if there is a god why so much pain in this world?

Question

starvation, hunger, poverty, malnutrition, heartbreak from relationships, like the one i just got out of and still hurts. why so much suffering?

Answer 1

"freewill" will be your answer. Although that doesn't explain cancer... nothing can except that its a poor design of the human body if there really were an intelligent designer.

Answer 2

that's a very large question and it plagued Job of the bible to no end since he was at the brunt of the receiving end. I wish there was an easy answer but a big component is the human issue....People do bad things sometimes but it is through praying for God's strength that we can get through the tough times. When one doesn't have hope then there is nothing to help them through. The church is God's hands and feet here on earth and the church does much to aid in the relief of hunger, poverty, and malnutrition and offers a family where people suffering from heartbreak can find a support system and a Lord who will never leave them. It took me 10 years to get over my last breakup (we were engaged) but God was with me through the whole thing and during that process has brought me and my x-fiancé much closer together as friends.

Answer 3

God's existence does not imply that God is good, unless you believe in the ontological or Christological arguments for God.

Alternatively, it may be that there's a bigger picture we aren't seeing.

Leibniz said we were living in the best of all possible worlds, but by that he meant the maximum variety for the minimum initial laws, which fails to entail a world which is good in the sense we would recognise the term. For instance, it might be that such a world was some kind of ideal torture chamber.

Some people would cite freewill. However, this suggests that freewill is a greater good than whatever suffering it might cause.

Another suggestion is that the laws of the Universe guarantee the maximum possible good, but still imply suffering, because a different set of laws would result in more suffering, so this is the optimum Universe and it is logically impossible to create a perfect one. The problem with this is that it could be argued that not creating the Universe at all would be better than creating one with suffering in it, but then there is no pleasure either.

Answer 4

Its funny that you ask that because i just had a discussion regarding this very subject with a co-worker today. Its a simple/difficult subject but one that everyone should know the truth about. If u have a Bible, read 1 John 5:19. Its a very telling text and that will give you the basic answer for y its this way.

(The New World Translation reads this way: "For the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.")

Also, James 1:13 says: "With evil things, God cannot be tried."

There is a reason that the world is so crazy and its not that there is no God and its not that he is unloving either.

Answer 5

If God stepped in and changed everything we would criticize Him for being pushy. Instead, He leaves us to our choices. We have starvation, hunger, poverty, malnutrition, and heartbreak in the world because the world rejects Him. For those of us who choose God and go through all that stuff it strengthens us and gives us the ability to understand what others are going through.

Answer 6

non sequitur - how does one imply the other? If you believe in god (it must be a belief, or non-belief, since there is no way to prove the existence of god), then the existence of pain MUST be part of this god's plan. No way around it.

Now does this mean that this god is cruel and indifferent, or does it mean that what humans feel as pain and suffering is just another part of living? I believe a truly universal awareness encompasses all being - joy and sadness, pleasure and pain, are all parts of experience, and only have relevance to a very specific place and time, and only exist as our interpretations of them. In the long run, we are all dust and nothing matters.

Answer 7

Without sufferring how do you suppose people would believe in God?

Take a look why Buddha went away from home when he saw sufferring out of his palace and was so said he seek out a way out of sufferring. Sufferring causes people to do something or anything including creating religions.

Sufferring drives humans to believe and even invent many types of superstitious entities. In hindu they created thousands of Gods. IN Christianity 3 entities with different identities within one whole God. In Islam, One God. In Buddhism, NO god but then some Buddhists invent a God. In Chinese belief, they make humans Gods like Kwan Kung.

In America, they make women witches. Humans are funny but that is what they are. The basic idea here is humans suffer too much pain and only invented God or Gods can satisfy them to continue to exist.

Bottomline is sufferring drives us to get a job to feed out tummies.

Answer 8

Interesting question ! The question comes across most people's minds, at some time or another.
First; we might take a look at the Beginning - the "Adam & Eve" incident - in Eden. After creating the human species, God gave them basic instructions concerning their conduct within the realm of Eden. One of them was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of "good and evil". (For the record, God never forewarned either, Adam nor Eve about Satan - the Devil lurking around Eden.) God was merely, expecting our first parents to disobey Him and listen to their own human reasonings spurred on by the deception of Satan. God knew they would eventually blow it - He was expecting it (after all, God made the first humans and knew what made them tick.) The problem was, that both, Adam and Eve didn't have a clue about their proclivity or tendency towards sin, inherent within all humans. In other words, God made us to NEED Him and we have to come to this same conclusion ourselves - just like our Greatest Grandparents had ! We all know the rest of the story, Adam & Eve ultimately told God to get lost and to mind His own business ... so God did. God had them thrown out of Eden, to live their lives as they chose - you know, with all the pain and suffering (very much like we have today). God has a plan in mind. He had this plan in mind long before even, creating the human species. This plan is for the ultimate return of His Son, Jesus Christ, to return to this earth a second time and to save us all from the brink of utter destruction and eradication of human life. Prior to this, we humans have to eat of the fruits of our ways, to come to see that we aren't God and that we NEED a relationship with our Creator ! That is precisely why, we have a current world of pain and suffering - there is no other way for us to get the message. Our future under God will be a world of plenty, no more war, peace, and total love and regard for one other! It is all a matter of time, now - how much time ... I cannot say - only God knows !

Answer 9

(1 John 5:19-20) 19 We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the [power of the] wicked one. 20 But we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us intellectual capacity that we may gain the knowledge of the true one. And we are in union with the true one, by means of his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and life everlasting. . .

There will be a time soon that man's suffering will end.
Revelation 21:3,4

Answer 10

Pain is part of existence...it's a condition of existing in a physical body, interacting with others.

God is good at working with us to deal with the pain. But by the rules of the game, God can't change the game.

Answer 11

God created this world not to create harm. It was for a reason. If u went up to someone and shot them ur gonna go to jail...thats a punishment. But u also learn from ur mistakes. That's what God intends for us to do. The only way for us to learn at times is to suffer. Dont ever doubt his reasons. Whatever it is ur going through is for a reason, whether it be that u will get a much better relationship or w/e only God knows. But He will help.