God and his perfection

Candide was the final book of the semester! I can't believe I can actually finally say those words, but it's true. While there have been some books I have liked and some I have disliked, I have to say that it was mixed feelings about Candide. I found Voltaire's criticism of enlightenment and Liebniz, comical yet disturbing. The characters were gullable and foolish and the plot was as twisted as a Spanish soap opera, and this made for an interesting adventure around the world. Despite the comical storyline behind Candide, I couldn't help but disagree with what Voltaire is trying to say. I agree that many people may seem to take the "everything happens for a reason" to the extreme, but that is not to say they are wrong. On Wednesday, we discussed theoticy. We expressed the Christian belief that God is all knowing, all seeing, all powerful, and all loving, which indeed makes God perfect. Then, Dr. Tucker posed a question if God is perfect, how can there be evil in the world? If there is evil in the world, God can not be perfect. However, this is not true. Evil is not created by God. Evil are acts that are conjured by the Devil and acted out by man. It is the free will that we gained in the fall of Adam and Eve that gives us the choice to do evil things or to good things. I believe that people misunderstand the term "original sin", sin does not connotate that a person is born bad, only that a person is born human. Our human nature makes us susceptible to evil, because we have free will. As far as to the question, why would God let evil things happen? The answer is the same as why a father lets his child fall on his bike while learning to ride without training wheels. It does not mean that God doesn't love us or that he is being cruel, he loves us so much that he wants to make us as strong as possible. He must put us through the fire to prepare us for battle. No, I'm not talking about crusades or some war against other religions,  but for a battle against the evil in the world, against tempatiton. For as the Word says, "No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." 1 Cor 10:13. God allows temptation and evil only as far as he knows need be allowed. It is a complex and difficult thing to understand, but there's the truth, we aren't supposed to understand. God is beyond reason or science, he is purely faith. So I guess to either complicate or simplify the argument I have with philosophers like Voltaire, all I can say is, there is no way for me to prove the existence and the perfection of God. There is no piece of evidence, no scientific data, and certainly no first hand physical proof that he is present in my life, but what I do have is faith, and for me that is far more justifiable than any thing of this world.