Can God allow innocent human suffering?

Question

I have to introduce this topic for my ethics class and I need the most logical and least emotive responses (base your responses on clear logic and not faith alone).

Answer 1

This is a manifestation of the classic 'problem of evil'. It would seem that an entity who was 'all-good' and 'all-powerful' would be bound to prevent evil and suffering wherever it occurs. So because there IS evil and suffering, it would suggest that maybe there is no such entity. There are lots of ways out of this conundrum, however.

The first I call the 'greater good' solution. Sometimes, as we all know, small suffering leads to a greater good. If you have a splinter in your skin it may hurt to pull it out, but if you don't it could hurt far more if you leave it in and an infection occurs. Likewise, a parent sometimes allows their children to harm themselves that they might learn to NOT harm themselves in the future. So it is easily arguable that almost any amount of suffering and evil is tolerable if it helps prevent even greater suffering and evil.

Another classic solution is the 'free will' solution. In this variant, an exceptionally high value is placed on this supposed commodity. And since humans are helpless to defend themselves from whatever an omnipotent being may choose to do, almost any action by that being subjects them to its will and limits their own. This, therefore, might be viewed as an evil itself, and one that an all-good being would be unable to perform.

Another solution is the 'promise' solution. God allows suffering because it promised not to interfere. Presumably even all-good entities can keep their word, especially if they're all-powerful as well. A good person who is bamboozled into being less than perfectly good because of such an agreement is not any less good, just perhaps a person who made a mistake. Who God might have made such a promise to and when is more a matter of individual theology than logic.

My favorite solution is the 'redefining God' one. The problem of evil is only really a problem if God is BOTH all-good AND all-powerful. All you have to do is allow that one of those qualities is not there, and then God can be indifferent to problems or unable to stop them. Given the vast number of things which might be meant by the term 'god', you are arguably not even making God any less divine by doing so.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your introduction!

Answer 2

God springs forth from the primitive limbic system of your brain, the last remnants of your reptillion past. The area where our raw emotions reside, including the irrational belief systems.

The 'religious' experience is triggered by deep depression, starvation, near death, or other highly charged situations. The 'born-again' christian phenomena has a scientific basis....yes, your limbic system. Why has man evolved this mechanism you might ask? Simple...it was a survival mechanism of our cave man ancestors to cope with a hostile and unknown universe.

The cerebral cortex is a more recent development. Here is where our rational and logical thought processes take place. It is here that the atheists have found their basis in reality.

In reality, there is no sentient, omnipresent, omnipotent supernatural being, supernatural entity or force....therefore all the inequities and misery of the world will always persist, some will have good things happen to them and some not, some will blame the invisible entity but objective reality wins all the time....no matter how hard some try to get that limbic brain of theirs to work...sorry

And why does bad things happen to good people all the time? When the tectonic plates crash into each other causing human calamity, they don't worry about Karma, good and bad, evil and riteousness. Life's paths are made up of randon circumstances, some predictable and some not. Most religious people will state that god has a 'bigger' plan for them and humans in general, that we can't know the 'big picture.' Most say there can't be good unless we know or experience the depths of evil.

Is it fair to have predation, disease, deformities, child rape, parasites and evil in the world? If the answer is yes, then with god(s) like that, who need them?

Answer 3

If you want to be technical about it, then yes God can allow innocent human suffering. After all, if he created the heavens and the earth and such then He pretty much has enough power that whatever He says goes. If on the other hand, you mean can an benevolent God allow innocent human suffering than the answer is also yes. If God only knows what his plan is, then any suffering that even the most innocent of people endure could be apart of His plan (although if this is the case, then how can we prosecute murderers & rapists, I mean how do we know that their acts aren't a part of God's plan as well and if this is true then shouldn't we applaud the efforts of such people?)

Answer 4

If can accept the idea that God placed us here to learn and allows any situation that can facilitate this learning process then suffering can not logically ruled out.

The easier parts of our life lull us into a state of complacency. Adversity snaps us into attention; it forces us to pay attention. It is within these times of adversity that the greatest potential for advancement is available to us.

If you believe that God exists, and see God in the conventional way as a spirit. Then it is not difficult to accept that Gods reality or the creative reality that we came from is the true or primary reality. This temporal reality where we come to learn can be thought of as a sort of a secondary reality.

One of these realities can be thought of as real, while the other is contrived or illusory and exists only for the learning opportunities that it can provide. It is illogical to assume that the base reality, the one that God creates from is anything but the primary or true reality. This leaves the physical reality or secondary reality as the only likely choice as the secondary or contrived illusory reality.

Consequently we can assume logically that what exists in the primary reality is real while that which exists in the secondary reality is more likely to be a part of the contrived learning process. Therefore any suffering that occurs outside of the primary reality is likely to be little more than illusory in nature even though it seems to be real and an actual part of the secondary reality.

So we can conclude that God allows this innocent suffering to happen but only within the context of the illusory secondary reality. So in essence it never really happens at all.

Answer 5

There is no logical explanation for it. The best I can do is tell you that it is justified because God does so to make this world seem like a test. If there was no suffering and no evil, you wouldn't have an option of choosing between evil or good (you would only have good), and then you would not be able to get rewarded (because you didn't choose anything).

Answer 6

Yes, Human suffering is brought about by Human Experience and the interpretation of it.
Buddha once said that "the root of Human Suffering was Human desire".
In odd way God allows Human suffering as a tool for growth, and to develop self reliance.

Answer 7

human suffering is a part of the free will that god gave us. you can choose to believe or not believe in god. A better question might be is why does man let his fellow man suffer when the Scripture say Charity starts at home. human suffering is not gods will it is a man made. the have and the have not's. if everybody what they wanted there would be no business and therefore no will to improve and make the stride forward that we have.

Answer 8

Yes, especially if the parents of the innocent human worships graven image

See the 2nd Commandment:

You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I The Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me

Answer 9

If the individual suffering is for the greater good (and not just in the "here and now" -- for the future good as well), then God could certainly allow it.

Example:
What if so many children had not died horribly from rabies, in the sight of Louis Pasteur? Would he have invented the rabies vaccine?

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Answer 10

the bible describes god as an omnipotent and benevolent deity, but there could be a contradictory.the contradiction is pain. man's starvation,war,sickness...terrible things happen in this world. human tragedy seems like a proof that god coudn't possibly be both powerfull and well-meaning.if he loves us and has the power to change our situation,he would prevent our pain wouldn't he?...if you are a parent.and your 8-year old son wants to skateboard,would you let him?(if you love him, you probably will..;-p) so you would give him some basic good advice and then let him go off and make his own mistakes...but what if he fell and skinned his knee? then as a parent you'd tell him to be more carefull right? so although you have the POWER to interfere and prevent your child's pain, you would choose to show your LOVE by letting him learn his own lessons...because pain is part of growing up...it's how we learn...