How do Christians respond when you ask them “Why does God allow human suffering?”.
Everyone is going to have a different answer for this I think. IMO, it is a test of faith. God allows things to happen which you may not like, and it tests your character. Do you remain loyal and faithful to your God, or do you spite Him for what happened and turn your back on God? It also allows some contrast in your life. Think about it - if things were good all the time, how would you know it? You would have nothing bad to compare against the good. How would you what happiness is if you’ve never known sadness?
The basis for religion is faith, and it’s all about keeping your faith regardless of what happens in this life, so that you will be eternally rewarded in the next life.
Because he can’t stop it.
–John
“What is evil anyway? Is there reason to the rhyme? Without evil there could be no good so it must be good to be evil sometimes!” -Satan, the Dark Prince
He allows suffering so the folks in Great Debates will have something to debate.
I’ll move the thread over there for you now.
“When Bad Things Happen To Good People” by Rabbi Harold Kushner is a good place to start. As a priest pointed out to me though, the first word of the title is “When” and not “Why”…because ultimately we would never know “why”…
BTW, as my reference above suggests…I don’t think that this is a question suited for just Christian dopers…I would suspect it has relevance to any monotheist …
In my case, I believe that G-d allows human suffering for a variety of reasons. There are (my opinion) two broad categories of suffering:[list=1][li]Intentional or unintentional suffering caused by the actions of people (to include self-inflicted suffering).[/li]
[li]Suffering caused by natural events (earthquakes, floods, disease, etc.)[/list=1]I believe that there are several reasons such suffering is allowed to exist. Suffering inflicted or caused by the actions of people exists partly because G-d gave us free will and respects our freedom to act even to the point of allowing us to inflict harm on ourselves and others. Natural calamity is caused by the “imperfect” nature of the universe itself (precipitated by the “fall” of mankind).[/li]
Suffering doesn’t exist to punish us or to make us better people. It does, however, give us an opportunity to reach outside our own selfish interests to express the love of G-d to one another. The experience of suffering gives us the perspective to empathise with someone else’s pain and (hopefully) motivates us to do something to bring comfort the afflicted.
~~Baloo
Something to chew on for a while… 
Someone already linked to the Christian Think Tank, so I won’t bother with that. But I do not believe that the prevention of physical suffering in this life, on this planet, is of any real importance. Does God care whether or not we suffer? Of course. Is it something that he thinks should be avoided? Absolutely not.
God had to create a universe of consequences in order for us to be able to choose. Think about it, what kind of jerk would you be if you could drive your car down the road, running into anything and anyone you could without any repercussions? An obnoxious one. Is that acceptable to God? No way. As creatures of thought and reason (except during election time), we are required to face up to the consequences of our actions. And in a world that will rely on physical laws to do that, you will also have natural disasters. Part of the deal.
Eternally speaking, one human lifetime’s worth of suffering is not much at all.
Do you raise your own children that way?
If so, did they remain loyal?
-Ben
Well, if God created a universe in which driving my car that way didn’t cause any harm, then why would I be obnoxious if I drove recklessly?
Guys, this is weak. The best response I’ve heard so far is that God permits evil so that we have a chance to show our love for each other. Of course, that gets into all sorts of questions about whether we should be praising Judas for making the resurrection possible, but that’s a whole 'nother ball of wax.
It seems to me that the solution to all these theological problems is obvious if you just observe the nature of reality. Face it, folks: the world is run by a committee. Up with polytheism!
-Ben
That was weak, Ben. You ignore the whole rest of my post and concentrate on an example. But let’s go there anyway.
If God created a universe that had no physical laws – this would be the only sort of universe that let you drive your car recklessly – what would ever entice you to grow up and act responsibly? The goodness of your heart?
G-d has given us free will- that is the important thing here. We get to CHOOSE whethere to be good or evil- and we have been warned (by every religion) what happens if we choose evil.
Human suffering is caused by the CHOICE of humans to do evil, or wrong. Even “natural” disasters are made far worse by Human choices.
He gave us Free will, and choices- if we cause the suffering, it is our fault, not G-ds.
why not?
give me one good reason for god to stop human suffering.
How can human suffering be stopped by a god who doesn’t exist?
I don’t know the answer to the question, but there are many by people far smarter than I. I assume that God has His reasons, which could be that all of the nasty messes here are like a learning experience for something greater in some other time or plane of existence. After all, how can you have understanding and compassion if you neither know of or experienced pain and hardships?
A good example is the rich-rich of today, born into the money, isolated from the ‘lower class’, they have no real understanding of going hungry, having to work a hated job because of family obligations, struggling to get expensive medical help or driving a car held together by bailing wire and chewing gum because they can’t afford repairs. So, their attitude towards lower classes is biased.
Perhaps we have to experience things in order to learn from them.
How many people would have been all that sympathetic to the Holocaust if no one had brought back proof in the version of photographs? We had politicians admiring and agreeing with Hitler until he demonstrated his capability for wholesale slaughter of the innocents and we got into the war in person. We had predominate intellectuals, poets, artists and creative people all agreeing with communism until it’s inherent corruption, suppression of freedoms, class system and impracticality was finally exposed. People thought the Japanese were ‘funny, slanty-eyed little people who were too polite and obviously inferior’ until they went to war and we discovered that behind the art, the beautiful robes, poetry, quaint houses lurked an ability to readily administer almost unheard of savagery and cruelty towards others.
Just perhaps, this is a learning experience.
I don’t know. I’m not God. It’s hard to even consider how a vastly more intelligent and superior being thinks. It’s tough enough trying to figure out one’s neighbors.
**
Actually, I felt that by addressing the example I had dealt with your argument pretty well.
But the problem is that the reason you gave for why we have to act responsibly is because it’s obnoxious to drive your car recklessly. And why is it obnoxious to drive recklessly? Because it has bad consequences. And why did God make it have consequences? Well, because it was so important for us to learn to act responsibly. You might be able make this argument work- in fact, I’ve as much as admitted that other people besides yourself have made it work- it’s just that your initial phrasing was very weak indeed, because it’s so clearly a circular argument.
Look at it this way: you ask what would entice people to act “responsibly” if their actions had no consequences. But acting “responsibly” means acting in such a way as to avoid bad consequences. People talk about drinking beer responsibly, but there’s not a lot of worry about people drinking water responsibly. Thus, if people’s actions never had consequences, then there would be no need to act responsibly. In fact, the word “responsibly” would have no meaning, because there would be no situation in which it could reply.
-Ben
MadHatter wrote:
Becuase He is a dirty lousy sleazy sadistic capricious insecure vengeful unjust bastard!
Next question!
“God is not willing to do everything and in doing so take away that share of glory which is rightfully ours.” – Niccolo Macchiavelli