why does god allow suffering?

Question

the cyclone in bangladesh killed 500000 people . why?

Answer 1

Death comes to different people in different ways at the appointed time. Suffering is for those who survive. If u ve positive thinking and positive attitude in life and belief in prayers (which is simply positive affirmations to urself) then help will come to u from expected and unexpected quarters. Choice is entirely urs.

Answer 2

It's a means to an end. We as human beings are so desperate to think of ourselves as signifigant in the grand scheme of things that we desperately try to explain why God would so willingly let so many die or suffer when it seems so needless. The fact is we live in a vast universe and the planet we inhabit is a living, changing, organisim. People die because people have to die. There wasn't 500,000 evil people who opposed the will of God nor where they all sinners or being punished for sin. The fact is that there where 500,000 people caught in the wrath of a storm that they couldn't escape and died. There will always be storms, landslides, and tsunami's as long as the Earth exists. It's changing everyday just like we as living things do. It's a constat flux. God created us to live and to die and when it's time for that to happen it will. The universe we live in is constantly trying to balance itself. It's what I believe to be the first law of existance. For every natural disaster that kills thousands a new drug will cure a disease that will save thosands, then a new disease will develp and kill thosands more and so on and so on. For every good deed we do, eventually good will come back to us and for every bad deed, eventually bad will come back to us, and yes sometimes bad comes to us first and the good comes later. We can never know why the Universe works the way it does, maybe in a hundred trillion lifetimes, mankind will have evolved into a knowledgeable creature capable of understanding the fabric of the universe, thus we will become gods in our own right and move on to other non-existantces where we will create universe's of our own. The simple answer is...only God knows, all we can do is continue to live and be happy. Help where you can, and strive to be a better overall person.

Answer 3

It is hard to understand why a loving God would allow His children to suffer. I wish I knew the answer. I do know it is in suffering that we learn the most. I also know that God's Word says to trust Him and He will use suffering for good. I don't understand it, but I do trust it.

Answer 4

Seems like this question appears several times a week, literally. *Sigh* here we go again....

The Jews up to 2,000 years ago finally reached an endpoint with this question - it's a mystery so if you have faith just leave it be (Job). Christians have tried to take it further, arguing that pain is necessary for free will to exist, for individual identity to exist, for the development of a person through time, and for joy and pleasure to exist (CS Lewis' book The Problem of Pain, for example).

However, I would make a rather simple suggestion.

ALL metaphors break down eventually. Example - the LORD is my shepherd and I am his sheep, I belong to His flock, etc. But I don't have a wolly coat, I wear pants, I live inside, I have privacy, etc etc.

Well, viewing God as Gigantic Old Man who has intentions and does actions to us is a metaphor (see Metaphorical Theology by Sallie McFague, for example). This metaphor cannot account fully for the existence of suffering, it completely breaks down. However, Hinduism doesn't have this problem despite being a monotheistic religion (ultimately Brahma is the One God). Suffering is mysterious, like Brahma, because it is beyond understanding, literally. There is no creation or end, no sufferng or pleasure is literally brought into being ex nihilo. It is a feature of reality just like pleasure and the spiritiual reality we name God.

And it's existence is complicated. Love, passion, empathy are primarily good because we suffer for them. The pain of seeing another in pain, the pain of losing someone, the pain of desire - these are the fundamental human experiences to which we are all driven. Pain isn't necessarily good or bad by itself. Which is hard to acceot when we are in pain - even jesus cries out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!" from the Cross. And CS Lewis later wrote the mourning journal A Grief Observed after the love of his life died after only a few years together and in it all his high-minded philosophy takes a back seat to rage and agony and WHY?

God is Love. To stay in that metaphor, I think God suffers to, hurts with us. And in our loving responses to the pain of others, I think God still moves.

Answer 5

One of the most-asked questions about God, and the least understood. There is the belief that we choose to our lives beforehand, and know that when we do, suffering will be involved. This is to pay for previous sins, or to grow spiritually. Others just say that it is "mystery". There are times when I really
want to kick God's *** from here to Kingdom come.

Answer 6

This kind of suffering has been on-going since the beginning of man, allegedly because of Adam's inducement to sin. So instead of being coddled by God, now God has humanity learn to survive with the God given gifts of the mind. That country is technically advanced to predict dangerous storms approaching. Blame the government.

Answer 7

Why do you? What have you done lately to prevent it? When was the last time you were responsible for filling a homeless person's belly? God wants us to show love toward our fellows. God wants us to be there for one another. So again, just exactly what have you done? God bless everyone!

Answer 8

Are you sure you have your numbers right? To answer your question, God did NOT cause the cyclone; it was a natural disaster.

Answer 9

if you mean why does god allow suffering of humans then it is because humans have spent there entire existance causing suffering to others for instance animals the enviroment etc.. we are all guilty of somthing.

Answer 10

i love this sentence : if god love someone more than others , suffer him more than others.
you know behind all the things that happen and we call them suffer there is something that we dont know and maybe it is good for us and just god know it and god loves to examin our faith. you know we always say : god i love you and i always worship you, but he should know how honest we are(actually he knows and just want make us understand it) so most of the time he does this with putting us in bad situations because in thiese situations we show our real face.and remember that suffering make our spirit and faith powerful.