I’ve written a new essay on the problem of evil, and here’s the teaser:
Since this letter is a bit long, I’m going to repeat myself just so there’s no confusion about what the point is. The only point I have to make in this letter is that I’ve never been able to think the following thought: “An all powerful God who loves us all might well have allowed a five-year-old girl to be raped, beaten, and strangled to death,” and that I honestly can’t begin to understand how anyone could think it, though apparently some do. The rest of the letter will provide an indirect sort of explanation as to why.
I’ve made it available via Google Docs here. Enjoy.
Shalom, Chris: I’ve read through the letter and the God you’re speaking about is a nebulous non-person. I believe in God despite horrible things that happen to lovely people. You haven’t yet shown that God has anything to do with those things; only that he should have stopped them from happening. My father was a Holocaust survivor and I lost most of my extended family in circumstances quite as horrific as those you describe. Why didn’t God stop them from happening? For the same reason that I might get killed by any number of individuals who would think it a fine thing to kill a Jewish person. But does that negate my personal relationship with God?
Would my death by any means negate the joy, peace and love which I have experienced in my relationship with Yeshua the Messiah through the Ruach ha Kodesh–the Holy Spirit? No. Am I quite capable of evil, despite all that I have experienced? Yes. Am I responsible for not doing more for my neighbor? Yes. Do I know why the God with whom I have a supernatural relationship has allowed things which don’t make sense to me? No. Am I capable of knowing those things? I doubt it. I have found in my faith life that I am inconsistent, doubtful, harmful to my own self interests and occasionally harmful to others. Now, if you can find me a brilliant, perfect, self-content individual who has been the best possible neighbor to all, has lived with a complete and utter dedication to good, then I will believe that such a person exists. That might be something to prove that genuine altruism exists in the same heart as atheism. Sadly, most atheists are curmudgeons. I know. I used to be one. Especially when I was a philosophy student. I wish you well, and as for that incredible maze of endless speculation which you have obviously spent so much time constructing, well, it’s yours. I prefer a freer heart; one that is open to knowing a greater intelligence–one that did not stop me from disbelieving, but opened a way so that I could find life. To be honest, I don’t think I even knew what life was before I knew God. I barely know it now. You look like a nice young man. Maybe you’ll change. It’s in your hands.
Warmly, Ben
This very same query is the subject of the book, The Shack, a huge Christian bestseller. Obviously hundreds of thousands of readers have felt this question has already been answered.
Hi, I am in that minority who doesn’t ask God why He let’s bad things happen. For sure, the thought HAS crossed my mind (after all, I WAS “living in darkness” at one time). I have come to the realization that I cannot figure out what makes God “tick”. That I cannot put Him in a box and explain Him. That, no matter how fervently I ask Him, He has the prerogative to keep His wisdom from me. I believe in Him by the faith He has allowed me to express.
Your example of the little girl is truly heart-breaking, but, if one looks at the problem of evil, one has to come to the conclusion that “evil” takes on many forms, and many shades of “evilness”.
Evil, in my view, is anything “bad”. From the examples you give, to someone telling a “little white lie”. I will grant you there is no comparison between the two if you’re looking at “degrees” of evilness. If you think about it, someone telling a little white lie shows a weakness of moral character that has to be dealt with, just as the commission of a horrible crime shows a weakness of moral character that has to be dealt with.
If you’re primarily looking for a “rational” answer to the problem of evil, good luck to you. I you want to know why God allows evil, I wish you even more luck. That is dealing with God’s supernatural nature. Keep trying.