Why Does God Allow Evil and Suffering?
If God is all-powerful and all-loving, why do innocent children suffer? Why do natural disasters destroy thousands? Why does evil seem to triumph? This is the problem of evil — the greatest intellectual challenge to belief in God.
The Problem Stated Clearly
The ancient philosopher Epicurus framed it starkly: "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is not omnipotent. Is He able, but not willing? Then He is malevolent. Is He both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?"
This challenge deserves a serious answer — not a dismissive one. The Bible itself acknowledges the anguish. Job cried out. David wept. Jesus Himself asked from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).
The Free Will Defence
The most widely accepted Christian response begins with free will. God created humans with genuine freedom — the ability to choose good or evil, love or hatred, generosity or selfishness. Without this freedom, love would be impossible. A robot programmed to say "I love you" does not truly love.
But freedom comes with a cost. Humans can — and do — choose evil. Wars, injustice, cruelty, and exploitation are the result of human choices, not divine design. God permits this because the alternative — a world of puppets — would be a world without love.
Natural Evil — Earthquakes, Disease, and Death
But what about suffering not caused by human choices? Earthquakes, tsunamis, cancer, birth defects — these seem to implicate God directly. Several responses merit consideration:
- The Soul-Making Theodicy (John Hick) — Suffering creates the conditions for growth in virtue. Courage requires danger. Compassion requires suffering. Patience requires hardship. A world without challenges would produce no character.
- The Fallen World — Christian theology teaches that creation itself was affected by the Fall (Romans 8:22). The world as we experience it is not as God intended.
- Mystery and Trust — Some suffering defies explanation. The Book of Job concludes not with a philosophical answer but with an encounter with God Himself. Sometimes the answer is not information but presence.
Jesus and Suffering
Christianity offers something no other worldview does: a God who suffered. Jesus was not a distant deity issuing commands from heaven. He entered human pain — hunger, exhaustion, rejection, betrayal, torture, and death. The cross is not an escape from suffering but a transformation of it.
As Pope Benedict XVI wrote: "God does not remove suffering from the world, but He descends into it so that we may never suffer alone."
Biblical Examples of Suffering Redeemed
- Joseph — Sold into slavery by his brothers, imprisoned unjustly, yet ultimately declared: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good" (Genesis 50:20).
- Job — Lost everything yet refused to curse God. In the end, his faithfulness was vindicated and his blessings restored.
- Paul — Beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, yet wrote: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).
The Ultimate Answer: Eternity
Christianity does not promise a pain-free life. It promises that suffering is not the final word. Heaven — eternal communion with God, free from death, mourning, and pain (Revelation 21:4) — means that every tear is temporary. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Problem of Pain: "They say of some temporal suffering, 'No future bliss can make up for it,' not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory."