Why Is There Evil in A World Created by A Good God?

Two weeks ago tomorrow, two men mercilessly bombed the Boston marathon. Armed with makeshift pressure-cooker bombs, these two disrupted a normally fun-filled and blessed day, killing three and injuring hundreds more. Surveillance video shows one of the suspects placing a backpack with a bomb in it right next to an 8 year-old boy. This attack was pure evil.

How could God allow such evil to enter our world? This is a question that I'm sure troubles many intelligent grad students trying to discern their faith. If God is truly good, and if he is omnipotent, he wouldn't allow such evil things to happen to us, right?

God works in mysterious ways. Although this is a common cliche, it is entirely true. At first glance, it may seem as if nothing good came from the Fall. Only evil, sin, and death. But this is not true at all. Through the Fall, God has produced an even greater good (produced is an awkward verb here, but I cannot think of a better one). It is because of the Fall that Jesus Christ was made incarnate to forgive us of our sins. And it is because of the Fall that Jesus Christ will come a second time.  The greatest thing that has ever happened to mankind, Jesus Christ's coming, would not have happened without the Fall.

Superficially, this contradicts the Church's generally means-based philosophies. God is allowing evil in order to create more good, seemingly an ends-based approach from the All-Knowing One. However, this does not contradict means-based philosophy. God does not cause the evil; He merely allows it. In other words, evil was not created by God directly, but rather by the absence of the good God created. Because God takes no action, it cannot be said He violates any sort of Kantian rule. 

Philosophical discussion aside, this idea of creating more good from evil through Jesus Christ is known as the Felix Culpa, or Happy Fault. St. Augustine, an Early Church Father, wrote about this while justifying God's failure to stop sin. 

As bad as sin and evil are, we are better off with it because of Jesus Christ. God would not allow such darkness to enter our world if this was not true.

-Shoe