Why Does God Allow Suffering Essay example

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Why Does God allow suffering? This question is probably as old as religion itself. It is a stumbling block for some of us, and for many more at given moments of tragedy. There are as many answers to this question as there are people who care to engage in theological dialogue. One understanding is that yes, God allows "bad" things to happen; God does not cause them to happen.
Most "bad" things which happen do so because God gives a radical freedom to God's people; we are free people, not puppets on a string. But God does not cause "bad" things to happen. God loves us and grieves with us in our pain when "bad things" happen.
Therefore, we might best respond by saying that God does not Will "bad" things to happen in life. Rather, "bad" …show more content…
I. The Problem of evil stated
Traditional Statement --Atheists and others usually state the problem of evil in the form of a dilemma:
If God is perfectly loving, He must wish to abolish evil
If He is all powerful, He must be able to abolish evil
But evil exists
-- The problem is, if you affirm two of these facts, you cannot affirm the third.
Therefore, an all powerful, loving God does not exist.
Second Formulation
God is the author of everything.
Evil is something.
Therefore God is the author of evil.
Third Formulation
God made everything perfect.
Imperfection cannot come from perfection.
Therefore perfectly created beings cannot be the origin of evil.
Therefore God must be the origin.
Attack Based on the Persistence of Evil
If God is all good, He would destroy evil.
If God is all-powerful, He could destroy evil.
But evil is not destroyed.
Hence, there is no such God.
II. Christian Responses
Christians should learn to state the free-will defense against the problem of evil quickly and clearly.
Alvin Plantinga's Free Will Defense (Alvin Plantinga, God and Other Minds- A Study of Rational Justification of Belief in God. (Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press, 1967)
Free will is of moral value. That is, a world with free will is better than one without it.
It is a contradiction to say that God brings it about that humans freely will only the good { vs J.S. Findlay who claims that this is possilbe}
God must bring about the
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