WHY IS THERE SUFFERING?
In the ongoing debate regarding the existence of God, one of
the most troubling arguments against God’s existence has
been the existence of suffering, especially the suffering of the
innocent. If God is omnipotent and omniscient and loves His
creation, as stated by most believers, how can he allow
massive suffering of innocent people?
This is particularly evident when one is faced with “acts of
God,” such as natural disasters, which kill, maim and
dispossess hundreds of thousands of innocent persons. In
our own recent history many believers, both Christian and
Jew determined that the holocaust, in which the Nazis
murdered millions of innocents, provided powerful evidence
that God does not exist, does not love his creation, or is not
omnipotent. This event caused many believers to give up
their faith and was a causal factor in the decline of belief in
modern Europe.
There are essential reasons why suffering exists, and why its
existence does not disprove God’s existence or limit His
powers.
1) For believers, this world in which we are currently
residing, is the material world. It is part of a continuum
of existence, and is only a small segment of an infinite
band of existence. The material world is indelibly
linked to suffering as its essential component. This
does not mean that existence itself is characterized by
suffering. The spiritual world, which is infinitely
greater than the restricted material world in which we
presently reside, is characterized by an absence of
suffering and epitomizes a creation headed by a benign
and loving spiritual being.
2) Another essential component of the material world is
time. Time is determined by the finite nature of
everything within the material world. Physics has
determined that everything in our current universe is
subject to decay and dissolution. The spiritual world,
by contrast is beyond the confines of time. Since
everything in the material world is finite, the suffering
endured by beings in the material world is also finite.
The finite amount of suffering we experience can
provide us with motivation to renew our relationship
with God and escape our present mode of existence.
Does this mean that suffering can serve a purpose?
Many theologians have made this argument.
3) Why does suffering characterize the material world?
God desires to engage in an eternal reciprocal loving
relationship with us. However, such a relationship
cannot take place without free will. God is omnipotent
and created the spiritual world where these loving
relationships could take place eternally. All the
creatures that reside in the spiritual world have free
will. This means that they have the freedom to opt out
of a reciprocal loving relationship with God.
4) A being is most likely to choose to opt out of such a
relationship because he does not want to subordinate
himself to God, and prefers to exercise free will and
reject God. In order for free will to exist, God must
allow a plane of existence for beings desiring this
option. This is our present material world.
5) In order for our present plane of existence to serve its
purpose it must not be readily apparent that God
exists, while suffering is evident all around us. The
reason why this suffering exists is because God must,
by definition, not intervene to completely eliminate
suffering. If he chose to do so, He would remove the
essential element and purpose of the material world.
Everyone in the world would immediately see
overwhelming evidence of God’s existence and role in
the universe and there would be no free will.
6) God must allow suffering to exist in our world, because
otherwise, our relationship with Him would not be
based on our own free will. Although we must endure
suffering, we continue to have free will and the option
to renounce the Lord and go our own way.
7) What we call “faith” is the personal realization that God
exists, that we have chosen to fall into a material
existence characterized by suffering, and that we want
to freely enter into a reciprocal relationship with God
to permanently escape our circumstances. The
motivation for entering into such a relationship should
not be based purely on a desire to escape from
suffering (although this is a rational and logical desire
of any intelligent being). Rather, we realize that
renouncing our relationship with God and choosing to
go it alone is an empty promise that ties us to
continued suffering and prevents us from experiencing
the genuine joy of a reciprocal loving relationship with
God.
8) Because suffering exists in the world, it does not
necessary logically follow that God does not exist or
does not love us. Rather, those who have decided to
make the “leap of faith” start to view their existence in
a different way. They come to see that God does not
take a completely “hands off” stance regarding the
material world, but rather actively intervenes. To
persons of faith God displays and demonstrates His
mercy for those who are suffering and provides relief
and a way out of that suffering. However, He does not
intervene in a way that would contradict the need for
free will. That is why evidence for God’s intervention
to relieve suffering is not readily apparent and is also a
matter of faith.