Suffering: How can God allow it?

One of recent history’s greatest natural disasters rocked south Asia and the Horn of Africa the day after Christmas, 2004. FoxNews.com reported, “Sunday’s massive quake of 9.0 magnitude off the Indonesian island of Sumatra sent 500-mph waves surging across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal in the deadliest known tsunami since the one that devastated the Portuguese capital of Lisbon in 1755 and killed an estimated 60,000 people” (Tsunami Death Toll Reaches 52,000, accessed 12-28-04). The official death toll has nearly tripled at this writing and promises to only rise further, perhaps precipitously. Death by water-borne disease is among the greatest calamities feared by officials. Did these people deserve this? Where is God? Is this His judgment?

Survivors dug mass graves by hand in Sri Lanka. One of the most grievous facts coming out of this tragic scene is that an estimated one-third or more of the victims are children. What kind of God—if indeed He exists—would allow children to be killed so wantonly?

Philosophers and everyday people muse over the implications of suffering and evil. The ultimate question remains: if God is all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent) and good (benevolent), why is there evil and suffering in the world? And why so much? In fact, this line of reasoning, known as the problem of evil, has long been engaged to disprove God’s existence. However, some believers counter that evil’s existence, on the contrary, lends credibility to the claim of His existence.

Most treatments of the topic of suffering by Christians, philosophical and otherwise, deal with “man’s inhumanity to man”—evil perpetrated by another agent of free will. Serious discussion of natural calamities, usually known as natural evil, and the place God may play in it are harder to come by.

Questions, more than answers, abound:

• Did the Creator cause or foreordain this earthquake and resultant tidal wave of destruction?
• Or does He simply allow the laws of nature to run their course?
• Does He enter into the picture then to create good out of it afterward? Does that have ultimate purpose?
• In a perfect world, would things work any differently?
• How do fate or luck enter in?
• Is there meaning at all in suffering?

These are important questions and taking the time to answer them necessary part of healing from the effects of the tsunami. There is comfort in community. Find a community to help you through this healing process.

Photos courtesy of Gospel for Asia. Used with permission.

TweetEmailPrint