Viewpoint Against Christianity

“I really don’t see how a loving God could coexist with all the pain and suffering throughout the world and human history. Yes, suffering often results from our bad choices, but why would God let it go unchecked, especially the genocidal evil that monsters like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin inflicted? And what about the many who starve and die from natural disasters every year? Plus, each of us seems to suffer from periodic bouts of sadness, anxiety, and despair. If God really exists, how could he “permit” a four-year-old child to die from brain cancer? That seems so unjust. What could God’s purpose possibly be? Here is my list of reasons why I believe “Pain and Suffering” is a big problem for Christianity.”

Reasons Why Pain & Suffering Is a Problem for Christianity

• If there is a God, why does he permit the inhumanity that exists in the world? 
• Natural disasters kill and maim thousands every year.
• The death of young children seems so senseless.
• Could pain and suffering simply be part of evolution?
• None of us deserves this.
• What possible good could come from such suffering?

Background Discussion

 

Some believe the strongest argument against God’s existence and the Christian story, which proclaims that God is good, is the mystery of injustice and evil in the world.  This includes the inevitable suffering each of us endures in life which has been chronicled throughout human history. Suffering presents difficult questions that have no easy answers. Certainly, an all-powerful Creator could preempt any physical and psychological suffering. But what if that meant interfering with or overriding our free will, and the related consequences of our choices? Would that infringement of our liberty truly be a good thing?  C. S. Lewis, a British theologian and fantasy writer, noted how suffering can be utilized to gain our attention: "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Might pain sometimes help us appreciate the folly of actually obtaining what we desire?  Through this lens, enduring hardship can lead to the discovery of God love and trustworthiness, redeeming even our worst suffering (see 2 Cor. 12:8–10; Rom. 8:28). Below are some additional thoughts on why a good God might permit suffering:

Possible Explanations for the Existence of Pain and Suffering?

• How might suffering serve to gain our attention?
• How does temporary suffering weigh against long-term joy and happiness (including, most importantly, in eternity)?
• Might suffering have resulted from human rebellion against God (starting with Adam & Eve)?
• Could Jesus’s humbling and painful death provide some insight into God’s concern and utilization of human suffering? (see John 3:16–17).
• Can good come from pain and suffering?
• What if suffering can strengthen us and bring us closer to our Creator?
• Could that include opportunities to help others work through and profit from their own suffering?

Grief, pain, and suffering are realities none of us can escape in this world.  Because of God’s great love for us, not even Jesus avoided suffering while here on earth (John 3:16–17). Charles Spurgeon, a British Baptist preacher, acknowledged how God can form and purify us through our suffering: “I am certain that I never did grow in grace one half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain." How will you deal with the troublesome reality of human suffering? Christianity can help explain why there is suffering in this broken world, how to cope with it, and the peace and joy you can reap here on earth, and in the hereafter, if we accept the gift of Christ’s death on the Cross and choose to follow Him (John 14:27; Phil. 4:6–7).

Please click on the links to videos, documents, quotes, and books for further information on the existence and purpose of pain, grief, and suffering in this world. If you haven’t already, please consider entering the Christian story by making the Christian Decision.  This may be the most important decision of your life, or of your death.