The Problem of Pain - "Why does a loving God allow suffering?"
An common objection to Christianity has to do with the following problem:
1. The Christian God is omnipotent.
2. The Christian God is omnibenevolent.
3. If the Christian God exists, suffering would not.
4. Suffering exists.
5. Therefore, the Christian God does not exist.
This line of thought is flawed in its third premise. It presumes to know the thoughts and motivations of an infinite being, based on strictly human terms, and makes assumptions without all of the information. God has revealed some of His ways to us though Scripture and through Jesus Christ. These two sources have provided the answer to the above problem, and I will outline my response in these terms.
Suffering is a Necessary Component of Freewill.
The majority of the suffering in our world is the direct result of the sins of people. Whether that comes in the form of war, crime, pollution, laziness, or any other kind of disobidience to God's direction. God gives us the freedom to make our own decisions, and a logical consequence ofthat freedom is that we can cause problems for ourselves and others. Thus, suffering is a direct result of freewill. The same ability that allows us to choose eternal paradise over eternal torment, necessarily produces suffering during this earthly existence. Freewill is inherintely good, as is all things that comes from God, but what we do with that gift is up to us. I will call this type of suffering, 'caused suffering'.
Another kind of suffering exists which does not come directly from the sins of people. We sometimes will endure hardship that seems random or uncaused, and which makes our lives difficult. Perhaps a freak accident causes the death of a loved one, a tornado rips through a highly populated area, or a child comes down with a fatal disease. These events happen everyday in our world and they are not caused by people. They also do not come from God, since God is good and does not cause suffering. God allows this suffering, however, because He has given a certain amount of freedom to nature, just as He has given a certain amount of freedom to people. I will call this second type of suffering, 'natural suffering'.
Now, we must remember that God is in control. This may at first seem to contradict the fact that God gives freedom to both people and nature, but the fact is that all things are ultimately under the control of God, and events unfold only as God allows. Since this is true, we must ask, why does God allow these things to happen to us?
God will allow our faith in Him to be tested through trials. The Bible records this fact both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Bible also tells us that God will not allow us to be tested beyond our ability to endure these trials. It is through hardship that we can choose to trust and follow Him, or to curse and hate Him. In this way, suffering promotes freewill as a necessary ingredient. If we already lived in perfect paradise while on Earth, we would not have room to make free choices. Heaven, the perfect paradise, means that we are in the eternal and direct presence of God, and if we were in that state, we could have no freewill. We would be so in awe with the majesty of the Most High, that we would literally be unable to choose to act in a way contrary to His will. God gives us freedom of choice, and He wants us to love Him enough to give that freedom back to Him. That is the entire purpose of this life, to know, love, and serve God. By continually giving our freedom back to God, we slowly complete ourselves and eventually ascend to eternal paradise, the ultimate completion of this process.
We are not meant to suffer.
The Bible also tells us that God did not intend for us to live in such a world. Of course, God knew what would happen when He put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, so in a sense, it can be said that God planned it. This actually makes sense given the properties of freewill that have been discussed above. God being omnibenevolent, wouldn't cause such a world to exist, but like all of our sins, He can actually create good out of them. This cursed world that we live in has the curious after-effect of producing souls that are capable of deciding to move into eternal paradise of thier own free choice. God doesn't want robots, He wants people to love Him freely. It is an oxymoron to think that God could create a creature with a freewill that chooses to love Him because it is created that way. This love must be freely given to God, and that is what makes it meaningful to Him. He loves us freely, and He wants us to love Him freely. Stating that God can not do something does not contradict His omnipotence. God acts according to logic, in fact, God created logic itself, it is His way. If something is illogical, God's inability to do it is not a limit. A logical contradiction is nonsense, and God does not engage in nonsense. Can God create a rock that is too heavy for Him to lift? No, that is nonsense. His inability to do that is not a limit, it is logical. Thus, the beauty of it all, is that the sin that brought forth suffering, ends up allowing us to freely move into Heaven, through the grace and wisdom of God.
Earthly Suffering is Finite.
As a final note, I would like to illustrate that humans have a hard time imagining eternity. Everything that we see in the natural world exists in a finite amount of time. If we could actually conceptualize the eternal, we would realize that the 75 years or so of life that we spend on Earth is, for all practical purposes, irrelevant by comparison. Of course, while in this finite lifetime, our suffering seems far from irrelevant, but compared to eternal paradise, it really does pale in comparison to such a degree, that it is practically non-existant. This is true based on the properties of infinity, which we can approximate mathematically. Perhaps an analogy will be more helpful. If you live for one Billion years in paradise, what will 75 years on pain-plagued planet Earth mean to you, when you look back through your 1,000,000,075 years of life? Extending this comparison to infinity, the 75 years shrinks relative to the eternal, so that by comparison, it almost doesn't exist. Hardly a big price to pay in exchange for Heaven.
Copyright 2002, Chris Weathers
An common objection to Christianity has to do with the following problem:
1. The Christian God is omnipotent.
2. The Christian God is omnibenevolent.
3. If the Christian God exists, suffering would not.
4. Suffering exists.
5. Therefore, the Christian God does not exist.
This line of thought is flawed in its third premise. It presumes to know the thoughts and motivations of an infinite being, based on strictly human terms, and makes assumptions without all of the information. God has revealed some of His ways to us though Scripture and through Jesus Christ. These two sources have provided the answer to the above problem, and I will outline my response in these terms.
Suffering is a Necessary Component of Freewill.
The majority of the suffering in our world is the direct result of the sins of people. Whether that comes in the form of war, crime, pollution, laziness, or any other kind of disobidience to God's direction. God gives us the freedom to make our own decisions, and a logical consequence ofthat freedom is that we can cause problems for ourselves and others. Thus, suffering is a direct result of freewill. The same ability that allows us to choose eternal paradise over eternal torment, necessarily produces suffering during this earthly existence. Freewill is inherintely good, as is all things that comes from God, but what we do with that gift is up to us. I will call this type of suffering, 'caused suffering'.
Another kind of suffering exists which does not come directly from the sins of people. We sometimes will endure hardship that seems random or uncaused, and which makes our lives difficult. Perhaps a freak accident causes the death of a loved one, a tornado rips through a highly populated area, or a child comes down with a fatal disease. These events happen everyday in our world and they are not caused by people. They also do not come from God, since God is good and does not cause suffering. God allows this suffering, however, because He has given a certain amount of freedom to nature, just as He has given a certain amount of freedom to people. I will call this second type of suffering, 'natural suffering'.
Now, we must remember that God is in control. This may at first seem to contradict the fact that God gives freedom to both people and nature, but the fact is that all things are ultimately under the control of God, and events unfold only as God allows. Since this is true, we must ask, why does God allow these things to happen to us?
God will allow our faith in Him to be tested through trials. The Bible records this fact both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Bible also tells us that God will not allow us to be tested beyond our ability to endure these trials. It is through hardship that we can choose to trust and follow Him, or to curse and hate Him. In this way, suffering promotes freewill as a necessary ingredient. If we already lived in perfect paradise while on Earth, we would not have room to make free choices. Heaven, the perfect paradise, means that we are in the eternal and direct presence of God, and if we were in that state, we could have no freewill. We would be so in awe with the majesty of the Most High, that we would literally be unable to choose to act in a way contrary to His will. God gives us freedom of choice, and He wants us to love Him enough to give that freedom back to Him. That is the entire purpose of this life, to know, love, and serve God. By continually giving our freedom back to God, we slowly complete ourselves and eventually ascend to eternal paradise, the ultimate completion of this process.
We are not meant to suffer.
The Bible also tells us that God did not intend for us to live in such a world. Of course, God knew what would happen when He put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, so in a sense, it can be said that God planned it. This actually makes sense given the properties of freewill that have been discussed above. God being omnibenevolent, wouldn't cause such a world to exist, but like all of our sins, He can actually create good out of them. This cursed world that we live in has the curious after-effect of producing souls that are capable of deciding to move into eternal paradise of thier own free choice. God doesn't want robots, He wants people to love Him freely. It is an oxymoron to think that God could create a creature with a freewill that chooses to love Him because it is created that way. This love must be freely given to God, and that is what makes it meaningful to Him. He loves us freely, and He wants us to love Him freely. Stating that God can not do something does not contradict His omnipotence. God acts according to logic, in fact, God created logic itself, it is His way. If something is illogical, God's inability to do it is not a limit. A logical contradiction is nonsense, and God does not engage in nonsense. Can God create a rock that is too heavy for Him to lift? No, that is nonsense. His inability to do that is not a limit, it is logical. Thus, the beauty of it all, is that the sin that brought forth suffering, ends up allowing us to freely move into Heaven, through the grace and wisdom of God.
Earthly Suffering is Finite.
As a final note, I would like to illustrate that humans have a hard time imagining eternity. Everything that we see in the natural world exists in a finite amount of time. If we could actually conceptualize the eternal, we would realize that the 75 years or so of life that we spend on Earth is, for all practical purposes, irrelevant by comparison. Of course, while in this finite lifetime, our suffering seems far from irrelevant, but compared to eternal paradise, it really does pale in comparison to such a degree, that it is practically non-existant. This is true based on the properties of infinity, which we can approximate mathematically. Perhaps an analogy will be more helpful. If you live for one Billion years in paradise, what will 75 years on pain-plagued planet Earth mean to you, when you look back through your 1,000,000,075 years of life? Extending this comparison to infinity, the 75 years shrinks relative to the eternal, so that by comparison, it almost doesn't exist. Hardly a big price to pay in exchange for Heaven.
Copyright 2002, Chris Weathers
