I think comedian Bill Maher has an insightful take on this.

The reason God doesn't wipe out The Devil is the same reason Superman doesn't kill Lex Luthor once and for all. Because then the story would be over.

So Lex gets put into yet another prison from which he easily escapes, and The Devil gets to continue doing his thing because...REASONS!

All because what humans really want isn't spiritual peace, but engaging narrative.

Do you know how to eliminate evil from the human race? It's like asking the same thing. I'm not Christian but I'd assume that to know God.. you have to know the devil. I come from the belief that they are one in the same because God is a mere reflection of us.. it would make sense the devil is also a reflection because no human being is without both those traits no matter how much they like to convince others they are pure angels.

So then we have to assume that to get rid of the devil we would also have to eliminate ourselves. So eliminating the devil would mean God would also have to annihilate himself :D This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at October 28, 2016 8:54 AM MDT

People are animals, or mammals. We have certain instincts built into us, including a survival instinct that includes killing our competition for food and sex. Not very civil!  So along comes God with an offering to be civil and just. It is called religion. 

Hi Ben1011, here is an interesting article on the subject. Be sure and look up the scriptures. If you don't want to read the whole article, scroll down to: A Vital Issue Is Raised

 

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1102005141?q=%22A+VITAL+ISSUE+IS+RAISED%22&p=par

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Why Does God Allow Suffering?

First even if we “know this has probably been asked a million times” before, provided we haven’t yet got a satisfactory answer I think we should keep asking.

1- Your first point was “if God is so all-powerful, why didn't he just eliminate the devil right at the start??”
You’re obviously talking about the Abrahamic narrative, so I’ll be quoting from the Holy Bible, both the Christian scripture the NT [New Testament] and the Jewish section which Christians refer to as the Old Testament [OT] even though it was the scripture Jesus taught from. The Abrahamic faiths include Islam whose scripture is the Holy Qur’an [HQ] regarded by Muslims as the FT [Final Testament]. The HQ’s take on the first part of your question is that God is unique, and He “created in pairs everything, from that which the earth grows, from their own [human’s] selves, and from that which they know not” So plants have male and female parts, as do humans, and you need light to eliminate dark, you need hot to know cold, positive to balance or fight off the negative and there is no high if there isn’t any low, to give just a few examples. Elsewhere the HQ says, “…and the soul and that which gives it balance, by inspiring it with its weaknesses and its strengths [bad and good]. So he has succeeded [won] who has purified it [developed his soul with good] and he has lost who buried it [didn’t listen to his souls good inspiration]” 

2- “and what exactly would the world be like today if Eve hadn't eaten the apple?”

To begin with, in contrast to the HB, the HQ doesn’t present Eve as the first to give in to Evil. It says they were both equally misled into doing what they were told not to. They did the equivalent of pressing a red button clearly marked “Do Not Press Without Authorisation” They did. As a direct consequence they fell through a trap door and found themselves out of the Utopian world they were in. There was now no way back except through proving themselves worthy of being readmitted in.

3- “does that mean that childbirth would not be painful?”

It is clear from the narratives that both Adam and Eve were not aware of their sexuality before they ate of the forbidden fruit. It is after eating the fruit that they became aware and immediately started covering up their nakedness with leaves from the garden of bliss. So we’re speculating now if we talk about what would have happened if they hadn’t eaten the forbidden fruit. Perhaps sexual awareness would have come through another way and led to pregnancy. Whereas the HB pronounces painful childbirth as a punishment, the HQ makes no mention of punishment implying that the loss of paradise was itself enough to emphasise the gravity of their error.

It is interesting to note that the HB calls the tree "the tree of the knowledge of good and bad". That means Adam and Eve could not have known good from bad BEFORE they ate from the tree, and thus could not be said to have sinned when they ate. It is only AFTER they ate that they suddenly realised that it was bad to give in to temptation, to disobey a command and to walk around naked.

4- “can you really believe that Noah had ALL those animals on the ark?”

In the HQ’s version of the story the flood was local and the losers were those who instead of heeding Noah’s warnings mocked him for building an ark when there was no sea in sight. As such the animals in Noah's ark were only those in the affected area and not those all over the world including the Americas, the Arctic and the Antipodes. So that's not so unbelievable.

How's that for addressing all your points?

Every good and every evil lies within ourselves.  The texts that motivate, constrain or pervert hundreds of millions are just a left over attempt to forge an explanation for how we behave (and how we should behave) towards each other.

For an all-powerful being, God, whichever incarnation one chooses, is an idiot or a manipulative sociopath or an invention of manipulative sociopaths.  Given the nonsense contained within large parts of the texts, I can assume no other possible explanations.

Not a fan of religions, which seem to me to be other humans with no more experience or knowledge than I have (and sometimes considerably less) telling me they have 'secret' knowledge which can only be attained by thinking as they do.  I don't think they do have a secret, but I do think many wish they did.

you need to ask god that question, its too complicated for us humans

The bible does not state what kind of fruit was eaten by eve. 
Genesis 3:16 says: "i will greatly increase the pain of your pregnancy; in pain you will give birth to children." thus this scripture indicates that birth pains for every greatly increased as a result of her disobedience.
Even though eve ate first of the tree, the one God holds responsable is her husband adam, being he was here head. as eve's head Adam had been given direct instructions as to what was expected of him. for this reason 1 Timothy 2:14 says: "Adam was not deceived, but the woman was thoroughly deceived,"
So if Adam and eve had never sinned, the original home of the first couple would have been expanded as the human family had grown until it encompassed the entire planet. earth would be an entire paradise, living conditions being perfect without sin, man would be living in perfection soaring to unimaginable heights, who knows if at this point they would be readying to inhabit another earthlike planet if it was God's purpose. 

I love the IF GOD IS SO...THEN HOW COME.... nonsense.

Because you are NOT God, okay so you have an intellect the size of a grain of sand and God has an intellect the size of the expanding Universe so it is IMPOSSIBLE for the grain to understand the MIND OF GOD.

Forget  trying.  You cannot ever do it.  EVER.