Every day we either see or hear about innocent people suffering for no apparent reason. These ongoing disasters force people to believe that there is no God. If He did exist, wouldn’t He do everything in his power to stop the chaos in this world? People have come to believe that what God stands for isn’t what is said in the bible. As humans, we have put God up on this pedestal, and have high expectations of what He is capable of doing. When God does not meet our expectations, we begin to underestimate his powers. If indeed God does exist, why does He hesitate to help when some innocent child drowns in the nearby river? If God put us here on earth to do good, why would He allow evil in the world?
In contrast, God may exist but allow for evil in order to teach us humans a lesson. Evil may bring to our attention, that there is no unnecessary suffering in this world. Imagine having to run 3 miles in the scorching heat without water and no break. At the end of the run your coach hands you a bottle filled with ice-cold water. I bet that water tastes good. Now, picture those 3 miles with 10-minute intervals in order to drink water. After those 3 miles, that water doesn’t taste as refreshing. Your coach allowed you to suffer so you knew how to appreciate that water at the end of the run. In order to experience the good life, we may need to be exposed to a little suffering, for the outcome could be beneficial. We appreciate more in life when we see the cruelty some have to face. Now this objection does raise the question of why so much suffering, what is the limit? We can conclude God exists if there was minimal suffering, yet this much pain makes us question his presence. Some argue that it is not God’s job to help the suffering. It is our chance to show our medal, and help the unfortunate people in this world. He wants us to do something. God gave us freewill. God put us here to control our own universe; we have the choice whether to participate in this evil, or to stop it from occurring. We are a product of our own sins.
Our knowledge of good depends on our knowledge of evil. We may not distinguish good and bad if we aren’t introduced to both characters. In order to know good, we must know what creates bad; therefore we can conclude which makes us feel better or worse. We only know what good is, for the presence of evil gives us an emotion we recognize as uncomfortable. Consequently, we then know when something feels good. God allows us to feel and live with evil so we know what good we need to deliver to this world. If we weren’t introduced to the problem of evil, we would never know how to form an organized world. Seeing evil occur, gives us as humans the chance to renovate this world for the better, without trial and error. We learn what the world needs from the apparent evil. However, we cannot say that good depends on evil, but it is easier to value our lives with a contrast.
There may be this underlying plan that God has in mind, that humans may not understand. As Ivan claimed in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s why is there evil?, it’s not that we don’t accept god, it’s the world created by Him we don’t and cannot accept. God’s nature is what it is. We should abandon this journey of understanding Gods way, and just let it happen. God may be stepping back because we are stepping back and not doing something about this present evil. When people put their faith in God, they misunderstand what faith truly stands for. God doesn’t exist for us to place all our stress and problems on his shoulders. It’s the faith we have in ourselves that can truly make this world a better place. If we relied on God to do everything, there would be more problems in the world than there is today. To make a better world, we need to learn and trust ourselves to do all good and be all-powerful. That faith that God implanted in our souls is the faith we need to count on to eradicate evil. Therefore, I believe God exists in each and every one of us.
What do you guys think?
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6 comments:
When I was eight years old, I was in a train wreck that killed my mother, two best friends and cousin. I was the only survivor out of my sleeper car and my right foot was amputated. Eleven people died that night because an eighteen wheeler tried to beat an Amtrak train that was headed from Chicago to Memphis. I tell this story not to gain sympathy, but to agree that tragedies happen. God allows these things to occur because without hardships and testing of our faith in HIM, we would not need to rely on Him. we would be "all powerful" humans who could help ourselves get through such horrific tragedies. I can't say that I have never wondered why God allows these things to happen. Why did my mom have to die three months after she began remission for cancer and a brain tumor? Why did he leave the Lipscomb family with the pain of losing their two precious daughters? It is because through all of this heartache and loss, the Lord has brought me and the others involved in the accident closer to Him than I ever imagined. I have learned that it is a blessing to be alive everyday, and I was saved that night to be a testimony of how He can turn any situation into one that glorifies Him and brings others to salvation. The Lord will never put us through anything we can't handle. He is amazing, it's not the evil of what happens in the world that's important. It's the changing of people's lives that occurs as the result of trying times.
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Theologists would respond to this by saying everything the lord does has a meaning and purpose, and even if something seems completely harsh and unfair at the time, God has the big picture and future in mind. In other words, like you mentioned, God creates evil in order to benefit the greater good and teach humanity how to act appropriately, eventually fixing itself into the best possible social configuration.
I definitely agree that the outcome of suffering can be beneficial. Suffering provides a great learning experience if the individual can look within themselves and learn from the situation.
To contradict with what you are saying, a coach would never make his player work harder so the water tastes better; he would make his player work harder to be a better athlete. A better analogy would just be a player giving himself an intense workout in order to have a greater appreciation for the water at the end.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
We simply do not understand the full majesty of God's plan. Suffering is a part of life. Yes it is painful, but it also teaches us more then any book could ever hope to do. Take the good with the bad. We can't love God with out understanding that. He loves us more then we can ever understand (John 3:16) and that could mean we simply accept the fact that things will go wrong. But in the end God gave us eternal life with Jesus. And what does he take away from us personally when all the pain and suffering adds up? When I ask myself that I can't help but thank God for everything in life. I don't understand everything he does, but when i try to put it in perspective I don't have to understand him to be thankful.
God..hmmm.....
I don't know that i fully believe that there is a god. AT a young age we are all born in to the world and that determines the religon we follow. Could it poossibly be that we as humans are afriad to die, so we make up the idea of heaven and hell to look forward to the idea that after death is life? That we constructed the whole idea to feel taht we will be or were something when we die Instead of having lived a meaningless, and monotonious existance. Let's think positive though. Lets say that we are right and there is a god. How do we know who has the correct religon? Man has the fault of interpreting things different from another. Could it be that we all are wrong? or that we all are right? I personal believe that man has and can manipulate the texts of the bible and other documents. THere are many similarities in various religons that there are in the world. It is there that we all agree and have interperted the same thing. But i think that we are inable to interpert the smae thing because we lose such valuable text in translation of a different language. It is important to me that we study all religons and interpert our own meaning before pointing out people as right or wrong. It is ignorant to tell someone their religon is wrong based on what you learn in church because we are believing what another has said about it, not what we actually know on the subject.
This is an important question to many people--if not all people of faith--as they journey through hardships in life.
As for myself, I haven't found a satifying answer. Yes, tragedies happen, and people trust in their faith to continue living and to find meaning and consistency in life. But not for one second, not for one millisecond, would I even consider allowing my own children to suffer a painful death to teach anyone on this earth a lesson about humility, gratefulness, love--you name it. So it's a difficult question that has rocked the foundations of my own beliefs. I can't imagine my own capacity for love is greater than God's, so what then am I left to assume? It's very disheartening. But only for me because belief is a personal journey. But I am grateful there are people in this world full of hope in a loving deity, my parents included. They give me hope.
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