Six months ago I posted on the phrase 'Why is there evil in the world,' and compared the number of Google hits for that phrase with the number of hits for the phrase's opposite, 'Why is there good in the world.' I came up with the following:
'Why is there evil in the world': 967 hits
'Why is there good in the world': 681 hits.
Both phrases require assumptions to ask them, namely whether the world (Or God, as a commenter on Janni's blog pointed out) is inherently Good or Evil. If you ask why is there evil in this world, then the assumption is that the world is an inherently good place. I took the search results to be a somewhat tongue in cheek gauge of hope (or hopelessness.)
I went back and checked out the results again, but this time I went all the way to the end of the lists, and allowed Google to list duplicated entries and such, to get a true count. The new results should encourage those who have hope:
'Why is there evil in the world': 993 hits
'Why is there good in the world': 44 hits
So this is the new baseline, as this is a different methodology from before. Clearly the drop in the 'good' category is due to my revised methodology. I'll try to remember to repeat this study in another six months, maybe right before the election.
