The problem of evil and suffering has always been something of a difficulty for Christian theists. It just does not go away.
How can a God who is said to be all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient), and all-good (omnibenevolent) allow for the evil and suffering we see in human history and in the world today? If he were all-powerful, could he not prevent or intervene in these issues? If he were all-knowing, would he not have the foreknowledge and “know-how” to do so? And if he were all-good, would he not choose to do so?
In The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis puts it this way: “‘If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both.’ This is the problem of pain, in its simplest form” (p. 14).
Yes, the creatures are not happy. And this is where we feel the tension, the pain.
Have you ever thought through this issue? It is an important question to address. I would like to use this blog post to provoke some thought and discussion.
This semester I took an “Intro to Philosophy” class at Metro State, and I wrote my final paper on the problem of evil and suffering. So here is my current thinking, in a somewhat polished form: Biblical Theism & the Problem of Evil.
What about you? What do you think?
Saturday, May 23, 2009
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4 comments:
The "problem of evil" comes in two flavors: One is the existential problem of reconciling one's view of God with one's own life experiences. The other is the philosophical question of why evil should exist at all if God in fact exists.
For me, the existential problem is not serious. Honestly, my life has been good and I haven't known a lot of suffering. The philosophical question is also not serious to me because I don't care to presume to judge God for his sovereign rule of creation. Who am I to decide if God is just or not?
That's my 0.02USD....
The best book I have read on the subject that deals with both the experiential and the theological/philosophical issues is DA Carson's, "How Long O Lord?". He did a two part series on it when I first began at Denver Seminary that was by far the best treatment I have ever heard. I have the mp3 still if anyone is interested but I don't think I can post it.
The subject is fresh for me because the last presentation I had to at seminary was a debate on this subject.
We must affirm as Carson put it, 5 pillars: 1) God is Sovereign, 2) Humans have free will (compatibilistic or libertarian, a long debated point. I think the former is best), 3) The reality of Satan and evil, 4) The reality of the Cross, 5) The reality of resurrection and eternity.
This is a profound mystery a point I think Paul is making. However, pastorally, we do have to give hope to those who do experience suffering while maintaining the tensions in Scripture of God, human freedom, evil, the cross and the resurrection.
I think the hope we can give is acknowledge that suffering exists and it doesn't make sense always. Yet we must be faithful that God is in control in all that we think, say, and do. We can find comfort that God himself suffered on the cross (the Son more specifically). He took on all of the evil in the world on himself and shares in our experience. Through Christ suffering can be redeemed but it might not occur. Finally, to quote Carson, "If we are not thinking eternally we have not begun to think Christianly." We must keep in mind that God will solve this "problem" and he will restore everything. We may not experience the total redemption of suffering in this life but in the end God will redeem it all. Justice will come (Amos 5:28). We can have hope because of Christ's work on the cross and his resurrection to endure whatever may come to pass (Rom 8:28-39).
Amen.
Paul, you said: "For me, the existential problem is not serious. Honestly, my life has been good and I haven't known a lot of suffering." But I am wondering, if we are supposed to love our neighbors and one or more of our neighbors is suffering, doesn't this make the experiential problem serious?
Chris, you said: "We can find comfort that God himself suffered on the cross (the Son more specifically). He took on all of the evil in the world on himself and shares in our experience." Although I did not mention this in my paper, I think this is an important point.
I think the philosophical question is prompted by the experiential problem. If there were evil in the world but we did not suffer from it, the philosophical question likely would not arise. But we DO suffer from the evil in the world, so we want to answer the philosophical question in order to make sense of our experiences and justify or correct our beliefs.
Andrew, I agree that the existential problem is one that touches us from those around us as well as our own experience. Certainly I should grow in being more empathetic toward those around me who may be struggling to see the fallen world through eyes of faith. I think it would be difficult for me to formulate a response to the brokenness in the world that would apply across the board. Just as we all have our own reasons for believing or not believing, so we will all deal with the problem of evil in different ways.
Scripture is full of encouragement to remain faithful to the Lord in the face of adverse circumstances and personal suffering. I think that much of it focuses, as you did in your paper, on the future restoration of all things, when wrongs will be made right and when our "light and momentary" troubles achieve for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Cor 4:17).
Do you think that Scripture answers both the existential and the philosophical questions? The places I can think of where the question is raised (Job, Rom 9) don't really answer the question but instead point to God's sovereign power and his prerogative to do whatever he pleases. Probably there is some passage that I'm not thinking of....
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