If there's a loving God, why does this pain-wracked world groan under so much suffering and evil?
597312
Humans cause the suffering by turning away from god. God \ndoesn't cause the suffering.
723845
All people, christians and non-christians grow old and die and many die from unforeseen circumstances. The reason bad things happen to anyone, is because of God's enemy, Satan the devil. He challenged God's right to rule over the earth and said that humans do not need God and could rule themselves independently without God's help. God is answering Satans challenge by allowing man to try to live without his interference. Satan also said that humans would discontinue serving God if he( Satan and his demons)) were allowed to cause them pain and suffering. There have been and still are many who are proving Satan to be a liar, who love and serve God faithfully, despite whatever persecution Satan brings upon them.\nWhat has been the result of man ruling man without God intervening? Suffering and injustice, wars, crime and hatred. \nGod has promised to soon rid the earth of all those things and to destroy Satan and all who follow him. Satan will lose the challenge and be proved a liar. By remaining faithful to the end, we show that we are on God's side and prefer his rule over man's.  \nWe need a righteous ruler who will be just and merciful. Human rulers can do nothing for us. (Psalm 146:3)\nLook what Psalms 37:9-11 promises us--" For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." \nSoon the meek who inherit this earth will be under one government that will last forever. (See Daniel 2:44) No more will we have to put up with imperfect human rulers who can never bring an end to injustice, crime, terrorism or death itself. God's government will do all that and more.
13610
God is not this vicious being that punishes people by casting them into Hell for their sins. That is a made up tale by religious that wanted to scare the crap out of people into submission. The only Hell that exists is in your concsious when you pass over. Every one of God's children are given the opportunity to go Heaven (or the Light, whatever you want to call it) as long as they can see the errors that they made while on Earth..yes, this even includes some really horrible people (Manson,Hitler). Everyone has a shot at redemption. If people choose not see acknowledge their misdeeds and refuse to go with God, then they are left wandering about in their own self made dillusions and bitterness until the time they are ready to be councelled.
683204
The christian god those people describe is a psychopathic nutcase with pretty much every mental disorder you can name. And probably a few that haven't been named yet.\n\nFortunately, there is no god. Knowing that, I accept birth life and death as simple physical realities.
615507
Logically, people like you are letting children suffer around the world.  Don't try to blame God for your lazy and uncaring heart.
825826
A good question indeed. Why do children die? While asking, why are people born with major disabilities? Why do people constantly suffer in this planet? Why do bad things continue to happen, even though there is suppose to be a loving God? \nThis all depends on your faith. Biblically, God created Adam and Eve in perfection. No diseases, no suffering, etc. They lived in a paradise, with no worries about food and drink. They were told to multiply. So all the newborns afterwards should have enjoyed this fantastic way of life. Unfortunately, because of Satans lies, they disobeyed God, got kicked out of paradaise, would have to toil hard for their fruits, Eve's childbearing pains would increase a hundred fold, and they would "die."  This all came to be true for them. Sure they lived to about 900 years, but they did eventually die. From that point, all their offspring would be imperfect, and be subjected to all forms of misery. \nHere we are today, far from perfect. Our world system is flawed causing great hunger and suffering. Most accidents can be avoided with proper education and direction, but since this is sometimes not practiced, accidents do happen. We still die. \nThe Bible though shows that death is the price we pay for our great sin. Death is also a deep sleep with no memories, no feelings, no concept of time. It's not some netherworld of suffering or delight. In Revelations, God promises a great resurrection of pretty much all those who have died. This resurrection will be in much better conditions, and with new healthy bodies. We will then have 1000 years to reach that state of perfection that God wants. Then we will be tempted by Satan again. Some will follow Satan, even in the best of conditions, and will have to be destroyed for good. The rest will then live in eternity as God had wanted it to begin with. \nSo why go through all this trouble. Supposedly it's to prove to all the angels and people that God's way is the only way. Are we at the last days, I can't really say. Time will tell.\nAnother theory is reincarnation. We came to these bodies to experience life in different ways. We die, then come back later, born again in a new life. Over and over again. Kind of like the movie "the Matrix," were life is like a dream. If you have an accident, get a disease, or are killed, you die and go back to home base, take a break, then come back again when you're ready. Who's to say what's right.
439895
God is all-powerful; he can turn water into wine and cure the blind. Heck, he created the whole universe. So what makes you think he can't change the text of the bible written by the misguided kings, warlords and other misguided beings who wrote the bible? \n\nAnd I love a God who punished people for the slightest sin as depicted in the infallible bible. So much for the all-forgiving God. \n\nThank you God for making us kill the very people who discovered that the glorious earth You created is not flat.\n\nThank you God for condemning me and 20 billions of soul into hell for being misguided by satan you created. I would rather sit in hell then to be in heaven thinking about all the people suffering in hell, esp my loved ones and the people in the jungles of the third world who has not even heard of You or people who were brought up being a jew, muslim, hindu etc. For that reason, even if He does exist and offers me a place in heaven, i'd say no thanks because it wouldn't be much better in heaven either.
879972
Doesn't sound just, does it?  Not that eternal suffering would be a just punishment for anyone, however good or evil they might be.
444431
God doesn't leave people to kill each other, unless they choose to.  God did not make man a robot but a creature who can choose right or wrong.  He doesn't want people to starve but many starving nations do not believe in Him, nor call on Him for intervention.  However, missionaries are going into those places and doing a good work.  Others who are Christians and being tortured are victims of an evil power over them in the form of govt.  They are martyrs for their faith.  Many of us have prayed for our brothers and sisters in Sudan for years and we see our prayers answered.  Other Christians have gone in and rescued those being tortured as slaves by the govt.  They are receiving help.  It doesn't matter where you are born, you can always chose to believe in God.  God knows us even before we are designed in our mother's womb.  I came from a non-christian home but I chose to follow after Him, seek Him, serve Him.  I am not exempt from trials, persecution and sorrows of life but I have divine joy and peace because of the hope He brings me.  It is all a matter of faith.  Either believe or not believe.  I'm one who says there are vast rewards to having faith where there is otherwise total hopelessness.  Press on!
611479
Because life is too hard a thing to deal with without the comforting idea of a higher power.\n\nWhat would be the explanation for suffering?\nWhat would be expected after death?\nWhat would be the sense of existence?\nWhat would moral be based on?\nHow would have everything begun?\n\nToo much for an average human to bear. \n\nThey prefer to deal with fantasies than to deal with reality. \n\nReality: \nSuffer has no explanation. \nLife is neutral. \nYou´re not going anywhere when you die, just fusion with the whole. \nNo one made us: we are just byproducts of the complex mesh that is called universe, and evolution, and natural selection. \nExistence, has no sense at all. \nMoral, will depend only on your sense of good and bad (actually very few atheists -if any- are amorals).\n\nTerrifying, isn´t it?\n\nThat´s why religious people would rather die than accepting the non-existence of their God.\n\nAnd that´s just fine! Childish though, in my point of view...\n\nGood question.
810873
Why is there evil and suffering in the world? \nThe question implies that if a good God exists, then evil shouldn't because God, being all powerful, should stop it. \nWe need to ask and answer two questions. First, what is evil? It is that which is against God. It is anything morally bad or wrong. It is injurious, depraved, wicked. Some acceptable examples might be murder, rape, stealing, lying, and cheating. Second, if we want God to stop evil, do we want Him to stop all evil, or just some of it? In other words, if just some of it, then why? If He were to stop only part of the evil, then we would still be asking the question, "Why is there evil in the world?"\n     Let's suppose that someone was about to commit murder. God would have to stop him, maybe whisper in his ear, or if that didn't work, do something a little more drastic, like have something fall on him, or stop his heart, or make his hands suddenly fall off. Anyway, God would have to do something.\n      What if somebody wanted to steal? God would have to stop him too, right? Undoubtedly, God's imagination would permit a more practical method than I have suggested, but the end results would be the same.\n      What about lying? If someone were to tell a lie, then to be consistent wouldn't you want God right there to stop that person from lying? After all, He couldn't let any evil occur, could He?\n      Let's take it a step further. Suppose someone thought something evil. Then, of course, God would have to step in and prevent him from thinking anything bad at all, right? The end result would be that God could not allow anyone to think freely. Since everyone thinks, and no one thinks only pure thoughts, God would be pretty busy, and we wouldn't be able to think. Anyway, at what point do we stop - at the murder level, stealing level, lying level, or thinking level? As your question implies, if you want God to stop evil, you would have to be consistent and want Him to do it everywhere all the time, not just pick and choose. It wouldn't work.\n      Evil is in this world partly because we give it its place but ultimately because God, in His sovereignty, permits it and keeps it under His control.\n      Then you might say, "Couldn't He just make us perfect and that way we wouldn't sin?" He already did that. He made a perfect angel, Satan, but he sinned. He made a perfect man, Adam, and he sinned. He made a perfect woman, Eve, and she sinned. God knows what He is doing. He made us the way we are for a purpose. We don't fully understand that purpose, but He does. \nGod is sovereign; He has the right to do as He wishes. He has the right to permit evil for accomplishing His ultimate will. How can He do that? Simple, look at the Cross. It was by evil means that men lied and crucified Jesus. Yet God in His infinite wisdom used this evil for good. It was on the Cross that Jesus bore our sins in His body (1 Peter. 2:24) and it is because of the Cross that we can have forgiveness of sins. \nConsider the biblical example of Joseph in the Old Testament. He was sold into slavery by his brothers. Though they meant it for evil, God meant it for good (Gen. 50:20). God is so great that nothing happens without His permission, and in that permission His ultimate plan unfolds. In His plan He is able to use for good what man intends for evil. God is in control.
648343
Yes.  Someone above thinks God is merciful for letting us live -- that is NOT always the case.  Go to the hospitals and see those begging to be set free from their lives of pain and misery.  So, yes, "life" could be more merciful since I'm sure "God" doesn't exist (except in the imagination).
1083392
He sound's like a horrific father if you ask me, an omnipotent and benevolent supernatural being wouldn't do such a thing, would he?  If yes, then who needs god(s)?
175131
one cant, at least THIS one cant.  When something terrible happens and you question gods "wisdom" a religious person will most often come back with god has a plan we just don't know what it is.  Well my point is if there is a god and this god is omnipotent then this god allows all of this terrible stuff to happen.  Now if this god has a plan that lets these things happen FOR WHATEVER REASON then it is not something I would want in my life.  If a person stands idly by and lets pain and suffering befall his fellow man when it is in his/her ability to stop the suffering then they are as much at fault as whatever is causing the suffering.  If a "god" dose the same thing, well its just a perverse sort of thing to put your faith in.
715066
God can touch or heal according to his will, and often does.\nWe cannot know all things as God does - but he never wills harm to anyone, it is not possible for him because of who he is.\nThe reason we have awful things, wars, hunger, poverty, mental illness - is because we chose to rebel against God, to sin, and we live in the consequences of sin - in a broken world. Again, the terrible things of this world are not God's desire or will.\nHe would not create things to harm them - his way is love, forgives, grace, mercy.
79087
God is Loving, God is All-Powerful, and yet He allows suffering.  Since the Fall of Adam, sin and death have been in the world.  Until the new earth (Rev 21:4) when 'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain', it will be so. \n\nAs others mentioned, the climatic picture of His Son's suffering for the elect is a stirring reminder that He controls all things, that God's Son Suffered at the hand of His Father who was pleased to crush Him (Is 53), that God Himself endured the worst pain of all time, and used that public display to define love: 1John4:9-10 'This is love : not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins'.\n\nGod is most glorified when we are most dependent on Him, so He weans us from the many things that displace Him in our lives.  That is love.  Love divine, all loves excelling (hymned Wesley), the romance of Biblical Christianity.\n\nRom 8:28-29  'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.'
683348
I am not a bible scholar, but having been born with depression I cannot tell you how frustrating it is when people try to tell me that I choose to be this way. It is not free will! Society may aggravate it, but it did not create it. \nWhereas it is well known that bad things happen to good people & innocent children & that it is God that allows such things to happen---& that it the most difficult question. Why does God allow suffering? Is it really supposed to make us better people? But that is a whole new debate in itself...