Short answer
No. If there is no God, nothing is truly evil. There are only events. On that view, a flood is just water moving. A murder is just one animal killing another. To call either one evil, you must judge nature by a standard of good that stands above it. Everyone lives as if that standard is real. Nature cannot supply it. Human opinion cannot either, because it changes from age to age. Only God (﷾) can. So anyone who says evil disproves God (﷾) must use God's (﷾) standard to make the case. Islam's answer comes from the Qur'an: God (﷾) showed every soul its wrong and its right when He formed it.
Full explanation
What the objection rests on
The best-known argument against God (﷾), the problem of evil, runs like this. A good God (﷾) would want to end suffering. An all-powerful God (﷾) could end it. Suffering exists. So there is no God. But ask what the word "evil" means if the objection is right. Without God (﷾) there is no real evil to complain of, only events. On that view, a flood is just water moving, and a murder is just one animal killing another. To call either one evil, and to be angry about it, is to appeal to a standard of good. That standard stands above nature and judges it. Everyone lives as if it is real, even those who deny it. Nature contains no such standard. A law above nature needs a lawgiver above nature, and that is God.
“By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it; And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right;-”
“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”
The moral sense is built in
The Qur'an says God (﷾) placed the knowledge of right and wrong in the soul when He made it. It was not taught to the soul later. Islam calls this original disposition the fitra. The fitra is the nature on which God (﷾) made every human being. It carries the sense of right and wrong and the knowledge that God (﷾) is one. The Prophet (ﷺ) said every child is born upon the fitra. It is his parents who make him a Jew, a Christian or a Magian. A Magian follows Zoroastrianism, the old religion of Persia. Studies of young children point to the other half of the fitra, the sense of a Maker. Research at Oxford, reported in a book of 2019, is one example. British and Japanese preschoolers alike said natural things were made by a maker, not by people. The psychologist Justin Barrett, writing in 2012, called his book on children's belief Born Believers.
“By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it; And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right;-”
“So set thou thy face steadily and truly to the Faith: (establish) Allah's handiwork according to the pattern on which He has made mankind: no change (let there be) in the work (wrought) by Allah: that is the standard Religion: but most among mankind understand not.”
Abu Hurayra reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said every child is born upon the fitra (the natural disposition to worship Allah alone), and it is his parents who make him a Jew, a Christian or a Magian, just as an animal gives birth to a whole, unmarked young one. Abu Hurayra then recited Qur'an 30:30.
Reports an Oxford research programme with British and Japanese children and adults. Shown natural and man-made objects and asked how they came to exist, preschool children mostly said natural things were made by a maker rather than by people. Japanese children did so too, though their culture does not teach belief in one creator God.
Argues from developmental psychology that young children are naturally inclined to believe in a creator god and to see purpose in the natural world, so that religious belief arises almost inevitably from ordinary human nature.
The Bible agrees
Paul, a Christian missionary of the first century, wrote that people who never received the law still do by nature what it requires. By "the law" he meant the law God (﷾) gave Moses. Its work is written in their hearts, and their conscience bears witness. The Christian and the Muslim agree that the moral sense is real and that God (﷾) placed it there.
“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”
Why a moral sense is not enough
The moral sense tells a person that right and wrong exist. By itself it does not reliably tell him what they are. People define them out of their own time and interests, with a clear conscience. Take usury, which means lending money at interest. The medieval Church condemned it so firmly that the Council of Vienne (a Church council of 1311-1312) made a decree. Anyone who stubbornly held that usury is not a sin was to be punished as a heretic. Today the same countries run on it. Hardly a pulpit in them calls it a sin, though the Law of Moses forbids taking interest from the poor among God's (﷾) people. The Qur'an has not changed: what it forbade in the seventh century it forbids still. If morality is whatever each generation settles on, then evil means only what we, here and now, happen to dislike.
The council decrees that anyone who obstinately maintains that practising usury is not a sin is to be punished as a heretic.
“If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.”
“Those who devour usury will not stand except as stand one whom the Evil one by his touch Hath driven to madness. That is because they say: "Trade is like usury," but Allah hath permitted trade and forbidden usury. Those who after receiving direction from their Lord, desist, shall be pardoned for the past; their case is for Allah (to judge); but those who repeat (The offence) are companions of the Fire: They will abide therein (for ever).”
Suffering does not show that God (﷾) is absent
The Qur'an gives the reasons the objection overlooks. First, this life is a test of who is best in deed. The test comes through good as well as hardship. Second, people are free to choose, which is why so much suffering is done by people to people. Third, the account does not close at death. On the Day of Judgment scales of justice are set up, and nothing is missed, not even the weight of a mustard seed. Every wrong will be put right by the One who misses nothing.
“He Who created Death and Life, that He may try which of you is best in deed: and He is the Exalted in Might, Oft-Forgiving;-”
“Every soul shall have a taste of death: and We test you by evil and by good by way of trial. to Us must ye return.”
“We showed him the Way: whether he be grateful or ungrateful (rests on his will).”
“We shall set up scales of justice for the Day of Judgment, so that not a soul will be dealt with unjustly in the least, and if there be (no more than) the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it (to account): and enough are We to take account.”
The atheist's replies, and the answers
Qur'an 91:7-8 — Surat al-Shams (The Sun), verses 7-8
“By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it; And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right;-”
Cited for
Moral truths need no God. That cruelty is wrong is simply true, as 2 + 2 = 4 is true, whether or not anyone made it so.
The response
A truth like 2 + 2 = 4 describes. It does not command, and it does not make anyone guilty for ignoring it. "You must not be cruel" does both. It binds you and holds you to account. There is a second problem. If blind nature made us only to survive, nothing guarantees that our sense of right and wrong tracks such truths at all. A command needs someone who commands. A conscience we can trust needs someone who made it for the truth.
Where it lands — A moral law that binds and holds people to account points to a Lawgiver. That is what the Qur'an says: God (﷾) showed every soul its wrong and its right.
Qur'an 21:35 — Surat al-Anbiya (The Prophets), verse 35
“Every soul shall have a taste of death: and We test you by evil and by good by way of trial. to Us must ye return.”
Cited for
The argument does not need real evil. It only uses the believer's own standard to show that a good, all-powerful God and suffering cannot both exist.
The response
On the believer's standard there is no contradiction. The Qur'an says this life is a test by hardship and by good. It says people are free to choose. It says every wrong will be weighed on the Day of Judgment. A good God (﷾) may allow suffering for a time for reasons that are fully settled later.
Where it lands — On the believer's own terms, suffering fits God's (﷾) wisdom. To call it truly evil, the atheist needs God's (﷾) standard after all.
Perspectives
Buddhist
Evil needs no God. Wrong deeds come from greed, hatred and delusion, and they bring their own results. Anyone can see that others fear pain as we do, so we should not harm them.
All tremble at the rod and all fear death. Treating others like oneself, one should neither kill nor make others kill. That is enough to know what is wrong.
Rebuttal
This shows that others feel as we do. It does not show why we must care when harming them would profit us. And the Pali texts say that 'being' is only a convention, as 'chariot' is: there is a pile of conditions, and no being is found. So on that view there is, in the end, no lasting self whose harm the rule protects.
Karma is a moral law of its own. The Buddha calls intention the deed, and beings are heirs to their deeds, so wrong is punished without any God.
Rebuttal
A law of results tells us what follows a deed. It does not tell us why the deed is wrong. If cruelty were wrong only because it comes back on the one who does it, then a cruelty that never came back would not be wrong. The Qur'an says God (﷾) gave every soul the knowledge of what is wrong for it and what is right.
Moral truths need no God
Some atheist philosophers hold that moral truths are real but need no God. They are basic, like the truths of logic, and they simply hold. Cruelty is wrong whether or not there is a God.
Moral truths are basic and necessary; they are not derived from natural facts or from God.
Rebuttal
Wielenberg admits that the argument from evolution is a serious problem for his view. If our moral beliefs were shaped only to help us survive, then any match between them and moral truths that stand on their own would be luck. The Qur'an explains the match. The One who formed the soul showed it what is wrong and what is right.
Hindu: scripture decides what is right
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna teaches that right and wrong are not decided by desire. Scripture is the authority for what should and should not be done.
Scripture is the authority for what should and should not be done. Whoever goes against it, acting from desire, reaches neither happiness nor the highest goal.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees that people need a standard that comes from revelation, and cannot decide right and wrong by desire. The question is which scripture is God's (﷾) word, and has been kept. The Qur'an says God (﷾) sent it down and will guard it. And it challenges anyone in doubt to produce one chapter like it.
Shinto: wrong is what breaks the order
In Shinto, tsumi are acts that break the rules and order of society, such as injuring or killing people, along with certain disasters. They are cleared away by purification.
Wrongdoing is what breaks the norms and order of the community, and purification clears it away.
Rebuttal
If wrong were only what breaks a community's order, a cruel order would make cruelty right. Reformers who stood up against their own society appealed to a right above it. The Qur'an says the soul was shown what is wrong and what is right when it was formed, before any society taught it.
Daoist: talk of good and evil began when the Tao was lost
The Tao Te Ching teaches that benevolence and righteousness came into fashion only when the Great Tao was no longer followed. Living by the Tao, people would not need commanded morality.
When the Tao was lost, kindness and right conduct appeared. So rules of good and evil are a sign of decline, not something to build on.
Rebuttal
Yet the same book says the net of Heaven lets nothing escape, so wrong is still answered. Islam agrees that goodness should flow from a sound nature. But a nature can be lost, as the Tao Te Ching itself says. Then it needs a standard from outside itself. The Qur'an gives both. The soul was shown what is wrong and what is right. And God (﷾) commands justice and doing good.
Confucian: the moral sense is within us
Mencius taught that kindness, right conduct, good manners and wisdom are part of human nature. They are not put into us from outside. On this view, people can tell good from evil without any word from God.
Benevolence, righteousness, propriety and knowledge are not infused into us from without; we are furnished with them.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees the moral sense is inborn. But Confucians themselves disagree about it: Xunzi said human nature is bad and must be straightened by teachers and laws. An inner sense that thinkers read in opposite ways needs a standard above it. Mencius himself tied it to Heaven: one who knows his nature knows Heaven. The Qur'an names the One who shaped the soul and showed it its wrong and its right.
Chinese tradition: Heaven's officials record wrongdoing
Chinese popular religion holds that wrongdoing is seen and recorded. Spirits within the body, and the Kitchen God at the stove, report people's deeds to the court of Heaven, which rewards and punishes.
Spirits record people's deeds and report them to Heaven, so wrong does not go unpunished.
Rebuttal
Then Chinese tradition too holds that evil must answer to Heaven, not only to people. Islam agrees that deeds are recorded: two angels note every word. But the Judge is God Himself, and He needs no one to report to Him. No eye can take Him in, yet He knows all things.
Christian
The moral law is written on the human heart by God, and the conscience bears witness to it.
Paul writes that those without the law show its work written in their hearts, with their conscience bearing witness.
Rebuttal
Granted: the moral sense is real and comes from God (﷾), and the Church also had the Law of Moses. Yet it once punished as heretics those who called usury no sin, and the same lands now run on it. The Qur'an's ruling has not moved.
The Islamic perspective
Good and evil are real because God (﷾) is real. He placed the sense of right and wrong in every soul, the fitra, and He gives the standard it answers to. The Prophet (ﷺ) taught that every child is born on that disposition.
Calling anything evil appeals to a standard of good that stands above nature, which nature itself cannot supply.
The argument that evil disproves God (﷾) has to assume the moral law it denies.
The Qur'an states that the soul was given knowledge of its wrong and its right when it was formed.
The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said every child is born upon the fitra.
The Council of Vienne decreed that anyone who obstinately held usury to be no sin should be punished as a heretic. The same countries now run on it.
A moral standard set by each generation cannot judge that generation.
Revelation gives a standard that does not bend to the times. The Qur'an forbade usury, lending money for interest, in the seventh century, and it forbids it still.
This life is a test, and every wrong will be weighed with full justice on the Day of Judgment.