of meteorites and asteroids are instantly eliminated from the Solar System. The problem is that God has just produced a contradiction in the nature of the universe. Solar systems are formed through the collapse and accretion of dust and gases from a solar nebula. In our Solar System, most of this material went into the formation of the Sun, with the remainder forming the planets and moons ~4.6 billion years ago. Left-over pieces collided with these bodies at incredible rates through the late heavy bombardment (~3.9 billion years ago), which is why the Moon looks like Swiss cheese. So, if God had eliminated all the smaller objects in the Solar System, it would contradict the method by which it was created. Scientists examining the universe would be unable to figure out how the Solar System came into being. In essence, God would be telling a lie, something that the Bible says He can't do. So, this mechanism would violate requirement 3, above.

Could God have created the Solar System in some other way? Obviously, a God who is all-powerful could create the Solar System any way He wished. So, God could have created the universe and the Solar System in a completely different way. Many atheists have suggested that God could have created just one planet orbiting just one star. This method would have certainly solved the meteorite problem. However, this idea would violate one purpose for which the Bible says God created the universe the way He did - to declare His power and glory - violating requirement 4, above. Atheists are always complaining that there isn't enough evidence for God's existence, so removing the remaining design evidence would have justified their unbelief - something God seems to have been unwilling to do.

Earthquakes

I live in one of the earthquake capitals of the world - the West coast of the United States. I have personally survived a couple Richter ~7 and a number of smaller magnitude 5-6 earthquakes - the latest during the writing of this article. If one were to examine atheist literature, one would think that these are capricious "acts of God" that serve no purpose to life on earth. Of course, the implication (never directly stated) is that earthquakes are a physical flaw in the "design" of the earth and that if God had really designed the earth, He could have done much better. Let's look at the reason earthquakes happen to see what could have been done to eliminate that cause.

Earthquakes & continental plates

Earth Sciences 101 - The reason for the existence of earthquakes is that the earth's continental crusts are floating on the earth's molten mantel. Since the continents are floating, the plates that make up the continents tend to run into one another (see graphic to right¹⁶). When they slip past one another, the grinding of the plates results in the release of a large amount of energy, causing the plates to shake. So, there are a few ways to "fix" the "problem." We could just eliminate the mantel and make all the continents fixed in position. On the surface, it sounds like a good idea. In fact, all other rocky planets in the Solar System have no molten core, and, therefore, no seismic activity. However, it turns out that a molten interior of the earth is absolutely essential to the existence of life. The independent rotation of the molten interior of the earth results in a magnetic dynamo that produces a charged field (magnetosphere)¹⁷ around the earth. This magnetic field produces the Van-Allen radiation shield, which protects the Earth from radiation bombardment. If this shield were not present, life would not be possible on the Earth.

Get rid of radiation? - Maybe God could have designed the universe without any deadly radiation? It turns out that the production of electromagnetic radiation is absolutely necessary to the ordinary functioning of the universe. Nuclear fusion, the process