3. Who is to blame for human atrocities?

[Manuel]

The existence of human atrocities is the main argument of atheists against the existence of God. It is true that many abuses are committed. Is atheism an immature doctrine which aims to avoid responsibility, by passing it to determinism, randomness or God? Just as a child, caught in flagrant mischief, tries by all means to blame another?

[Galicius]

St. Augustine’s explanations, if I read him correctly, is that evil is the absence of good, and that God exists not in time but eternity and though He sees all times including the future do now explain it to me completely. What makes sense the most in understanding evil is that we do not now see God’s overall plan but will at some time (beyond time).

[John]

So much here.

My first thought, rather than the existence of atrocities, or more generally of evil, demonstrating God's nonexistence, I would argue that we view evil as evil, that we view atrocities as evil demonstrates the existence of God, or at least an external source of right and wrong. As Nietzsche and Dostoevsky both said, without God all things can be done, without God nothing is left but the will to power.

[Manuel]

John wrote: "My first thought, rather than the existence of atrocities, or more generally of evil, demonstrating God's nonexistence, I would argue that we view evil as evil, that we view atrocities as evil demonstrates the existence of God, or at least an external source of right and wrong."

This is exactly the argument C.S. Lewis uses in Mere Christianity.