Exactly 101 years ago
on 14 April 1912, the Titanic hit an
iceberg on her maiden voyage. More than 1,500 people were brought down with her
into the icy grave at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Where was God?
About 40 years ago,
the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot killed more than 1 million Cambodians in a
misguided attempt to create a classless society. People were executed simply
for knowing a foreign language or wearing glasses. Eight thousand Christians
died. Where was God?
The December 2004 Indian
Ocean earthquake released energy that was 1,500 times that of the Hiroshima
atomic bomb. It caused a tsunami which killed more than 230, 000 people in 14
countries and wiped out entire communities. Where was God?
This month 10 years
ago, SARS claimed the lives of 2 Christian doctors in Singapore. They had been treating
patients infected with the deadly virus. SARS claimed 33 lives in Singapore. The
first SARS victim of Singapore, Esther Mok, survived but not before infecting more
than 100 people. Her father, mother, uncle and her church pastor who prayed
with her in hospital died from SARS. Where was God?
Last Friday, Matthew
Warren, the youngest son of Rick Warren (pastor of Saddleback Church and author
of ‘The Purpose Driven Life’), committed suicide with a gun-shot to the head
"in a momentary wave of despair" at the end of a lifetime struggle
"with mental illness, dark holes of depression and even suicidal
thoughts." 1 Where was God?
One of the arguments
against the existence of the Christian God is the problem of suffering and
evil. The problem was first posed by a Greek philosopher named Epicurus. He was
quoted as saying: Either God wants to
abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want. If he wants to, but
cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God
can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the
world? 2 In other words,
because there is so much suffering and evil in the world, the conclusion is
that an omnipotent and good God does not exist.
However, not many lay
people are aware that both theist and atheist philosophers of religion have
long been in agreement that the poser by Epicurus is false.2,3,4 Logically,
it is plausible for an omnipotent and good God to exist in the presence of evil
if for example, evil is allowed for a reason. The reason may not be comprehensively
definable but our inability to define it does not exclude its reasonableness. The
problem of suffering and evil is no longer considered a valid philosophical
argument against God.
On the contrary, many
philosophers now argue that evil is evidence for the existence of God. The logic of the atheist’s objection to
God is based on a sense of justice - it is not right to cause people to suffer
and die of hunger or oppression. On the other hand, the evolutionary mechanism
of natural selection which operates in the natural world of atheists depends on
death, destruction, and violence of the strong against the weak. Evolution
works on the basis of the survival of the fittest - the strongest survive and
the weakest annihilated. On what basis then, does the atheist judge that the
natural world is unjust? If the natural world with its atoms and molecules
bouncing off one another is all there is, no objective basis for moral
judgement exists for the atheist. So, if the natural world is judged to be unjust,
one will be assuming the reality of some extra-natural (or supernatural)
standard by which to make the judgement. Evil then is an argument for God rather than against God.
All these are good and
well for class room discussions but one must be psychotic to think that such
cold logic can be of any comfort in the midst of suffering and evil. When
suffering and evil strikes, it is intensely personal.
“Why?”“Why me?”
“Is it because of something I did or did not do?”
And when reprieve is not evident, other questions come.
“Maybe he is not a God who cares!”
“Maybe there is no God!”
It is therefore necessary for Christians to establish strong patterns and habits of thoughts (or ‘narratives’ as used in the book The Good & Beautiful God) so that when the hardest questions batter the soul there is less wavering and more faith, joy and hope.5
Our God is not an
angry judge who pats us on the back when we do well and boots us on the butt
when we don’t do so well. He is a good God. His goodness triumphed on the cross
when both love and justice were demonstrated “in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.”(Rom 5:8) When we suffer we look to the cross, to
a Saviour who is able to sympathise with our weaknesses,
because in every respect he has been tempted as we are but yet without sin. (Heb
4:15) The book of Job teaches that there are things we will not comprehend
because we are not God. (Job 38:1-42:6) We may not know what is the answer to why God
allows suffering and evil. But we know what it isn’t. It isn’t because he is
not there. It isn’t because he is not good. It isn’t because he doesn’t care.
2. Meister, C. 2009 “God, Evil and Morality” In God is great, God is good: why belief in God is
responsible & reasonable, ed William L Craig and Chad Meister, 107-118.InterVarsity Press, IL
3. Keller, T. 2008 The reason for God: Belief in an age of skepticism, 22-34.Riverhead Books, NY
4. Howard-Snyder, D. 1999 “God, Evil and Suffering” In Reason for the hope within, ed Michael J
Murray, 76-115.Wm B Eerdmans, MI
5. Carson, D.A. 1990 How long O Lord?:reflections on suffering and evil, InterVarsity Press, Leicester
