Why does God allow so much pain in the world?

Question

Things like wars, famine, Tsunamis, injustice, animal extinction diseases, etc. don't bother him/she/it?

Answer 1

Hello,

(ANS) Most of the pain and suffering in the world is created by human beings against human beings. Apart from natural disasters caused by natural phenomena like earth quakes & Tsunamis.

**Your assuming there is a god? & your assuming a god controls suffering. In my opinion both your assumptions are in error.

No.1 There is no such thing as god, god just doesn't exist.

No.2 As there is no god then there is no super natural source, no one super being that body controls all suffering.

No.3 Suffering is caused by the actions of individual humans one against another or by one person against many.

For example:- the recent shootings that took place in a Shopping Mall in the USA recently when one crazy man shot dead 8 innocent people at random. (one to many, one persons actions inflicts suffering upon many)

**Or acts of violence by many upon many other defenseless people, for example in Darfor were the Janjaweed have murdered thousands of innocent men, women & children over many years. Acts of horror & endless suffering by large numbers of mad people supported by the corrupt Sudanese government. (many to many ).

**The hardest lesson for human beings to realize & fully grasp is that person (every one of us), we each hold the power to be kind, compassionate, to help each other or also the power to inflict dreadful hurt, pain & suffering upon each other. The hardest lesson in my opinion is that "ACTIONS DO HAVE CONSEQUENCES" This sounds so so simple but its a very very difficult lesson to learn deep down inside each of us.

**Religion has in my opinion become a large cause for suffering, religion causes more suffering than it heals or solves.

**Humans argue & murder each other & use religion, including stupid ancient belief systems as an excuse to kill each other. This proves how stupid & irrational humans are & proves how stupid religion is too.

**God & religion invented by humans for humans, god & religion are just human constructs just like time or money are constructs.

Ivan

Atheist & Existentialist.

Answer 2

Free Will. I don't wanna rape anywone, but someone out there does. I don't want to kill anybody, but someone doesn't mind doing it. Is God supposed to go ballistic and zap every evil-doer with thunderbolts? Whose morality would such judgment be based on? Compared to God, we're all f'd up as far as righteousness is concerned. If you've read the Old Testament or at least went to Sunday School as a kid, you'd know he tried that before. Noah and his kin were the best he could find. Not much would stand if he tried that again. An important part of Christianity is to take a conscious stand for people who are being abused, ignored and taking advantage of. God gave us a free will and he's not going to take it back. It's up to us to use it as an instrument to serve him and do what's right. Not just in our personal lives, but also in accordance to serving others and help make this world a bit less messed up. Anyone can complain about things not being right. Few people can show the strength to make a difference. It's a big task, so we're going to need help. That's the part where courage, faith, love, and ultimately, God all come into play. God has given us more power than we realize, but nothing will ever come of it if we sit around asking God 'whys' and 'why nots' while we don't even try to do anything.

Answer 3

There are likely no gods, or at least no divine interference into natural laws and affairs that govern everyone's lives.

I think I read somewhere that 99% of the species that ever existed are now extinct. Humans only came on the scene a few million years ago, and we've been fighting and killing each other to no end until very, very recently (I'd say the past few thousand years, if you call that "nonviolent").

P.S. I don't believe in gods, and I'm not a violent person. Many aspects of the Bible preach violence. Why do some people think converting to their religion will somehow change everything? It didn't work when the Black Death killed 1/4 of Europe's most religious people.

Somehow, I think that being non-violent and supporting beneficial scientific study will help people to live better and with less pain (consider that 50 million people died from Polio in the 20th century), not believing in whatever dogma our ancestors produced.

Answer 4

Do these sound like the words of a God who doesn't care about all the pain and suffering in the world?

Amos 8:4-10 -- Hear this, you who swallow up the needy, And make the poor of the land fail, Saying: "When will the New Moon be past, That we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, That we may trade wheat? Making the ephah small and the shekel large, Falsifying the scales by deceit, That we may buy the poor for silver, And the needy for a pair of sandals-- Even sell the bad wheat?" The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: "Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall the land not tremble for this, And everyone mourn who dwells in it? All of it shall swell like the River, Heave and subside Like the River of Egypt. "And it shall come to pass in that day," says the Lord God, "That I will make the sun go down at noon, And I will darken the earth in broad daylight; I will turn your feasts into mourning, And all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist, And baldness on every head; I will make it like mourning for an only son, And its end like a bitter day.

Revelation 11:18 -- "And the nations were enraged, and [God's] wrath came, and the time came ... to destroy those who destroy the earth."

Do these biblical verses sound like God couldn't be bothered to intervene? But he is patient, not wishing that any should perish

2 Peter 3:9 -- The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.:

He give US time to stop doing the evil to one another.

Malachi 4:1 -- "For behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up," Says the Lord of hosts, "That will leave them neither root nor branch.

Habakkuk 2:3 -- For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

But is your house in such good order that you are ready to stand before God and proclaim that you have not contributed to any of the suffering? That you would hasten its coming?

Revelation 6:17 -- For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

God will put an end to the suffering in the world, by putting an end to those who cause the suffering.

Answer 5

I think you need to distinguish between two types of pain (or "evil") here: natural and human.

Natural evil (i.e. famine, disease, animal extinction) is simply the result of an intricate and complex world following its natural course of action. Unfortunately, some of us find ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time as nature does it's thing. I don't know about you, but when I actually think about it, I'm surprised at how well the whole Earth actually functions as a unit. Given how infinitely complex it is, I'm surprised things aren't more chaotic than they are.

As for human evil (wars, injustice, etc.) we have no one to blame but ourselves. If God wanted to make "perfect" beings he would have to create them without any sort of will. But instead of making automatons, He endowed us with the ability to make decisions for ourselves, whether for good or for ill. It's the natural price we pay for self-autonomy.

So instead of asking God why He allows all this to happen, perhaps we should ask why WE let it happen! As stewards of God's creation we can do as we will with it. The question is, shall we squander the life God gives us by abusing the environment and taking advantage of our fellow man? Or will we take care of the abundance we've been given by providing for victims of natural disasters, speaking out against injustice, and using our God-given brain to figure out how to minimize all forms of "evil?"

I do think God cares about what happens to the Earth and everything in it, but He has given us freedom to live as we choose. In order to be respectful of our autonomy, He has to let us suffer the consequences of poor actions. If He intervened every time we were about to make a mistake would we really have freedom to choose at all?

And besides, the lessons we learn from pain are the ones that make us the strongest. Good can, and often does come from "evil." Moreover, if evil did not exist we would not even realize what good is, for we would not have anything to compare it to. The presence of pain makes us appreciate all that is good and beautiful in the world. I thank God that He let's us experience pain; but I also pray for the day that we as a species will learn to make wiser decisions and reduce the amount of unnecessary pain we have to endure.

Answer 6

God doesn't allow pain, He doesn't exist! Its a construct of humankind.. We create out problems of famine, injustice etc and we have to solve them.
Reasons for our so called 'punishment' from god make no sense either.. For example the classics 'Because your sinners' Then why do Christians and non-Christians get punished alike? Surely only the sinners should.. and If its because people don't believe in him to cause them pain and harm doesn't exactly sound like the 'saviour' who were meant to trust in anyway.. Sounds like someone who's pretty vengeful and annoyed, should we be scared into believing in him 'or else'?

Answer 7

I asked a priest once that same question not that i believe in god or anything like it, i was at a funeral and just said if there is such thing as a god why do desent people die of nasty ailments and scum that mess with children and people that murder get a life of luxury at our expense via the tax payer he replied man is born a free man and finds his own destiny ......... i thought to myself what a cop out answer and a load of bol***ks

Answer 8

J.W's have a good publication that explains this situation.

Its called the "does God Care" brochure.

It explains how Satan is ruining this world of ours and our lives, and until he is eliminated, things will not change.
And only God can do that..
But it has to be in HIS timeframe.

Answer 9

Have no idea why, some say we allow it all to happen rather than God himself. But I cannot understand why we need to suffer so much and still are not able to make any difference, This world is only getting worse, so much pain and sorrow, less friends you could trust ( nowadays we call all colleagues our friends, are they really? ). There is many choices that we tend to make mistakes and do not know the limits, then get confused-is it right or wrong? we are simply lost. God has got nothing to do with it.

Answer 10

Have any of the religious contributors here considered that perhaps the 'wrong' doings in our eyes are the work of god and the 'good' is the work of mankind? Or another aspect - what sort of father just sits back and let a bunch of thugs torture and kill his son?