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'If there is a wholly good and omnipotent God, why is there evil?' Is this a good question?

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What does 'evil' mean? Does evil exist? 

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Can evil disprove the existence of God? Can evil disprove the qualities of God? Or does evil make it less probable that there is a God?

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Would you agree with the following definitions? 

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Evil = something which causes, or intends to cause, suffering

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Sin = something which harms our relationship with God. Sin is evil. 

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The typical theist theodicy is to argue that we have free will, and as such genuine choice must be possible. The basic choice is between loving God and not loving God. Just what qualifies as either is a matter of theological debate.  

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The three possible options regarding free will are broadly:

• Libertarianism: total free will to choose between good and evil

• Determinism: there is no free will (e. g. our brains are determined by physical laws)

• Compatibalism: we are free to obey our nature

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Theists believe that God created us imago dei. Part of this is that we have total free will to choose between loving God (good) and not loving God (evil). This is a libertarianist view. Our choices result either in our peace of mind/salvation or not/damnation. If all our choices resulted in peace of mind, there would be no genuine free will. Theists believe that it is obviously better that there exists a world with free creatures in it than not (or else God would have created a different type of creation, or not created at all). Some atheists argue that it would have been better for there to have been no world than this one, with all the suffering in it. Some of Dostoevsky's characters suggest this, as did Schopenhauer. 

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Theists believe in this world being the best possible world: it is best that genuine choice exists, and sin, and the suffering that results, is our choice. But what about all the things which we encounter in life which so easily lead to our suffering?

Some theists (e.g. Augustine, Plantinga) suggest that natural evil is caused by invisible beings (demons) as a way of tempting people to sin. 

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Ultimately theists follow the example of Job in the Bible: they simply put their trust in God and believe that this is the best world and that God will save them from all suffering if they stay faithful and love God.