The Reality of the Crooked Line: An Argument for God’s Existence from the Experience of Moral Outrage

One of the most common arguments against the existence of God is what has been famously called “The Problem of Evil.” Everyone knows what “The Problem of Evil” is even if they’ve never taken a class on it. For example, someone may have had a loved one die of cancer, or a child die in the womb, or a friend die in a car accident. In those moments the individual asks, “Where was God in the midst of this evil event?” Indeed, the problem of evil can be a very strong argument against God’s existence on the face of it. There are certainly terrible evils we all experience in this world, and we wonder, “Where was God?” Everyone has asked this question.

There are many responses to the problem of evil that can help ease the issue for some, but if someone you know is suffering right now, they do not need “5 Reasons Why God Allows Evil.” What that person needs is for you to listen to them and to, likely, say as little as possible. We are to weep with those who weep in these circumstances. As time passes, an individual might be ready to hear some of these reasons, and they can be helpful at that point, but certainly at the beginning of a tragedy, one needs love and comfort and our presence way more than any intellectual argument. In fact, it would be quite inconsiderate to bombard your suffering friend with “Facts and Reasons” at this stage.

With that being said, I do want to make one point that has held me steady over the years when I have been faced with explicable evil, and have been tempted to doubt God’s existence, and it is this: If there is no God, then we would not be able to recognize any act or situation as objectively and morally evil; it would simply be our preference and opinion. The only way we can know something is evil is whether God actually exists. If there is no God, then there is no way to know the moral value of any act or situation; it is simply an act. The reason for this is because if there is a moral law (which we all seem to know, generally, intuitively), then there must be a moral law Giver. If there is no moral law Giver, then we cannot not know the “law”; we would not know “right and wrong.”

For example, we can only know what a crooked line is because we know what a straight line is. If there was not such a thing as a straight line, then we would not know what a crooked line is. C.S. Lewis famously said, “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust?” In other words, his argument against God, because of evil, ironically became his most powerful argument for God’s existence. This is related to an argument called “The Moral Argument for God’s Existence,” and it has held me up during some rough times of doubt and pain. There are other arguments for God’s existence (and here as well), but this moral argument has helped me tremendously. Otherwise, if there is no God, then we are not doing “bad” or “good” things, we are simply “doing things.” The Apostle Paul backs up this in Romans 2:14-15: “¹⁴ So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. ¹⁵ They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts…” The universe we live in is a morally-infused universe, with a moral law Giver (God), and we cannot get around that fact, especially in times of pain and suffering due to our own moral outrage. So, the next time you see or experience evil and want to doubt God’s existence, remember that you could not even recognize that act as truly and objectively evil unless He exists.