God is omnibenevolent, then why is there evil in the world?

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All you say in your counterpoints is def. true and quite articulate. However, to respond to your second/last counterpoint:
"but God also created our minds and our intelligence. He could also have made us in such a way as to have an understanding of His plan, and thereby removed the obvious cruely in giving us free will which neccessarily implies evil"

This last point of yours- that God could have created our minds with intelligence which to understand his plan to remove cruelty/evil in the world is where at least Judaism breaks against. I'm pretty sure Christianity would agree as well....
The reason God can't/or doesn't make us in a way to understand his plan is that if he were to do so, we'd be more like God..of course, that isn't a bad thing-our goal in life may be an eternal almost earthly search for what transcends us and our desires--it is a search for God and the good in our lives.
Yet, making us intelligible to understand the way God operates requires and entails a bridging of the gap between humanity and the divine, and if he were to endow us with such intelligence, we'd be breaching the limits of holiness and divinity. Creating us in the way u stated would imply the creation of creatures more divine than human....thus God cannot make mini-gods, and therefore humans are not meant to understand the limits of divine transcendence---it is transcendence for a reason--it is beyond us/incapable of our understanding.........
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Of course, this can bring up the issue of whether God is all powerful, etc.....because if he is: take this example---if god is all powerful/all knowing, etc, can god make a rock so heavy that he cannot lift himself?....if can can make such a rock, he has all the power to do such things, but then there posits a hypocrisy/problem....being all powerful, he should be able to lift said rock, but he can't because the challenge was to create a rock so heavy that god can't lift--------see?...god can do anything and is all powerful, so he must be able to create this heavy rock that noone can lift, but then he all powerful again, must be able to lift all rocks no matter what......hence, religion itself is highly intuitive, personal, and spiritual that it has its own merits for each individual being........i hope this helps!

knowledge---political science and philosophy double major and a minor in judaic studies....Show more

God can still be viewed as omnibenevolent (perfectly good) in spite of the evils in the world. He left it to us to choose good vs evil. That was part of his design. In all of the religious teachings, we have to prove ourselves worthy, not the other way around.

However, there was a inherit design flaw with regard to types of mental illness that can in some cases override a person's "free will". This does not make God any less omnibenevolent. It just makes his design of us imperfect....Show more

This may sound simplisitic but this is the way I see it... He wanted it to be a choice. Yes, this goes back to free will... I think it's like being a parent. Before I had a child I had my future child's life completely planned out. I spent alot of time thinking about what I would do to form the child to create the best possible outcomes. I purchased what I thought were the perfect teaching toys, clothes etc. After I had a baby I found out two things. First I found that the baby had his own plan. He very much has his own personality and although I can guide he just won't be forced. Second I found that because I love him and he's part of me I want him to explore who he is. This was kind of a big suprise to me. Now I want him to be totally himself with guidance from me. He will make mistake that I can't controll. He will make many more positive choices as a result of my guidance. Forcing someone to become what they aren't doesn't make someone change it just makes them angry and resentful....Show more

I like challenging religion with philosophy, it is a forum anyone can join and breaks down the 'us' 'them' groups that frequent the science/religion forums.

I'll give this some thought, but I'm the first to admit my theology is not strong enough to satisfy the religious readers.

The idea of an Omni-benevolent God is very hard to justify from casual observation, and I think comes from a parental role of sometimes being "cruel to be kind", "knowing best" and such. What would our lives be like if we were all 'godlike?’ Omnipotent, omnipresent, Omni-benevolent. I Can’t imagine, but I guess I couldn't with my finite capacity.

So, God could have created us differently, better, or a universe of good. But what would such a place look like? - Christian descriptions of heaven sound somewhat similar, although the need to wheedle out the dregs and damn them for their God given inadequacy doesn’t feel benevolent to me at all....Show more

The easiest answer is probably that if God exists, he doesn't interact with the natural world at all. He may have created us, may have kick-started things, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence that he's still at it.

If you assume that God does exist, then his plan obviously includes evil since he created it. One of the responses is that "Satan created evil", which is really asinine since the story is that God created Satan.

As to the phrase "a God worth worshiping"... that is also odd. He doesn't have to be all warm and fuzzy to be worth worshiping. If he's jealous and vengeful - and he's really as powerful as the stories in the Bible say - then you'd better drop down on your knees before he turns you into salt....Show more