Why people still struggle with the problem of pain
René Breuel. Photo Canva.com
Opinion
To live is to suffer, isn't it? Grief is a fact of life. We often feel lonely, ache, and weep. And we also get angry at the world's pain and ask: How come there is so much suffering in the world?
Many sceptics claim that the existence of evil is proof of God's non-existence.
Many people justify their lack of faith by claiming that there cannot be a good God if there is so much suffering in the world.
Already in antiquity, the Roman poet Lucretius concluded:
“Had God designed the world, it would not be / A world so frail and faulty as we see.”
The classic formulation of this objection was given by the Scottish philosopher David Hume, who wrote: “Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but unable? Then He is impotent. Is He able but unwilling? Then, He is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?"
Or, as Primo Levi, an Italian survivor of Nazi concentration camps during World War II, put it most succinctly: “There is an Auschwitz, so there cannot be a God.”
Without faith in God, we have no basis for considering evil "evil".
The first thing to notice is that the existence of evil seems to dispute the existence of a good God – but presupposes the benevolence of God. We know that good is good and that evil is evil. And we have this sense of justice and morality because we were made in the image of God.
Consider that scenario: Why should we protest injustice if God didn't exist? If we have no sense of absolute goodness deriving from a benevolent Creator, why would violence and cruelty be wrong? Isn't this how humanity has evolved, the strong eating the weak? Evil and cruelty wouldn't be an issue, just a fact of life.
Luminous realm of values
The French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre affirmed that if God does not exist, “We have neither behind us, nor before us in a luminous realm of values, any means of justification or excuse. We are left alone, without excuse.” The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky put it even more succinctly: “If there's no God, all is permitted.”
A Yale University law professor, Arthur Leff, added: “If evil exists, there must be an absolute good for us to judge it as truly evil. On what basis, then, does the atheist judge the natural world as horribly wrong, incorrect, and unjust? The non-believer in God has no good basis for being outraged by injustice, which was the reason for objecting to God in the first place.”
If God didn't exist, why protest the way the world works? We have a deep yearning for justice because a good God created us.
Non-believers must explain the world's goodness.
Those who don't believe in God are confronted with the challenge of why we have an innate sense of justice. Not only that, but they also have to explain the world's goodness, beauty, love and everything else! Why does this world exist instead of nothing? Where does so much goodness and beauty come from? How do we know good is good, and we can't remain indifferent to evil?
Without faith in God, we have no rock-solid basis for calling evil “evil”. Nor will we have a solid basis for fighting against injustice because on what grounds will you tell another person that his or her actions are wrong?
Secularism makes suffering meaningless.
In “Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering,” Timothy Keller examines Stoic, Buddhist, Christian, secular, and karma-based worldviews. He states that no culture has ever so poorly prepared people for suffering as our modern Western societies.
In the past, people saw meaning in suffering: it could purify us, help us grow, or bring us closer to God. Difficult phases could be important chapters of your life. Suffering had meaning.
But today, many people believe there is nothing beyond this world, that the purpose of life is to be happy here, and that when they die, they cease to exist. But then, earthly suffering can't have meaning beyond this world. It is precisely what we want to avoid. We live not to suffer.
Enigma
“In all these worldviews, suffering and evil do not have to triumph,” Keller writes. “If patiently, wisely, and heroically faced, suffering can actually accelerate the journey to our desired destination. It can be an important chapter in our life story and a crucial stage in achieving what we most want in life. However, in the strictly secular view, suffering cannot be a good chapter in your life story – only an interruption. It can't take you home; it can only keep you from the things you most want in life. In short, and in the secular view, suffering always wins”.
Because suffering destroys the earthly happiness for which we live, today, we don't know how to suffer with purpose. We lack grit and resolve. We are shocked by difficulties. We don't know what to do with them.
In my next article, I'll examine the reality of evil and suffering from a Christian perspective. For now, it is safe to conclude they are an enigma for everyone, believers and non-believers alike.
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