Why Does a Good God Allow Evil in the World?

Everyone struggles with this question. Christians, non-Christians, religious, non-religious. Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? Why would God allow such evil to continue? If you want the question posed in the starkest way possible, listen to this interview with renown British actor and prominent atheist Stephen Fry:

It’s a question we all have to wrestle with, especially Christians. Here’s how the popular argument goes: Given the reality of evil and suffering in the world, if God is all-powerful, then God doesn’t care enough about our suffering to stop it. If God is all-loving, then he must want to stop suffering but be unable to do so. And yet the Bible claims that God is both all-loving and all-powerful. You can’t square the two. The way this argument is constructed, you can’t have the God of the Bible and pain and suffering in the world.

And yet Christianity believes that both are realities. We have an all-powerful, all-loving God who created us, and evil and suffering still exists in the world. Why? How can we reconcile these two seemingly contradictory statements?

This subject of pain and suffering will be the subject of several blog posts over the next week. We’ll be discussing these issues tonight at the Conversation and Sunday during my sermon at Mt Vernon Church. If you’re in the area, worship with us, or join us on-line for a livestream of our services (www.mtvchurch.tv).

QUESTION: Why does a good God allow suffering in the world?