Christians: How do you reconcile the problem of evil?

[Dave L]

Dave, how would you reconcile evil in this world if it is was God planned? Why would a loving God plan for evil?

I believe God cannot be known apart from sin. Sin reveals his mercy, otherwise unknown. It reveals his goodness in punishing sin. Because of sin we can see his sovereignty in choosing to save some sinners and not others. We have an idea of his greatness when he creates something as magnificent as the universe only to regard it as nothing and then destroy it. We see God's righteousness in condemning us for our sins. And we see his grace in taking his own wrath upon himself in the believer's place on the cross, as Jesus. I'm sure there is more but this is what I glean from scriptures so far.

 

[Sanoy]

Thanks for the response, but this doesn't really answer my question. Perhaps I should ask what do you suppose is the reason God doesn't prevent things like the Holocaust, the Boxing Day Tsunami & Earthquake, babies getting cancer, etc.?

The lord of this earth is the adversary. Jesus's death on the cross was for our spiritual redemption as well as to take authority back from the adversary. Freedom from calamity will come. God cursed the earth at the fall, but I believe it was for mankinds sake. For when we walked in the light we forsook it and sought ourselves instead, but in the darkness our week hearts strive for the light. And it is only that striving which will save us from death, through Christ. This is a repeating cycle in the old testament. It is something we all know, and something that finds it's way in all the stories of mankind, 'that great things come at the other side of the wilderness'. Jesus prayed for His suffering to pass from him, but God granted his second prayer, that His will be done. All of us must face the consequence that there is calamity and evil in the world, and there is only one way out of it, the path you forsook. So long as you live, that path will continually remain open for you.

 

[J77077]

I see that this is going on right now, and it's very tragic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a98253640d75

I used to be a Christian. I attended church regularly, believed God existed and prayed regularly. But I never gave it much thought when tragedy struck that God wasn't doing anything.

Now that I'm a non-believer, I wonder how Christians go about reconciling the problem of evil?
If God loves everyone and can do anything, then he must not know about catastrophes
If God loves everyone and knows everything, then he must be incapable of doing anything about catastrophes
If God can do anything and knows everything, then he must not love the victims and their families enough to want to do anything.

How do you reconcile it?

Ok so theres just a bigger picture than what we have been told and yes, we have been lied to but also in the end of that debate there is the truth that no one knows how or why we are placed in our situations. Because we all have unique views it is impossible for anyone to explain why anything is what it is to anyone else. And since none of us had a choice in who we were born as, and nobody existed before the beginning of our creation, there is no answer that will satisfy you until you go straight to the source. You will have to suck it up and confess to yourself that you just dont understand. Not that theres no God. Because you honestly just dont know. I challenge you to one thing. I challenge you to question the God you have denied. Tell it to reveal the truth to you, and prove to you that it exist. Tell it you dont believe anymore, and that you need to understand things the only way you will ever understand. But only if you are truly ready because once you do this, theres no going back. You'll begin the process of seeing and knowing things in a new perspective that's not yours. And you will then know that God does exists. And it's not the way you imagined it. It has to be from the heart, p2p type talk. Just try it 1 time please.

 

[J77077]

The lord of this earth is the adversary. Jesus's death on the cross was for our spiritual redemption as well as to take authority back from the adversary. Freedom from calamity will come. God cursed the earth at the fall, but I believe it was for mankinds sake. For when we walked in the light we forsook it and sought ourselves instead, but in the darkness our week hearts strive for the light. And it is only that striving which will save us from death, through Christ. This is a repeating cycle in the old testament. It is something we all know, and something that finds it's way in all the stories of mankind, 'that great things come at the other side of the wilderness'. Jesus prayed for His suffering to pass from him, but God granted his second prayer, that His will be done. All of us must face the consequence that there is calamity and evil in the world, and there is only one way out of it, the path you forsook. So long as you live, that path will continually remain open for you.

The reason God allows horrible things like that is because satan rules this entire world. And only being reborn in spirit will save anyone. Otherwise life and death are only cycles of the physical world. And the physical world is satan's kingdom and also his creation. We are in Hell physically and emotionally. You have to rise above all of this. Theres only one way to do that.

 

[grasping the after wind]

I see that this is going on right now, and it's very tragic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a98253640d75

I used to be a Christian. I attended church regularly, believed God existed and prayed regularly. But I never gave it much thought when tragedy struck that God wasn't doing anything.

Now that I'm a non-believer, I wonder how Christians go about reconciling the problem of evil?
If God loves everyone and can do anything, then he must not know about catastrophes
If God loves everyone and knows everything, then he must be incapable of doing anything about catastrophes
If God can do anything and knows everything, then he must not love the victims and their families enough to want to do anything.

How do you reconcile it?

As I do not accept your basic assumption about the nature of love and the consequences and responsibilities of loving another or that natural occurrences are evil just because they are destructive. I have nothing to reconcile.

 

[Tayla]

Now that I'm a non-believer, I wonder how Christians go about reconciling the problem of evil?

God doesn't cause pain and suffering. There is no explanation for why there is pain and suffering in a universe created by a good God. Such questions are simply unknowable.

And by the way, atheists don't have an answer either for why there is pain and suffering; they can't even explain why there is a universe at all or why creatures are conscious and can feel pain and suffering.

 

[Tolworth John]

My husband gropes me a lot, especially no matter what I say about it. I revolt

If God loves everyone and can do anything, then he must not know about catastrophes
If God loves everyone and knows everything, then he must be incapable of doing anything about catastrophes
If God can do anything and knows everything, then he must not love the victims and their families enough to want to do anything.

Always the option is ignored.
That Gopd knows, thathe has the power to do something about evil and suffering, but the time is not right for God to act.

Please remember when God acts to deal with evil. He will use his judgement about what is evil.
The NT is clear that those who reject Jesus as Saviour and Lord are evil, so how will you respond to Gods judgement?

 

[“Paisios”]

I'm curious about something. You're not the first person I've come across who has claimed to have encountered God. So I'd like to ask how you went about verifying that what you encountered was really a god?

I don’t have verification, but the experiences that I had changed my life, give me peace and comfort, and certainly seemed real to me. I might be deceived, I might be crazy, but I choose to believe they were real encounters with God. It is enough for me, but I don’t expect it to be proof enough for anyone else

So you believe that love for humans and love for God are two different things. Interesting

I’m not quite sure how you come to that conclusion from my statement. Love is love, but I trust that God knows better than we do, even when things seem bad to us. I believe that God is benevolent and sees a big picture that we don’t, and I trust Him.

 

[“Paisios”]

Entire books on how Christians reconcile the problem of evil. Please name one.

The Problem of Pain, CS Lewis, 1940, Glasgow: Harper Collins, ISBN 0 00 624567 6

 

[Kim7229]

The Problem of Pain, CS Lewis, 1940, Glasgow: Harper Collins, ISBN 0 00 624567 6

I've read The Problem of Pain. It does not explain how the bulk of Christians reconcile the problem of evil.

 

[Kim7229]

I don’t have verification, but the experiences that I had changed my life, give me peace and comfort, and certainly seemed real to me. I might be deceived, I might be crazy, but I choose to believe they were real encounters with God. It is enough for me, but I don’t expect it to be proof enough for anyone else

Why have you chosen to believe it was a god as opposed to some kind of unknown natural source?

I’m not quite sure how you come to that conclusion from my statement. Love is love, but I trust that God knows better than we do, even when things seem bad to us. I believe that God is benevolent and sees a big picture that we don’t, and I trust Him.

If God is capable of preventing babies from getting cancer and knows about it but does nothing, you would call that love? Imagine this: Let's say you love children and you're at the park next to the train tracks. Some children are playing on the tracks and you see a train coming. You have sufficient time to remove the children from the tracks without putting yourself or anyone else in any kind of danger, and you know if you don't remove the children, they will be hit and killed by the train. Why would you not remove the children from the tracks? If you did remove the children from the tracks, what do you think observers would think of you? If you didn't remove the children from the tracks, what do you think observers who knew you were capable of doing so at no risk to anyone would think of you?

 

[Kim7229]

Always the option is ignored.
That Gopd knows, thathe has the power to do something about evil and suffering, but the time is not right for God to act.

Please remember when God acts to deal with evil. He will use his judgement about what is evil.
The NT is clear that those who reject Jesus as Saviour and Lord are evil, so how will you respond to Gods judgement?

It sounds like you reconcile the problem of evil by saying God doesn't love us enough to do anything about babies getting cancer now.

 

[Kim7229]

God doesn't cause pain and suffering. There is no explanation for why there is pain and suffering in a universe created by a good God. Such questions are simply unknowable.

The explanation is one or more of the following:
1) God doesn't love us enough to want to do anything about it
2) God doesn't know about pain and suffering
3) God is incapable of doing anything about pain and suffering
4) No god or gods exist.

And by the way, atheists don't have an answer either for why there is pain and suffering; they can't even explain why there is a universe at all or why creatures are conscious and can feel pain and suffering.

Other than to say that's just the way the world works, both theists and atheists don't have an answer for pain and suffering.

 

[Kim7229]

As I do not accept your basic assumption about the nature of love and the consequences and responsibilities of loving another or that natural occurrences are evil just because they are destructive. I have nothing to reconcile.

What is your definition of love?

Answer this: Let's say you love children and you're at the park next to the train tracks. Some children are playing on the tracks and you see a train coming. You have sufficient time to remove the children from the tracks without putting yourself or anyone else in any kind of danger, and you know if you don't remove the children, they will be hit and killed by the train. Why would you not remove the children from the tracks? If you did remove the children from the tracks, what do you think observers would think of you? If you didn't remove the children from the tracks, what do you think observers who knew you were capable of doing so at no risk to anyone would think of you?

 

[Kim7229]

The reason God allows horrible things like that is because satan rules this entire world. And only being reborn in spirit will save anyone. Otherwise life and death are only cycles of the physical world. And the physical world is satan's kingdom and also his creation. We are in Hell physically and emotionally. You have to rise above all of this. Theres only one way to do that.

So you're reconciling it by saying God is incapable of preventing evil. Or could God eradicate Satan if he chose?

 

[“Paisios”]

Why have you chosen to believe it was a god as opposed to some kind of unknown natural source?

Because they were life changing and seemed to have sentience behind them...because after having the encounters, I started reading and was generally in agreement with some arguments for the existence of God...because life with God (as I understand Him) is better than life without Him...because I find some internal consistency between my experience and the arguments (but what do I know? I’m not particularly smart, and realize how little I know more and more as time goes on).

If God is capable of preventing babies from getting cancer and knows about it but does nothing, you would call that love? Imagine this: Let's say you love children and you're at the park next to the train tracks. Some children are playing on the tracks and you see a train coming. You have sufficient time to remove the children from the tracks without putting yourself or anyone else in any kind of danger, and you know if you don't remove the children, they will be hit and killed by the train. Why would you not remove the children from the tracks? If you did remove the children from the tracks, what do you think observers would think of you? If you didn't remove the children from the tracks, what do you think observers who knew you were capable of doing so at no risk to anyone would think of you?

I would remove the children from the tracks, as that is what my moral conscience would tell me to do. But I would say that we are looking at it from a human perspective, unable to see the entire picture from all sides as an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent God would. I cannot presume to judge God. I have made the presupposition that God is good, all knowing and all powerful, so accept that even things that seem evil and wrong to me will work out in some way that I can’t now understand, for the good. I choose to believe this because I am convinced that my perceived encounters with God are real and I have been generally in agreement with arguments for His existence, but even if they are not...if the world of existence and reality is as dark, harsh, evil and godless as it sometimes appears...then I prefer to live in a fantasy world where love, good and right will win in the end, because otherwise I am certain I will slide back down into despair and nihilism, weighed down by heavy black shadows, and I have no wish to go there.

Again, I do not expect that my beliefs will be sufficient for you (and sometimes they are not enough for me when it comes to evil), and I am not trying to convince you to believe as I do, but that is how I reconcile the problem of evil - I don’t, but I recognize that I am not smart enough, wise enough, permanent enough, or good enough to see all ends.

 

[Tolworth John]

It sounds like you reconcile the problem of evil by saying God doesn't love us enough to do anything about babies getting cancer now.

God has done something about evil, but you are not prepared to accept it.

God is more than just a 'cosmic sugar daddy' there to give us what we think we want.

How about your responcibiities towards God?

 

[mama2one]

If God loves everyone and knows everything, then he must be incapable of doing anything about catastrophes

How do you reconcile it?

we are His hands and feet
there are so many stories of firefighters and neighbors and nurses saving people while putting their own lives at risk

-a 93 yr old woman didn't even know about the fire until she turned on her TV but she had no way to get out
a man came and threw her on his back "like a sack of potatoes" she said and rescued her

-a nurse helped get patients out but then as she tried to leave, her vehicle got pushed off road, she called husband who said get out of car and run, she made it to a fire truck and got out alive

there are many stories on the news like above

in any disaster, you hear of people helping others and risking their lives with no thought of themselves

 

[Tayla]

The explanation is one or more of the following:
1) God doesn't love us enough to want to do anything about it
2) God doesn't know about pain and suffering
3) God is incapable of doing anything about pain and suffering
4) No god or gods exist.

There are other options that don't portray God as so weak or bad.

 

[Kim7229]

There are other options that don't portray God as so weak or bad.

What are the other options?