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God's  Existence: Suffering

 

Argument against God’s existence:

Does not the fact that innocent children suffer and die prove that there is no all powerful and all good God, because if he did exist would he not surely prevent this?

 

Christian Response:

One way of disproving the erroneous reasoning above is to start with the assumption that it is true and then show the logical consequences that would follow.  Since, the consequences do not in fact exist, it then follows that the original premise is false. 

If there is no God and if everything is the result of pure chance and unplanned circumstance then there is no divine authority to draw the line to define this is right or that is wrong.  There would be no absolute values of goodness.  Every action could be reduced to being only a matter of opinion or preference.  One being may have the power to enforce his arbitrary standards upon the community, but since there would be no inherent authority, there would be no objective Law by which his standards could be judged as right or wrong. 

Conversely, if we can intuitively perceive that some things that are unjust or that there are some things that are so heinous or so cruel that they are unquestionably and absolutely wrong this would prove the existence of absolute truths and values in the world.  This can only be if the world has being structured, ordered, designed, and created according to these truths.  The world would have to have a Creator because mere chance has no values. 

The fact that we know that there is something wrong about the suffering of innocent children points to a definitive truth about justice, and that our world has been ordered, designed, and created according to that truth by a supremely Just God. 

Getting back to the original problem of innocent people suffering only proves that there are some things hard to understand and that there are some things greater than our limited intellect.  It doesn’t disprove God existence just because we don’t understand it. 

Knowledge of our supremely Just and Infinitely Merciful God gives us reason to hope.

“We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28.  There is a goodness to be attained in the life hereafter that is so good that it makes all the suffering here on earth worth enduring.

 

Also see
What the Bible teaches about suffering ?

 

 

 


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