help me! problem of evil: how can God allow torture and sufferings?

Question

Now seriously, I love God very much but i cannot answer it. i read in paper that a young girl has been tortured for a long time with very very crucial methods and i feel terrible. pls do not tell me that this is a test or bad karma bcs i know these explanations - if so then how can God create such a cruel test or karma? pls show me one way to not to feel sooo bad about it!

thank you all for taking time and writing such good answers. i am aware of or free will but what i mean is: if i would create a being and give him/her free will, i could still create something which doesnt inculde such big physical and mental pain-i could give them bodies which cannot cause pain- you know, if every detail is created by God and the masterplan has some rules, why ded God set the rules so that there is pain. so my question is above free will, it is about God's plan when it created this whole life.

Answer 1

It is supposed to bother you. You have a conscience. If you do something, anything about the evil, it matters. You may not understand God's purposes in everything. Just remember this is life as you agreed to before you came here.

Answer 2

Yes, that bothers me too. Very much. The best way I can figure it is that people have free will, which means that should they choose to do such a thing, it is their choice but they will pay for it eventually. It could be this life, it could be another. And no, the girl didn't deserve it and no doubt was meant to be here only a short time for a purpose (which may not be at all related to what happened to her) but I also think in the next life she will live a long happy healthy one to make up for that.

Answer 3

Everyday on the TV and the radio not mention all the newspapers you hear about the evil men do. Its terrible what man can do to people.

Common sense should come into play but I see that it does not for the most part. Parent both work. Nobody home with the kids. The kids get into trouble. Its now on the street. Kids run away from home, and it goes on and on. The next thing you hear is some kid gets killed or stolen off the street or worst.

Now is this God's fault? No. We all have been given instructions on how to raise our children in the Word of God. Do we take God's advise. No. We allow the world to dictate to us how to raise our kids and that's how it all starts.

These are not test or as you say karma. This is sick people doing bad things to our children because they can.

Follow the instructions that God gives us in His Word. Trust Him, He'll never let you down.><>

Answer 4

When God allowed us to come to this earth he gave us something called agency... in otherwords free will.... We are to decide for ourselves what path we will follow. That was the reason we were sent to this earth, so that we may learn, grow, and decide for ourselves things we could never do in our heavenly fathers presence. God cannot overtly interfere on earth. If so he would destroy the chance for faith, which is ofcourse belief without proof. It is sad what some must endure, and that there are people out there so sick as to do such terrible things. This is not the fault of God though, it is a fault of man. This is a hard concept to understand but I hope that if you have questions such as these you do as it says in the bible, and asketh it of the lord, and you shalt recieve. I leave you with this in the name of the son, Jesus Christ, Amen

Answer 5

You do not mention your philososhy or religious belief..., but I will tell you that my belief and religion shows and tells that human beings have a (libre-arbitre) freedom of choice... Human beings are often sick and some are totally deranged for many different reasons.... God will not stop all human errors or misconduct..., war would then not exist and we would be little robots deprived of will... therefore deprive of emotions...
Emotions, good and bad, are integral of being human...
If very sick and unbalanced mentally and emotionally, some human beings become satire, savage, serial killers,etc...
It is in human nature to become sick..and sickness will attack the heart, the liver, the nervous system and also the brain as well...
God gave some guidance for human to follow..., but, for example, not to kill... became void and null when you talk of war...
and war goes on.. and people kill others... and so on in the same line of philosophy... to some people what's the difference about killing chidren or half-killing in a big event like Herosima, and torturing a young person?... Why do people shoot innocent people with machine guns? Simply because machine guns exist and one day a sick persons wanted to prove a point....
God is not guilty... He simply leaves freedom to humans to act in the good or, unfortunately, as well in the bad...
Good humans though also created some civil laws to forbid torture and many other crimes, but there is little PREVENTION done in the health department, and the weapons control department.... Many laws upgrades and world pacification is to be done as a constant need... but wars go on, and so...when weapons will be forbidden to be made... who will be able to shoot? How many guns are produced every day? Are they meant only to rust do you think? No... So why are humans creating such destroying objects? They can only destroy...,not build any goodness... I hope the world desarmement will go as far as forbidding machine guns worldwide,etc... This would be at least a small improvement...

Simply try to be a good person... God has given us some liberties, some humans used it wronfully...

Not your fault, not God's will either...

Hope this helps......

Answer 6

God allows humans free will,.....it will be found out why things happened the way they do when judgement day comes,....please do not loose faith....that is what Satan is trying to achieve with you at this very moment so that he can take over on all of your joy....keep your thoughts positive and think about only what you want in your life , not about what you don't want,.....what ever you think about alot feeds the initial thought into reality so becareful on what you manifest into your life, especially when bombarded with scary and sad news of other's lives. Call on Jesus when you are scared and the Holy spirit will come to comfort you if you let it.

Answer 7

What kind of love are you talking about here? You love God very much and yet believe him to be cruel?

If you get to know God better, you will come to learn--clearly--that God is God, and people are people.

You may also come to understand that one of his greatest gifts of love was that of freewill. Because if he didn't give us the option of hating him, our love would mean nothing. And those who commit such atrocities hate everything.

Yet God loves them.

Is unconditional love the work of a cruel God?

May you come to understand how freewill was a gift born of love.

Answer 8

If God didn't allow the devil to do his work, how would the hosts of Heaven see what becomes of satans plan for the universe. Satan wanted to have sin (transgression of God's law) throughout the universe, luckily it is confined to this world.

Don't worry, Jesus will come again soon.

Also this was Jeremiah's prophecy about what happened to all the children ages 2 and under who were killed by Herod in Bethlehem when he tried to kill Jesus. God said these children would be returned.

Jer 31:15 Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
Jer 31:16 Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
Jer 31:17 And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.

Matthew 2:16,17,18

Answer 9

what if you opened your mind just long enough and imagined the following statement to be the truth.what if , children choose not only the parents and family they are born into, but also the body and the life they have...what if even tho all the details of our liefs aren't created prior to our arrival, most of the basic foundation was laid out...not by god or even our creator...and here is the catch, but by no other than our own self's...now don't immediately dismiss this idea, just maybe think it over...after all anything is possible in this world.

Answer 10

I not sure if I can help apeace your troubled heart, but i certainly will try.
Please understand that God does not allow torture and suffering to happen to people. He loves them because they are his creation, his children. But he allows man to choose between good and evil. People inflict suffering to themselves and to others because they choose to do evil part. Torture, murder, war, and even natural disaster can be attributed one way or the other to man's selfish nature, his predisposition to choose evil.
You remember Adam and Eve, the very first parents? When they were in the Garden of Eden, they were innocent until Satan led Eve to sin by eating of the forbidden fruit, then later she made Adam to partake. Before this event they knew no sin. There was no death, no suffering, no desease. They were encapsuled in God's protective sphere. Where there was no conflict, there was no progression. And since they were innocent they cannot also bear children. Man could not be born on the earth. In partaking of the forbidden fruit their eyes were open and they knew good and evil. They lost their innocence. They realized the potentials and capabilities of their own bodies, including child bearing.
But because they have done a sin before God, they became unworthty to stay in His presence and so were cast out into the world. Satan, who tempted Eve, was also cast down to continue to torment and tempt man to do that what is contrary to God's will and compound their suffering. Man now needed to work for his survival having lost the luxury if the Garden of Eden.
The world where man was cast is a world of opposites. Here he will experience pain and pleasure, suffering and wellbeing, health and decease, sorrow and happiness. This is to be his lot. Exposure to these opposited will enable him to develop and grow in intelligence and wisdom.
God, in his infinite compassion towards man, promise that he woulds send a savior in the person of his eldest son to redeem man from his sins which sins separated him from God. Jesus Christ's atonement reconciled man to God so that it became possible for man to return to the presence of God. This atonment gave Jesus Christ power and authority to judge man whether he has done good to the resurrection of the just, or whether he has done evil to the resurrection of the unjust.