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God and Suffering A man walks down the sidewalk. A child of five is walking along in the street beside him. Suddenly, a car speeds around the corner and careens toward the startled child. The man has the opportunity to save the boy, but instead stands by and does nothing. The child is severely injured. Can anyone reasonable say this is a good man? Clearly, they can not. We may even hope the other witnesses decide to beat him severely for his inaction. This story summarizes the question at the heart of most good people's objections to the existence of God. The problem of evil (as it is generally called) has been with us for a very long time. Epicurus stated it 2000 years ago and it is quite possibly older than that. At its most basic, the thrust of the problem of evil can be expressed in the following syllogism: 1. If God exists, he is all-knowing,
all-powerful, and perfectly good. The Christian obviously does not wish to argue with statement one. These are characteristics of the Christian God. Nor would a Christian choose to argue with statement three. Suffering does exist. So all that remains to avoid conclusion statement four, is the possibility of disproving statement two. But how can God's power and goodness be made compatible with human suffering? Jesus' summation of the Christian faith was "Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself." The apostle John writes, "God is love." Love is absolutely central to the Christian faith. And the properties of love make it absolutely unique. It can be sought but not demanded. It can be discovered but not procured. It can be treasured but not hoarded. In short, love can be given but not taken. And ultimately this is the key to understanding the problem of evil. Let's return to the example we began with. God is the man on the street. Surely he will save the little boy. Indeed, since God is presumably present on every street, He can save all the little boys everywhere. How would this work? He could simply pick the boy up and move him out of the way. Of course accidents happen all the time, so God is likely to be moving people around the street quite a bit. Impersonal physical laws (such as inertia and gravity) will frequently be superceded by the moral imperative "to save a life." What might have been called a miracle (saving one boy) is suddenly a new supreme law of nature. Nor would this be the end of it. All manner of emotional distress, illness and hurt would need to be done away with. Given God's foresight, there is no reason for anyone to endure a broken leg, a sprained ankle, or a stubbed toe (since He can simply move that coffee table). To insure absolute freedom from pain we make God a butler, rearranging furniture in the dark. But it is not only God who is lessened. While all of us wish for an end to suffering, the unpleasant fact is that much of the suffering in the world can be attributed to human rather than divine activity. To eliminate this suffering God must prevent human activities that result in negative consequences, even unintentional ones. It's hard to imagine what would be left for us to do in a world where the very possibility of harm becomes an absolute curtailment of freedom. By removing the possibility of error (falling in love with Mr. Wrong, for example) we become paralyzed by the impossible standard of divine perfection. This is not a world any of us could live in. This is a world where we are no longer human beings at all, merely puzzle pieces to be shuffled and snapped into place without our understanding or consent. In contrast, the real world is sometimes a very unpleasant place. Great evil is possible, but so is real love. God created an independent world, not an extension of His moral will. Therefore each of us is free to choose between good and evil, love and hate. This is not to suggest that God himself is neutral or uninvolved. On the contrary, He asks for our love (for Him and one another) in a loud voice. But he will not choose for us because the love He values above all else only exists in a world where its opposite can also be chosen. 1) God is love and seeks to foster
love among men
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