Why is there evil in the world, if God is all-powerful and good?

[JWeinCom]

There are no reasons for these things to exist in a world with a benevolent and omnipotent god.

But, let's go back to evil and free will.

Two siblings are in a room. A boy of 16 and a girl of 12. The girl is about to be raped.

What does god do? He says "ok fine. You go ahead and rape her. But I'm going to punish you later." That's what our heavenly father would do.

What would you do if you were their earthly father? Would you just say, "ok well I don't want to violate your free will son. You go ahead." I'm guessing and hoping that you wouldn't. Any sane father would be willing to violate his son's free will to save his daughter.

And what about "evil" or just "bad" things that happen that are not caused by human free will? Why should something like guinea worm exist? (a waterborn parasite that grows in your body and has to be extracted through sores that form in your limbs in an excruciating process? Why should children be born with deformed brains and bodies when their mother was taking all proper prenatal actions? Why should a 6 year old have leukemia? Why should thousands die in a tidal wave? Can't god stop these things without violating anyone's free will?

And how about the evil that is caused BY GOD HIMSELF. Assming your god is the judeochristian one...

“Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.” (Numbers 31:16-18)

Kill all the little baby boys, but keep the virgins for yourself. Guess he wasn't too concerned with violating free will, as long as he had his prophets do it for him.

And for a more widely known example, how about killing all the first porn Egyptian children? Isn't that a big ol' violation of free will? And if he's going to kill something, why not kill pharoh instead of babies? Kind of a dick move.

The simple answer is that there is no god, or at least not an omnipotent or benevolent one. The world we see simply isn't consistent with that. You could make up whatever pseudophilosophical garbage you want to reconcile reality with your religion of choice. However, a far simpler explanation is that we find ourselves in a world which was not particularly designed to be hospitable to us, with humans who were not designed to be especially good, and so bad shit happens.