A recent reader of Fractured Perspicacity asked the question "what kind of God would let innocent children suffer"? The bigger question is if God allows suffering why would I follow Him? This is perhaps one of the most difficult things to answer, its not difficult because the answer is not available from God, but because its a hard thing to hear, especially when you are suffering.
First of all Christians know that God is omnipotent (has absolute power), and loves his creation (us). Therefore it seems incomprehensible to a non-christian that the world in the state that it is would have been made by an all powerful, loving God. If God is all powerful how can anything happen that opposes God's will.
To use an example from C.S. Lewis. Anyone who has been a parent can understand That something can be in accordance with your will, and not in another way. Meaning it can be your will that your children clean their room, and in fact learn to clean it on their own. However you may find a toy left out of the toy box which is against your will in that the room is no longer clean, but you gave them the freewill to learn to clean on their own.
Alright, so that makes a bit of sense but how does it apply to human suffering? Well that's a little tricky so follow close. God created us with free will meaning we have the choice to either go wrong or choose to be right. Free will is what caused us to lose the world to the enemy, and through our sin we are the cause of suffering in the world. We made the initial mistake and continue to mess up daily (whether you are a Christian or not you are still sinning).
So why did God make us with a free will if innocents would suffer because of it? Well, I'm guessing He found that it was worth the cost. Many people think that they cannot love a God who allows suffering and they are saying in a sense that they know better then God so I'll end with this;
Romans 9:20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?
A helpful link to a book written by a man much wiser than I.
First of all Christians know that God is omnipotent (has absolute power), and loves his creation (us). Therefore it seems incomprehensible to a non-christian that the world in the state that it is would have been made by an all powerful, loving God. If God is all powerful how can anything happen that opposes God's will.
To use an example from C.S. Lewis. Anyone who has been a parent can understand That something can be in accordance with your will, and not in another way. Meaning it can be your will that your children clean their room, and in fact learn to clean it on their own. However you may find a toy left out of the toy box which is against your will in that the room is no longer clean, but you gave them the freewill to learn to clean on their own.
Alright, so that makes a bit of sense but how does it apply to human suffering? Well that's a little tricky so follow close. God created us with free will meaning we have the choice to either go wrong or choose to be right. Free will is what caused us to lose the world to the enemy, and through our sin we are the cause of suffering in the world. We made the initial mistake and continue to mess up daily (whether you are a Christian or not you are still sinning).
So why did God make us with a free will if innocents would suffer because of it? Well, I'm guessing He found that it was worth the cost. Many people think that they cannot love a God who allows suffering and they are saying in a sense that they know better then God so I'll end with this;
Romans 9:20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?
A helpful link to a book written by a man much wiser than I.
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It is clearly one of the toughest questions for anyone who believes in an all-knowing, all-powerful God, Christian or not.
I don't think anyone has an adequate answer for why the evils of others cause so much suffering of innocents every second of every day.
As you pointed out at the end of your post, often it just comes down to "just don't question it". Which is very easy to understand why some people just don't buy it.
The suffering aspect of human existence is a wash. It must be dealt with no matter what worldview or religion one settles on. It is not as though if you don't believe in God, or if you're a Buddhist, suffering disappears. To reject Jesus because suffering exists is akin to rejecting an escape from a fire simply because the fire exists. How sad.
Oh by the way, if you control air liners i've probably talked to you before.
Dan, I think your analogy is flawed.
Rejecting Jesus because he allows such suffering would be like rejecting a guy standing with a fire extinguisher not doing anything to stop a fire that is causing suffering.
People are rejecting the God who supposedly has the power to stop it but doesn't stop it.
Escape does not have the power to stop the suffering the fire causes.
The question such people have is "why should I follow someone with the power to stop such horrible suffering but doesn't use that power to stop said suffering?"
And that's the question that usually ends with "just don't question God's ways".
Here is the key, its okay to question if an all powerful God exists in a world with suffering. Whats not okay is to question his reasons for his motivation behind the things that allow us to do extraordinary good or extraordinary evil. God wants us to question and seek Him out, the problem comes when we in our pride assume we know better than God and question His reasoning.
...And yes Dan there have been times in my career I have controlled airliners. If you have ever flown into Rapid City Regional Airport, then we probably have talked.
Ryan
But He *has* done something. By His atonement He has provided an escape, not only *from* a life riddled with suffering and injustice, but also into his presence. True, the question of how could a loving God allow suffering to happen is a relevant and difficult question, but it is not a question unique to the Christian faith. In my humble opinion, ultimately the question is by nature enigmatic, and as such is not the issue as much as is the context in which it is asked.
Bob, thx for dropping by. I laughed at the joke and will be using it again.
Ryan, It is always my fear in these dialogs that I will come off as other than pleasant. If this has happened, it was in spite of my efforts to the contrary.
Dan,
Definitely nothing unpleasant, and I agree with you. As I said in the first post, "Christian or not" it's a hard question to answer--and usually ends with "don't question it".
To must people who ask this question, this certainly isn't adequate: "But He *has* done something. By His atonement He has provided an escape, not only *from* a life riddled with suffering and injustice, but also into his presence."
Anyway, like I said, I basically agree with you. I completely understand the Christian view on suffering.
I made my wife watch Shadowlands once and she cried for about 3 days straight.
Cost of life hmm worth the cost how, for what? Do you or any of us really perceive the massive loss of life that some supreme being has decided is worth the cost?
Lives taken in his own name, with the excuse, that it is because it is the price of free will.
(AGAIN IF THERE IS AN ALL FORGIVING MERCIFUL GOD WHY COULD’NT HE HAVE GIVEN US ALL A HEALTHY DOSE OF EMPATHY!!)
More human life has been spilled IN GODS NAME then in all the other wars and battles ever kwon in history! Current statistics believe the number to be more then 695,620,385. Actually it is probably much higher but let’s just look at this number.
695,620,385 what is the worth this number?? How can we look at this and try to get just a fraction of the magnitude of this number. Go to a big chalk board and take a piece of chalk, now make a small ¼ of a inch hash mark, let say that is one life. Think how that one life had a mother, Father, brothers, sisters, friends, maybe a wife, and children. Or maybe that life is a mother or father, child so on. Now keep making hash marks and thinking of them as people. And keep making even more marks. Now keep doing this for 4830.70 days 24/7 that’s at 100 hash marks a minute.
Can you even come close to perceiving how massive that loss of life is? I can’t. Let’s say that well you are working on these marks you start naming them use your own family and love ones. Can you honestly look at this huge massive number and believe that any god would or could let this happen is his name and do nothing.
This is not greater proof that ether there is no god, or if there is a god he doesn’t deserve our respect. We certainly do not have his!!
Here are acouple of quotes from people smarter than me.
James Madison, American president and political theorist (1751-1836).
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, Famous Atheist & Quotessuperstition, bigotry, and persecution."
"In no instance have . . . the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people."
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."
"What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy."
During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution."
Samuel Clemens "Mark Twain"
"Faith is believing something you know ain’t true."
"If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian."
"It (the Bible) is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies."
"A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows."
"Our Bible reveals to us the character of our god with minute and remorseless exactness... It is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere. It makes Nero an angel of light … by contrast."
"I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious -- unless he purposely shut the eyes of his mind & keep them shut by force."
"If there is a God, he is a malign thug."
"'In God We Trust.' I don't believe it would sound any better if it were true."
"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."
"Man is a marvelous curiosity . . . he thinks he is the Creator's pet . . . he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn't it a quaint idea." [Letters from the Earth]
Mr. Clemens was once asked whether he feared death. He said that he did not, in view of the fact that he had been dead for billions and billions of years before he was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.
- Samuel Clemens "Mark Twain", American author and humorist (1835-1910).
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