The Problem of Evil

Actually the problem is that of language use. Words just correspond to objects, events and processes. Language is used to describe real things as well as fictitious things. The word 'evil' refers to things that are regarded as bad to human beings and maybe animals in some way. The word evil is usually used to describe some sort of behavior or attitude. Thus the events or behaviors commonly described as evil certainly exist. One may call it something else such as 'noogoogbadbad!' instead of 'evil', however the real circumstance or event/attitude exists anyway regardless of what its called. People tend to use or think that words have some kind of Platonic real things for-themselves existing out there in some spaced out way. That often happens with 'evil'. Incidentally the Bible uses the term 'evil' to mean bad things such as tidal waves that wipe out towns, and 'wicked' to refer to evil things that people do (so said the late Vernon J. McGee). Platonic universals refer realistically to word categories, though Plato did also believe that abstract forms of things existed in a realm of forms that could be today thought of as a foyer of the mind of God.