Why Do Humans Suffer?
Introduction: Israel was invaded by the Midianites who for 7 years destroyed their crops, confiscated their livestock, and terrorized the Jews so bad that many of them were forced to seek refuge in mountain caves and dens. During this time, an angel of God appeared to Gideon and said, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” But Gideon replied, “If the Lord if with us, why then has all this befallen us?”
This is a good question. Why? Why must humanity suffer? Why must the innocent experience pain? Why must there be heartache and disappointment, disease and death? When we suffer, we tend to ask why. If we could see positive benefits in living with pain, then we could endure it. Job himself said, “If I had called and He had answered me; yet would I not believe that He had harkened unto my voice. For He breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without a cause.” (Job 9:16).
The most powerful argument which atheism has ever thrown at theism is the problem of human suffering. Why does God allow those who He loves to suffer? If there was really a God who cared for us, why does He not put a stop to the oppression of man by other men? So great have some struggled for answers, that they have become bitter against God have even denied his existence or goodness.
Ben Haden tells of a letter a woman wrote: “I saw my father who was not a Christian die---suffer needlessly. And when I saw this I was about 15 years old. My preacher did my father's service and I went to church and handed him my Bible----and told him to give it to someone who believed that God is loving.”
Adolph Hitler was directly responsible for the deaths of millions of people through war, concentration camps, and the gas chambers. Some Jews survived the camp and came to America. Many of the Jews became atheists because they blamed God for what had happened. The New York Times has the story of a holocaust survivor’s son who fought in Vietnam. He and another soldier came up on a foxhole with enemy soldiers in it. When they threw a hand grenade into the foxhole, body parts and debris went everywhere. It was so unusual that the two American soldiers laughed till tears came. Later, the Jewish soldier said that he became an atheist because he did not believe that a loving God would allow war and killing.
The Atheist’s Argument Stated
Philosophers of various ages have said the presence of evil in the world is enough to conclude that a good, all-powerful God does not exist. J. L. Mackie, an Australian atheist said, “a good thing always eliminates evil as far as it can, and there are no limits to what an omnipotent thing can do. From these things it follows that a good omnipotent being eliminates evil completely...” Four centuries before Christ the Greek philosopher Epicurus argued the same thing: “God either wishes to take away evils and is unable; or he is able and unwilling; or he is neither willing nor able, or he is both willing and able. If he is willing and unable, he is feeble which is not in accordance with the character of a god; if he able and unwilling, he is envious, which is equally at variance with god.” David Hume, 18th century Scottish philosopher said, "Is he willing to prevent evil but not able, then he is impotent. Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?"
These positions assume no good purpose can be served by the allowance of evil and suffering in the world. None of us would be so arrogant to say that man can completely understand the problem of suffering. The Bible acknowledges that some things are too difficult for us to comprehend. Romans 11:33 "How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past tracing out." However, God has revealed enough information for us to learn certain things about His character and how He can work all things for our good.
Addressing Their Objection
When atheists say something is evil, they have appealed to a universal system of justice which evil allegedly violates. But if there is no God, how can anyone say that so-and-so is wrong? Does not the word "evil" suggest some standard? No one say a line is crooked unless judged by a straight line. So it is with the term evil. A moral law implies a moral lawgiver, God. Atheists contradict themselves when they talk about evil.
In Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Smerdyakov is a murderer who justifies his deed in the name of atheism. He said since there is no God, virtue was non-existent and all things were therefore lawful. The fact that he even attempted to justify his act demonstrates belief in a moral law. Unable to live with guilt, Smerdyakov committed suicide by hanging himself.
The Bible holds God to be a being of love (1 John 4:8) and God's creation of mankind was an expression of that love. Because God loved men, He gave us the capacity of free moral agency. We have the freedom of choice. God wanted so much for us to love Him out of our own free will, that He risked our rebellion to give us that choice. Where man has that freedom of choice, there is the possibility that man will make a sinful choice. But every sinful act has within it a seed of punishment. If all choices, good or bad, had the same consequences, or the same effect, how would we ever learn to choose the good and reject the bad? We would be like a child who was born without the capacity for pain.
Why Suffering?
Some of the world’s suffering is caused by personal wrong choices of individuals. God delivered Israel in Judges 6:1 into hands of Midianites because they did "what was evil in God's sight." 1 Peter 4:15 "Let none of you suffer as a murderer, thief, evildoer, or meddler in the affairs of others." If a man steals and goes to prison, is it not his fault? But someone may argue, God could have prevented the crime. Not if he wanted to preserve man's freedom of choice. God limits his own activity by granting man his own free will power.
Some is caused by personal wrong choices of others. It would not be right for us to say that I must be given free choice but others cannot have it. Because we all have freedom, a man may choose to drive home after drinking and an innocent person is killed. Wicked leaders may declare war on another nation and many are killed by the decisions of the few. We sometimes pay a high price for others' freedom of choice.
Some is caused by personal wrong choices of previous generations. We have reaped benefits from previous generations in the area of scientific knowledge, but we also suffer for the choices of those now dead. God warned in Exodus 20:5-6 that rebellion would bring consequences to children yet unborn. Innocent children starve to death in India because their ancestors decided to worship cows. Cows in India eat the food which could keep the hungry alive.
Adam and Eve had continual access to the tree of life, but were cut off from it when they sinned. As a result, their bodies and ours are sometimes at the mercy of diseases, viruses, and bacteria. Many bacteria are very helpful in digestion, food processing, and in the decomposition of waste materials. If there were no germs, the earth would be one large, stinking garbage dump.
What about natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, snowstorms, and tornadoes? What produced these violent physical changes on this planet? The universal flood of Noah's day brought about changes which now produce these conditions. What was responsible for producing these changes? Human wickedness!!! Had it not been for man's evil, the flood would never have occurred, the earth's features would never have been changed, and men would not be suffering from the consequences of others' sins.
What about animal suffering? Romans 8:22 shows the whole world suffers under the curse of man's sin. The innocent suffer for the wrongs of evildoers. Remember, pain is a phenomenon of the brain. Animal brains are less sophisticated than human brains, and have less capacity to feel pain. A crab can eat a smaller crab while it is being devoured by a larger one. This shows that lower forms of life do not feel the pain we would feel. Even atheists acknowledge that suffering is necessary to preserve the balance of nature.
Nature's laws require suffering. Our world is regulated by natural law. The law of gravity which keeps us from flying out into the atmosphere may also cause a bridge to collapse killing dozens of people. Jesus mentioned the tower which fell and killed 18 men (Luke 13:4-5), but noted that those men were not greater sinners than others.
Why could God not intervene and change the law for a moment? This would turn the law system on which nature operates into sheer chaos and life would be a hopeless confusion. Such a system would argue more for atheism than it would for theism.
Honesty compels us to admit that some benefits come from suffering. If we had no capacity for pain, what would we do if our clothes caught on fire? We wouldn't know it until severe damage came to our body tissues. Pain tells us that something is wrong. It oftentimes drives us to seek help whether emotional pain or physical pain. Pain protects.
Suffering helps us to develop noble qualities. How could bravery or patience be learned if there were no adversities? Suffering and evil remind us that this world is not our home. If we were now in a paradise, what motive would we have to live better lives in hopes of eternity? Besides Jesus suffered before a good God.
If just one act of suffering is beneficial, then the atheist’s objection falls like a house of cards.
Conclusion: We may not understand every facet of human suffering. But we can explain enough to show that what the atheist charges about God's existence has little merit. We can also learn from life's adversities.