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Our world is the classic 'half empty/half full glass' when it comes to its 'good' and 'evil' features. It has been this way for apparently the entire age of the universe. Hence, where is God and, assuming God exists, why does 'he' tolerate a world that is neither perfection or total chaos? Well, here's some options to answer that question:
1) God created the world, and left. The laws of physics were designed the best that they could possibly be designed in order to make the world eventually stock itself with life and intelligence, but without God's interference on a day to day basis, these laws can't possibly bring perfectionist 'good' in the world. Since God left many billions of years ago, here we are.
2) God created the world, and did the best he could do. God is not perfect as is commonly thought, and sorry folks, but this is the best of his abilities. God has been Peter Principled (exceeded his talent level by trying a task a little outside his range). He tried to destroy the world in a flood to fix things, and quite couldn't get the courage to do that either.
3) God created the world, and then either set rules or had rules imposed on 'him' that determine how much interference he can do in the world. The rules might have something to do with free will, or something to do with a prime directive, or something that perhaps we have no inkling.
4) God created the world, but is not morally commited to the happiness of intelligence per se, he is interested in an emergent property of the universe (e.g., creation of mini-universes by intelligent lifeforms, enjoys many different lifeforms - even parasites and contagions, he is farming souls for heaven and hell, etc).
5) God created the world, and then created another and another and so on. For some reason God chose to design every conceivable world, our's being one which is half empty/half full. Empty worlds and Full worlds also exist, but we don't live in them.
6) God created the world as a 'creative principle'. As a 'creative principle' he merely acts as an opportunist and only when opportunities come along, does he inspire an event to occur that has a positive effect on the design of the universe. Since opportunies are limited, our world is also 'half empty'.
7) God created the world according to the laws of physics, God has no choice but to create the world, and he has no choice in how the world is. God is an innocent bystander that somehow is needed for everything to exist, but beyond that, he can do nothing. Fortunately it is a world 'half full', but sorry, it's not more than that.
8) God caused the world just by his Being, and the world must conform to the macro properties of his Being, but the properties of the universe can deviate from those macro properties of God only superficially, the overall properties of the universe must conform to God's Being. Deviations occur because random motion is either part of the Being properties or because whatever is not necessiated acts randomly.
Did I miss any?
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