If God Is Loving; Why does He allow so much pain?

Pain & Suffering a.k.a. Theodicy it’s odd you see…

OK if you get the wordplay above you probably know more about this topic than I do and you should be writing this post.

Let me begin with an prediction, I would say that there’s a high probability that many who read this to the end will not discover an emotionally satisfying answer to the age old question of if God is all powerful, all knowing, and claims to have love for us as people why do we have so much pain and suffering in this world? 

Initially let me state that I normally try to lighten up most of these topics because frankly we many times we take ourselves way too seriously.  I want to say that I do not want to marginalize the immense pain caused by the loss of a loved one, the pain of betrayal by the closest to us, the brutality suffered at the hands of others.  This excruciating pain, being allowed by a God we say loves us, and He does, seems unexplainable, impossible to understand.  So like I said my “answer” may not leave you feeling emotionally satisfied. 

If you are a materialistic atheist you may kindly excuse yourself from the rest of this post. Because as a materialistic atheist there’s no such thing as good and evil, only what serves to increase survival and there’s no such thing as an “act of God”. Ok you can keep reading, but remember, for you this is really just a theoretical argument because you only want to convince others the problem of evil means there’s no God.  The problem of course for the atheist is that evil is a moral concept, it has nothing to do with survival of the fittest. There is really nothing inherently right or wrong, just what enables survival.

So, for those still reading, here’s my attempt to better understand this complex issue with some admittedly simplistic concepts.

Design Corruption = Corruption

The short answer is that the world we live in is not functioning as originally designed.  Think of a closed system that becomes contaminated somehow, mold in a loaf of bread for example.  What say you is the “contamination” in our world leading to all of this pain and suffering?   Well its something we all value very highly, our free will.  I know I probably just lost two of the three people who may ever read this.  That said, think about this a little, its really not difficult if you try.  There’s about a zillion examples, you probably have better ones then I can come up with.  

Let’s talk two year olds.  A creature made in the image of her parents.  Let’s say this creature lives in a community with loving parents and has creatures living with her that share the same loving parents.  Sounds perfect, no?  Well what happens when say one of the other creatures, exercising their free will, decides that the pop tart that was planned to be the breakfast for the two year old is needed by the four year old because, in their opinion, they did not receive adequate nourishment from the pop tart they were allocated earlier.  Is that “evil”?  Is it survival of the fittest?  Is it probable that the two year old will look to retaliate?  What happens if the two year actually has access to something that could injure the four year old?  I can hear you already, yes that happens amongst those who don’t know better.  Does this type of thing stop with young children?  We all know the answer to this.  

Ok so maybe that explains man’s inhumanity to man but what about, disease, accidents, natural disasters (dare I say, Acts of God)?

Again, if you’re a materialistic atheist, no worries, all of these things are just random events.  Interesting isn’t it how many who say there’s no God are quick to use these type of things to vilify him? 

So here’s the emotionally unsatisfying part of my answer.  Just like there are some times unintended consequences to our actions (e.g. being late, causes speeding, which causes an accident, which causes injury to innocents).  Likewise, there are second order impacts on our closed system by the introduction of our will, in direct opposition to God’s will, into our system.  The whole system was designed to operate completely in accordance with God’s will, the introduction of our will in direct opposition to God’s will had impacts on the creation as originally designed.   Note God did not make us auto-matrons. 

If There is A God, Why does He let Bad Things Happen?

Ok lets discuss another related concept here, all pain and suffering is evil in and of itself, and proves that if God does exist either He is not in total control or doesn’t care about us.  

So by definition this means ALL pain NEVER has any redeeming purpose.  You can already think of many examples where pain can be useful and dare I say helpful to our existence.  If you cannot feel pain (and some cannot) what would stop you from putting your hand on something hot/cold?  How would you know if there was something majorly wrong with your body?  Pain is indicative of an issue that needs to be addressed.  Isn’t that also true with other types pain and suffering?  Doesn’t pain and suffering sometime serve as a warning of something that needs to be addressed?  If so isn’t pain/suffering a “good thing” in certain contexts?  Just think of all of the people who have achieved great things, how many of them first experienced great pain and disappointment first?  A lot, failure can drive success.  Further there are some who state that without suffering you would not be the person you are.  Without going too deep into this theory, let me explain a very real example of it based on something that happened to my wife and I.  We lost our first pre-born child on Mother’s Day, 1989.  If that had not happened none of our other children would have ever been born.  Just think about timing for a second, it’s not hard.  Would I wish this pain any one, no way.  Would I wish away my three children and three grandchildren, no way.  Make sense?

Why does God allow certain awful things to happen to innocents?  OK more emotional dissatisfaction coming, I don’t know why God allows certain things to happen.   That said, I am willing to concede that if there’s a power that created all of this, that power has a level of intellect so far superior to even the best and brightest we have.  As a child I certainly thought that several things the adults in my life made me do/didn’t allow me to do were unfair/evil.  As an adult I now realize that many of those things were actually meant for my good.  What changed, not the actions themselves, but my level of understanding.  At the time what I thought was unfair and unjust I now see differently.  

Perspective Effects Understanding

Another issue here is perspective.  Many of us have the opinion that the current state of being is all that there is, Earth is it.  Christ followers are taught that yes we must love our fellow humans, be there for them when they experience loss, fight against injustice, help the poor and oppressed, be good stewards of the planet, and even to pray for those that oppose us. That said, Jesus taught that there is a future existence to come that will be free of all pain and suffering, but that place is not here and not now.  Those that earnestly seek a relationship with him will join him in this future existence, those who are not interested in a relationship or those insisting on their own terms for that relationship will get what they want, but it may not be what they think it will be.  

Our ability to comprehend is limited, do you know EVERYTHING? Earth is NOT heaven.  Heaven, sure and maybe there will be unicorns there, I need to deal with the here and now.  Our current world doesn’t provide any solid proof that there’s another perfect word waiting.  Maybe this will help some, there are certain species of dragon flies that spend their entire life as larvae under water, they eat, sleep and exist completely under water.  When they finally mature, they have different bodies, they leave the under water world forever and live in a place totally different and probably initially incomprehensible to them from the world into which they were born.  Sound implausible?  Look it up for yourself, no, there’s no record of unicorns in the new place.  

Also it’s vitally important to know that God does understand your pain, suffering, betrayal, and injustice.  He came into this world as a human and was brutally murdered solely because the leaders of his religion saw him as a heretic and a threat to their power.  All he did was attack religious hypocrisy, heal people, raise the dead, and promise an infinite future of peace and love for those who accept him.   For those crimes he was tortured and executed in the most undignified and inhumane way possible. 

God is not above your pain, he totally understands it, and wants to heal you, permanently.

If God Gets The Blame, Does He Get The Credit?

OK couple of more questions and I will go away.  If God is responsible for all the bad then does he credit for any the good?  Do we talk to God only to file complaints?  Keep in mind if God doesn’t exist it’s kinda silly to be so angry with him.  If God does exist then does he really owe you an explanation for everything he does?  Would you really be able to understand it all if he did?

The fact that you are reading this has great ramifications, you are: 

Alive

Human 

Have access to a computer 

Can see

Can read

Have the ability to seek truth for yourself, BTW ultimately you will be the one held accountable for what you did with all you were given.

God never wastes pain, in fact many if not most/all would never seek or find him without it, that is the ultimate good. Some things in life are paradoxes, go figure.  No really, go and thoughtfully figure…

Warned you this might not be emotionally satisfying…

Thanks for taking the time to read this, as always, if you have questions/comments please send me an email at lifeboat11min@gmail.com, all inquiries are considered confidential