If God exists, he seems to like to play mind tricks

[vlkmo]

If God is all good in every way and hates sin and evil happening to his creation with his being like the Bible says about him, then why is there this wave of evil in the world and "bad" people being able to obtain power positions more? Why doesn't he just punish those who are responsible for the highest evils and terror in this world and allow the rest of society right now to otherwise continue as usual? It is easier to be evil than good in this world too, which is another question I wonder how under God's design this prevails. I know Christians say that it is because God gave us free will, but that doesn't account for other issues.

Either God wants to tease and trick us for his own reasons, the gnostics are correct that there is a fake "demiurge" god in control of us, or the authors of the Bible purportedly inspired by God did a lousy job describing him. I have some doubts it is the latter one because I'm pretty sure the authors meant what they said and their language in the text is reasonably accurate or figurative of God,

[Lucas88]

If God is all good in every way and hates sin and evil happening to his creation with his being like the Bible says about him, then why is there this wave of evil in the world and "bad" people being able to obtain power positions more? Why doesn't he just punish those who are responsible for the highest evils and terror in this world and allow the rest of society right now to otherwise continue as usual? It is easier to be evil than good in this world too, which is another question I wonder how under God's design this prevails. I know Christians say that it is because God gave us free will, but that doesn't account for other issues.

Either God wants to tease and trick us for his own reasons, the gnostics are correct that there is a fake "demiurge" god in control of us, or the authors of the Bible purportedly inspired by God did a lousy job describing him. I have some doubts it is the latter one because I'm pretty sure the authors meant what they said and their language in the text is reasonably accurate or figurative of God,

The reason why you are asking yourself why god allows so much evil to happen in the world and then considering whether the Gnostic demiurge theory is correct rather than the standard Christian interpretation is simply due to your assumption that the god depicted in the Bible actually is the Supreme Being.

The Bible is just one of many religious outlooks and isn't even that old. Before the Bible there were many other religious traditions (e.g., Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Taoist, etc.), each with their own conception of Divinity and Creation. People in the West simply assume that the extremely recent religion of Christianity represents the essence of the true Creator.

However, if we are completely honest, no Christian knows for sure that their religion is true; all they have is doctrine, likely manmade and detached from reality.

Other religions and philosophies don't run into the problem which you describe; they simply assume that the Supreme Being created both good and evil as part of its cosmic drama (e.g., Brahman and his Divine Play in Hinduism). Evil is a natural part of the Creation, the dualistic counterpart of good.

Some modern esoteric interpretations consider the world a realm of experience for soul evolution, not too dissimilar to a school. Evil is seen as a counterbalance to good and a source of challenges that drive forward the plot of life's drama and allow for certain experiences and lessons. The soul, we are told, wishes to experience all facets of the Creation, both the light and dark sides, as unbelievable as that might seem to us in our current limited state of consciousness.

Once a person comes to hold this kind of more expanded view of Divinity and Creation, then questions such as "Evil exists in the world so doesn't that mean that god must be incompetent or a deceptive demiurge?" essentially become meaningless. The explanation that the Supreme Being created both good and evil as polarities within its cosmic drama or for reasons beyond our immediate understanding become sufficient and enjoy a greater level of parsimony than any of the convoluted religious explanations such as "Original Sin".

[88jose88]

If God is all good in every way and hates sin and evil happening to his creation with his being like the Bible says about him, then why is there this wave of evil in the world and "bad" people being able to obtain power positions more? Why doesn't he just punish those who are responsible for the highest evils and terror in this world and allow the rest of society right now to otherwise continue as usual? It is easier to be evil than good in this world too, which is another question I wonder how under God's design this prevails. I know Christians say that it is because God gave us free will, but that doesn't account for other issues.

Either God wants to tease and trick us for his own reasons, the gnostics are correct that there is a fake "demiurge" god in control of us, or the authors of the Bible purportedly inspired by God did a lousy job describing him. I have some doubts it is the latter one because I'm pretty sure the authors meant what they said and their language in the text is reasonably accurate or figurative of God,

The reason why you are asking yourself why god allows so much evil to happen in the world and then considering whether the Gnostic demiurge theory is correct rather than the standard Christian interpretation is simply due to your assumption that the god depicted in the Bible actually is the Supreme Being.

The Bible is just one of many religious outlooks and isn't even that old. Before the Bible there were many other religious traditions (e.g., Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Taoist, etc.), each with their own conception of Divinity and Creation. People in the West simply assume that the extremely recent religion of Christianity represents the essence of the true Creator.

However, if we are completely honest, no Christian knows for sure that their religion is true; all they have is doctrine, likely manmade and detached from reality.

Other religions and philosophies don't run into the problem which you describe; they simply assume that the Supreme Being created both good and evil as part of its cosmic drama (e.g., Brahman and his Divine Play in Hinduism). Evil is a natural part of the Creation, the dualistic counterpart of good.

Some modern esoteric interpretations consider the world a realm of experience for soul evolution, not too dissimilar to a school. Evil is seen as a counterbalance to good and a source of challenges that drive forward the plot of life's drama and allow for certain experiences and lessons. The soul, we are told, wishes to experience all facets of the Creation, both the light and dark sides, as unbelievable as that might seem to us in our current limited state of consciousness.

Once a person comes to hold this kind of more expanded view of Divinity and Creation, then questions such as "Evil exists in the world so doesn't that mean that god must be incompetent or a deceptive demiurge?" essentially become meaningless. The explanation that the Supreme Being created both good and evil as polarities within its cosmic drama or for reasons beyond our immediate understanding become sufficient and enjoy a greater level of parsimony than any of the convoluted religious explanations such as "Original Sin".

The Neoplatonic model that answers the problem of evil while there still being a absolutely good 'God' makes much more sense to me personally,that at the top there is the highest good,and he emanates lesser beings(albeit mostly good with very little privation or evil) up until we get into this world of complete contigency and thus there is evil.

'Evil'is just a privation of some good,since there is a natural hierarchy of absolute good at the top and lower goods as they emanate below(since they cannot be the supreme being ),there is natural evil because since we're not the supreme being,we naturally have privation of some good-especially the highest good-which makes this world of complete contigency 'evil'.

if it is asked,why did the supreme being create these emanations if they were going to have privation,then the answer the neoplatonists give is that it's(the emanations)a natural effortless consequence of the absolute good being's very essence,since generosity is a virtue,and it is in his natural essence to emanate and create.

The supreme being knows only himself,he did not choose to create a emanatory series of privations,since all knowledge but self-knowledge is dependant knowledge or also known as knowledge by correspondance.

Because of this fact,he is still absolutely generous and not responsible for evil,since it is not something he intended.It must be understood that generosity or creativity is natural to his essence-and his first emanation is still absolutely good-he has no knowledge other than himself,and all other emanations and this world are dependant upon him only in a indirect manner thru the series,so He is not directly responsible for this evil even if we grant him libertarian freewill(Which he doesn't have).

@Winston is completely wrong about 'God'being evil too,a self-sufficient and absolute being cannot have privation so it is IMPOSSIBLE for God to have any evil in him.Evil is just privation,privation of some good.If god were evil he wouldn't be self-sufficient or infinite.