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Evil and Suffering: Argument Against the Existence of God
The existence of evil and suffering is the biggest argument against God’s existence…why would a good God allow evil and suffering to exist?
There is lots of speculation as to why He would allow evil and suffering. We can come up with possible explanations that make sense in a lot of cases, but there are many times we can see no possible reason why something bad happened, or the reasons we do come up with are unsatisfying. Especially when something is happening to you…it’s a lot easier to see a logical connection to reasons for suffering when it’s someone else that is going through the pain.
We will be discussing some of these possible reasons for suffering in future posts. As for now, I want to talk about those times we don’t see any reason for it…why would anyone still believe in a good God if He allows suffering for no reason we can see?
Doesn’t the very existence of senseless suffering and evil make you question the existence of God?
Well, here’s how I look at this question…
If all we had to go on was the suffering and evil in the world, and we knew nothing else about God, it would look pretty bad. I would have trouble believing in the existence of God with that kind of evidence…
But that’s not all we have to go on. This blog, for the past several months has been talking about a variety of evidences for the existence of God…the Cosmological Argument, the Moral Argument, The Argument From Design…there are a lot of reasons to believe that God exists, and that He’s a personal God.
In future posts, we will also talk about history, the bible, Jesus and the resurrection…there is a lot of quality information that tells us a lot about God. There is good reason to believe in a good God who has our best interest at heart.
I believe the evidence for a good, personal God who works in humankind’s best interest far outweighs the negative evidence from the problem of evil and suffering in the world. I can’t explain all of the evil and suffering. No one can. A lot of smart thinkers have come up with many potential explanations for much of it, but I don’t think anyone can explain every act of evil or incidence of suffering.
Neither do I think any human, no matter how intelligent, is in a position to accurately assess whether God has morally sufficient reasons to permit the evil and suffering that He does. I’m certainly not in that position. The only one who is in a position to be able to judge that is God Himself. Based on the evidence for an all knowing, all powerful and loving God who has our best interest at heart, I have to accept that He knows what He’s doing…which means that I accept that there are things I don’t understand. One of them is evil and suffering in the world that seems to be random and senseless.
I assume from what I already know about God that He has morally sufficient reasons for allowing the evil and suffering that we don’t understand.
I believe there are many things we will never understand fully about an all powerful, all knowing God. But I also believe He has revealed enough to us through His creation, His Son Jesus, and His Word (the Bible), that we have sufficient evidence for His existence and His goodness and our need for Him.
Over the next few weeks we will discuss some potential reasons why God may allow evil and suffering to exist. I hope to see you back!
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Have a Wonderful Day!
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