Why does God allow so much evil in the world?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner (Q): When we see terrible crimes like rapes, mass murders, lynchings, etc. happening so openly, we wonder where that benevolent God is? He could have easily prevented all of it. He is supposed to be omnipotent, yet he does nothing. My question is not whether there is God or not. My question is why is he so very absent when people need him the most?

Acharya Prashant (AP): If you really need the Truth, Truth is at your service. If there are rapes, then in your own eyes, rape is what you need. Does the rapist need God? No, he needs flesh. He gets flesh. Mass murders; does the murderer need God? No, he needs revenge or whatever exploitation. He gets it. Same with the other things. You would say, “But what if the exploited one, raped one, murdered one needs God?”

If the one who has been exploited or tortured is really God-loving, in God, full of godliness, then all these events, that happen to him or her, mean exactly zero to him. There is no guarantee at all that an extremely godly woman will never be raped. That can happen. It has happened several times in history. It happens maybe all around us, all the time. There is no guarantee that an extremely godly person will never be assaulted, insulted or tortured, or murdered…