To start our series on God and whether He is evil or not, as some will claim, we first need to know what exactly "evil" is.

In Biblical terms, evil often means violent or wishing to cause harm. In a Biblical sense then, at times God is "evil" because He does bring harm or death to those, especially those that are evil themselves. This is what the Bible means when it says God is the creator of evil or thought evil towards someone.

When people ask if God is evil, what they are often asking is if God is wicked. This is an entirely different idea. Evil is neutral. It is causing harm to something. I did evil to the potatoes I ate for dinner. A man may do evil if he beats up someone. So to be evil, in specific circumstances, technically isn't wrong. Wickedness though is different. Wickedness is transgression of the law God put into place. When people accuse God of being wicked, they are accusing Him of violating His own laws which He set up.

So that is the real question. Is God wicked? To condemn God of wicked, we first must acknowledge that there must be a moral code of some kind for Him to be good or bad. Many atheists say there is no such thing as right and wrong other than what each individual decides for him or herself. If that is true, than I do not see why God would be wicked if there is no real right or wrong. If there is no real right or wrong, for God to decided right and wrong for Himself can't be wrong, because wrong does not exist. Even if it is wrong to you, in all due respect, I ask what right do you have to tell Him He is wrong? You have no right, for you forfeited that right when you said right and wrong do not exist. He can only be relatively wrong to you. If He is immoral, there must be some higher law that transcends our own opinions, which would be set up by a supreme being, which would be God.

So when we accuse God of being wicked, we claim He is breaking His own moral standard. We are saying He created a set of rules that He Himself does not keep. That is what we mean by the phrase, "God is evil."

So, there are three options then if we are to consider God exists (and if He does not, this conversation is in some ways pointless.) -

A God who is amoral, meaning He has no moral code.

A God who is wicked and breaks His own moral code.

A God who is moral and keeps His moral code.

To say God does not exist though merely because we think He is evil is ignorant and even foolish in some ways. Something being evil does not void its existence. Cruel governments, abusive spouses, domineering parents, all are felt the more keenly BECAUSE they are so wicked. Their wickedness does not mean they don't exist, and the same with God. If you believe God is wicked, that does mean He does not exist, it means He is wicked.

Now, I'm also not trying to say a person can't think something is wicked and also think it is fake. For example, I think the Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood is wicked. But I also think he is totally fake. All I am saying is that morality is totally separate from whether something exists or not. So to say you think God isn't real BECAUSE He is wicked is illogical. That is all I am saying.

So over the next three articles, I want to look at these three together. Let us honestly look at the evidence pointing to each one.