Why "The Problem of Evil" is a Problem for Atheists and Skeptics

Perhaps the single most common objection to Christian faith is the "problem of evil" which can be stated in many different ways such as "why do bad things happen to good people?" and "why do kids get cancer?"

Everyone is familiar with some injustice or evil they have experienced or witnessed, so this is a powerful objection.  How could a good and loving God allow such things?

The short answer is that God gave us free will.  The choice to love Him must be a true choice, meaning we have free will to choose to not love Him.  In other words, a robot cannot be "programmed to love" because that violates the concept of love.  

This question has been answered many times.  Here is a good answer from Fr. Spitzer:

https://blog.magiscenter.com/blog/why-does-god-allow-evil

But, that's not the end of the story here.

The skeptic wants to ask this question to put the believer on the defensive.

But let's flip it around.

What IS evil?

What IS good?

BOOM.

This question blows up the skeptic's point.  The skeptic has assumed the definition of what is evil...from their culture or their human experience and assumed you agree.  But evil is a MORAL judgment.  When you call something evil, you call it fundamentally immoral. 

How can a skeptic define evil?  How can a skeptic define good?

They simply have no grounds to do so.  If there's no God, nothing is good or evil, everything is simply meaningless.   

The skeptic can also be asked, "If there is no God...why is there good in the world?"