Religion says that God makes all from nothing and is pure love so evil is not from him. It is not real but just twisted good. It is good in the wrong place and the wrong time.
What if the atheists see evil as just misplaced good?
The danger is they could see evil as tolerable. In fact the very notion implies there is something tolerable about evil!
Yet there is a difference between teaching evil is a flaw that has to burn out and teaching that there is a God in charge of all who is going to give some input to get rid of it.
The good side of the evil = misplaced good is that there is always hope.
The atheist does not have to risk worshipping a God who is to blame for evil. Even if we believe that if there is a God then he is good we only believe it meaning we admit we could be wrong.
What if the believer in God sees evil just as misplaced good?
The danger – he could see evil as tolerable. In fact the very notion implies there is something tolerable about evil! The pressure to see it as tolerable increases if you think there is a God responsible for all things. Even if seeing evil as misplaced good is fine, we easily distort it to make ourselves see it as not a huge deal. We don't need any God or anything else to encourage us to do that! We do it too much as it is!
The good side – there is always hope. But you don’t need God for that. There is a difference between letting hope be and creating a more hopeful version. The latter is really risking and delivering false hope. Any hope that overreaches, is more than what is needed, is by default leaning into false hope. It is bad for it is not essential and also because of the risk of hurting yourself or the other person. And it is an attempted lie.
If there is only good and evil is just a parasite and really nothing then it follows that getting rid of evil matters more than doing good. You can imagine the army destroying your enemy but doing nothing to help you otherwise. They just walk away leaving you with no way to rebuild your life. Ending evil is a negative action. Helping you grow after getting rid of the evil is a positive one.
In the real world, we want positive help regardless of how any philosophy says that vanquishing an enemy matters most. Do this test.
- Suppose evil is a lack of good and nothing else.
- Then what if the army hypothetically had to destroy the enemy or to help the people get healthy and free again.
Which would it be?
The lack doctrine tells you to put the liquidation of the enemy first. It assumes that if the threat is no more, then a vacuum is left for good to rush in to.
Too many agree with that and act accordingly. The doctrine is clearly passive-aggressive. Some people who wage violence in the name of what is right are happy to get an outlet for their violence.
That is an issue for atheist and believer alike. It does mean that luck, not religion not faith, is the reason if the myth that believers, rather than atheists, do the most good works is true.
Our conclusion is that suggesting there is a God makes everything worse! It may seem okay for a time but the damage will come. If evil is only a flaw, it might be seen as tolerable—a small crack in the system. If there is a God, indeed that is what it is. If God is good we should see it as he does. Then it becomes nothing to us and we accuse those who are devastated by it of inflicting their pain on themselves.