Short Answer: This question is surprisingly deep and has vexed philosophers for centuries. It has caused many to lose faith in the existence of God.  A satisfactory answer to this question, requires an  understanding of what Eternalism calls "God-inside-the-box" which declares reality to be absolute compared to "God-outside-the-box" which declares God to be absolute.  If God is absolute, then He is rightfully to be blamed for the evil we see all around us.  However, if reality is absolute, where God Himself exists within reality, then He is not responsible for evil because He must also obey laws of cause and effect inherent in reality.

Longer Answer:  Philosophers contemplating God's role in evil events have called this "The Logical Problem of Evil" which describes a logical contradiction like this:

"Soaked as it is with human suffering and moral evil, how is it possible that our world is the work of an almighty, perfectly loving Creator?"1

The philosopher David Hume further defined the contradictory problem of evil when he wrote:

"Why is there any misery at all in the world? Not by chance, surely. From some cause then. Is it from the intention of the Deity? But he is perfectly benevolent. Is it contrary to his intention? But he is almighty."2

One of the main purposes of Eternalism is to reveal hidden assumptions.  There is a deadly hidden assumption regarding "The Absolutism of God" (God-outside-the-box) at the root of "The Logical Problem of Evil" that most religiously-minded people are unaware of.  God-outside-the-box describes a belief in a relationship between God, man and the universe that places God outside of reality (the box) claiming that there was no existence until God created existence out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo). The logical contradiction with God-outside-the-box is if God created everything ex nihilo (out of nothing), then He is the one responsible for the evil we see around us because He created reality in the first place. Logically it follows that anyone who creates evil must themselves be evil.

Eternalism's answer to "The Problem of Evil" is that the apparent contradiction only exists within that false God-outside-the-box belief where God is declared to be absolute.  In the God-inside-the-box perspective of Eternalism, reality is absolute and therefore God didn't create evil.  Evil is a corruption of the good. On this subject Brigham Young said:

"The principle of falsehood and wickedness, the power of the devil and the power of death are also from eternity to eternity...When truth comes, error comes also."3

The Book of Mormon prophet Lehi explained to his son Jacob: "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things."4 Evil being uncreated and in the nature of reality itself is how God can be blameless when He says "For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance;"5  Eternal laws being part of reality itself and independent of God, explain the need for justice to be paid with Christ's atonement.  Christ's atonement only makes reasonable sense if there are laws in reality that even God cannot change by willing reality to be different than it is.

Evil then, being a natural part of reality for us to learn to avoid, is just natural cause and effect of what we call "consequence".  On this subject Elder Richard G. Scott said:

"Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously. When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more. He therefore gives you experiences that stimulate growth, understanding, and compassion which polish you for your everlasting benefit. To get you from where you are to where He wants you to be requires a lot of stretching, and that generally entails discomfort and pain. ...  No one wants adversity. Trials, disappointments, sadness, and heartache come to us from two basically different sources. Those who transgress the laws of God will always have those challenges. The other reason for adversity is to accomplish the Lord's own purposes in our life that we may receive the refinement that comes from testing. It is vitally important for each of us to identify from which of these two sources come our trials and challenges, for the corrective action is very different."6

The nature of evil is an appropriate topic to be discussing on this anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks which saw great evil inflicted by Islamic terrorists who followed their "duty ethics" beliefs.  Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the attacks, described his evil duty ethics perspective when he preached:

"To kill Americans and their allies, both civil and military, is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able, in any country where this is possible."7

The Book of Mormon story from Alma 14 describes this pattern of evil events that God does not cause but does allow to unfold for a more Eternal purpose.  In this story, Alma and Amulek are forced to witness the horrible scene of their converts being "burned and destroyed by fire" by evil men intent on destroying the good.  Of this scene, Amulek cries out to Alma:

"...How can we witness this awful scene? Therefore let us stretch forth our hands, and exercise the power of God which is in us, and save them from the flames."8

Alma replies with an answer that illustrates the answer to the problem of evil, within an Eternal context of cause and effect:

"...The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in glory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people may do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the judgments which he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day."9

Before we foolishly blame God, or lose our faith in Him because of the evil we see around us, we would do well to remember the evil that He Himself suffered to atone for the eternal natural laws broken by the rest of humanity.

"That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."10

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