THE PROBLEM OF EVIL AND SUFFERING

 

 

The skeptic claims:

 

·       If God is all-powerful and all-benevolent, there shouldn’t be suffering. It is completely unnecessary. He should have been able to do a better job.

 

I admit that we cannot completely explain why God causes or allows suffering, although it is clear to me that I need to suffer for God to accomplish His purposes in my life.

 

However, the skeptic cannot rationally claim that suffering is "completely unnecessary,” if God has the power to stop it.

 

To make such a judgment requires an exhaustive amount of knowledge. The effects of one action that causes suffering, can extend around the world and into millennia, even eternity. Therefore, we cannot confidently say that suffering is "completely unnecessary" from our very limited perspective?

 

This principle also pertains to the many other challenges like, “Your God could have done things in a better way.” I am amazed by the charge that God could have made the eye in a better way, because we allegedly have a blind-spot.

 

For one thing, I am not aware of any blind-spot; nor can I remember anyone complaining about his blind-spot. For another thing, to make such a charge, the skeptic would have to produce what would be a better design. This would require him to weigh all the costs and benefits for his design, which he is incapable of doing.

 

Lastly, this should be obvious: If the skeptic can find fault with the human eye, he can find fault with anything that pertains to God’s creation. The eye can produce thousands, perhaps millions, of electro-chemical reactions in a moment to give us an exact reproduction of what is in front of us. Besides, to do this, the eye must also immediately dismantle these reactions to allow for the steady flow of new reactions in real time. Then the mind must coherently reconstruct these signals.

We should be wowed! Instead, many of the most educated seem to have eyes but cannot see.