Re: Evil
Only God is perfect. Evil comes about because we are imperfect creations. God could have created a perfect world, but our purpose here is to struggle with our imperfections and to become better people because of it; that is where free will comes into being. Now, how you get that point across to a child, well I'm just glad I'm not a dad.

My mom explained it this way and it's always sat well enough with me (though as I've gotten older I realize that it's one of the mysteries that humans will never fully understand):

God created angels and humans with free will because He wanted us to love Him because we chose it, not because we were mindless robots. But with free will comes the ability to choose to misuse gifts we are given. Lucifer was given gifts of exceeding beauty and power amongst angels. He had pride in those things - not necessarily bad - but in his free will he twisted that pride and used it for ill. Evil, essentially, is a twisting or misuse of good, which God allows because He gifted us with free will.

Free will. Which brings you to the Problem of Evil, writ large.

When I was young and cynical, I used to come to the conclusion that the existence of free will made an omnibenevolent God impossible.

But as that soon led to the notion that there was nothing wrong with being a monster, I decided instead to embrace humility, and see the creation of Free will as a good that I am not fully capable of understanding.

The furthest I have come in my understanding is that God wanted us to be like him, possessing free will, and that act (though I can't see why) is an even greater good than god permitting the existence of evil.

I believe in logic -- to a point. But I think religion comes from a part of us that is intuitive, and pre-logical. I've come to the conclusion that while logic is an important flower of human thought, it is by no means the only one -- else there would be no art, music, or storytelling. I find that logic only goes so far when describing certain things. God is among them.

On the whole, this illogical answer has worked for me better than atheism.

Robbo, I see evil as the absence of good, just as dark is the absence of light. That which is good is a creation of God. As we (and presumabley angels) are given free will, choosing to turn away from good leaves the vacuum of evil.

Good is hard but brings us closer to God.

Evil is (often) "easier, more seductive" as Yoda would say. Good requires faith and trust.

And I tend to agree with Dark Helmet's assessment that Evil will always triumph over Good because Good is dumb...

No, wait. That's not right.

Oh screw it. You know what I mean.

Rove. Karl Rove.

Plus private property. Rousseau was right--if we can only get rid of private property, everything will be, like, soooooooooooo hunky dory and shit.

Hopped on over here from Lintefiniel Jen's place. :-)

Part of God's very good plan includes allowing choice to the angels and humans. God created Adam and Eve perfect, but they could choose to obey or disobey. We see the result of Adam's choice every day. Lucifer chose to rebel against his Creator, the God of the universe and fail his angelic mission, so he was punished. We see the results of his choice every day, too.

I guess I'm coming at this from the angle that sin is any act against God and his perfect standard. We all knowingly sin and also have sins of omission, because we're not perfect. But in Lucifer's case, since he was an angel, he knew much more, and rebelled against all his perfect knowledge in so complete a manner that his punishment fits his rebellion.

That's how I might explain it. :-)