Matthew Currier
Grace is the basis of theology Gratitude is the basis of ethics
It has become a trope in our day that there is no God because there is evil. In terms of ethics, this is a non-sequitur. The notion of evil implies some law that defines what is evil and what is not.
In Christian ethics evil is in the world because humans are in the world. Moreover, good is in the world because loyal followers of Yahweh, embodied with His spirit, are in the world.
Obviously, non-believers can do good and believers can do evil. Parsing the generality in lieu of the individuals transient nature requires the context of the law. We must disassociate ourselves from cultural morality to discern the morality of the cosmic law. Right and wrong are not so easy to grasp without molting our cultural cloak of half-truths.
Consider what things are naturally considered right & wrong:
These things are [nearly] universally considered evil. Though it is true that such things have, at times, been normalized (to varying extents) such normalization often yields degradation and/or destruction of cultures and societies. For example, a culture that glorifies child sacrifice will necessarily have a population reduction depending on the extent of the effort. Also, a society that dehumanizes child and women destroys the basis for future generations to flourish which utlimately degrades their performance in every area (infrastructure, finance, etc.) because these efforts impede intelligent progress.