At my teenage age, I wanted to write a book titled Why Suffering Persists because I had noticed suffering in the land. I did not understand the real cause of the problem, but I was in between God causing it and man doing it.
Now here I am (an adult) thinking about the question, why does God allow suffering? “Is this something I can write about? Should I wait till old age when I’ve gained the golden knowledge? What if I don’t make it there because of this very problem?” were some of the thoughts that came to mind as I considered delving into this matter.
I’ve decided to make this a public discussion from my soliloquy, and I crave your indulgence to share my thoughts, considering what suffering means and why people suffer, and to address the question, why does God allow suffering in this world?
Previously On Gospel Skeptic: Why Did God Harden Pharaoh’s Heart?
What Is Suffering?
The term suffering is the noun form of the verb suffer. It comes from the Latin words sub and ferre. Sub means from below, while ferre means to bear. Therefore, suffering is something you bear from below. It could be from an affliction, hardship, lack and want, or predicament.
The Greek word for suffering is pathos, which also means experience, feeling, and emotion, as well as something one undergoes. On a broader spectrum, suffering is a painful experience that breeds discomfort, unhappiness, and unpleasantries.
There are different types of suffering, ranging from physical, health, mental, emotional, and psychological suffering, and the like. These types of suffering relate to sentient beings like humans and animals and are interrelated or connected while describing specific kinds of unpleasant conditions and experiences these beings have to bear in their quest for survival.
For instance, an incident causing someone to lose a hand or leg and incur injuries to the body would cause physical suffering to them and affect their health and well-being. The effect of that experience could extend to their mental and psychological state.
Another instance is where people suffer from health-related conditions like disabilities, curable and incurable diseases, communicable and non-communicable diseases, respiratory diseases, and chronic conditions.
Health-related conditions are the most concerning aspect of suffering for sentient beings, as they affect their conscious state, account for most discomfort, unhappiness, and pain, and could lead to their early grave.
We see parents, especially females, go through a lot of mental stress, surgical processes, and physical pain to bring people to being, while they are born to suffer and die, including babies with severe health conditions like cancers of everything and sickle cells, meningitis, malaria, and pneumonia alone accounting for over seven hundred thousand deaths of children each year, with around two thousand deaths daily.
Meanwhile, grown-ups and growing go through depression, different states of anxiety where they feel afraid and worried, maniac conditions and other disorders, STDs, lung diseases, stomach disease, stroke, heart diseases and attacks, cancers, and a lot more than meets the eye. What about the wars, the trauma, and the losses that come with it?
All these experiences put a conscious being in a distressful psychological state and, in some cases, a painful path to death, with an unnecessary delay to relinquish the distress, discomfort, and pain of suffering. It makes me wonder if this isn’t hell enough, why do people experience suffering?
Why Do People Experience Suffering?
Each time I step out of my solitude into the streets of the world, I cannot help but notice the different groups of people moving to and fro. Among them are the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick-looking, the sane and the insane, the satisfied and the hungry, and the living and dying, to mention a few.
While preparing this message, I visited a renowned market in town to get some items for myself; I saw different faces and met differing groups of people, but the images of five people stuck in my mind. They were those driving, those walking, the crippled, a man with one and a half hands, and a mentally disordered woman.
I saw them spending and begging to survive, and often, I wondered what they thought, how they viewed life, and what they desired to achieve with their stay in this world. These are people experiencing suffering and pain, and while we may think the rich or wealthy are more advantaged, they still partake in the suffering. They still fall sick, lack and want, get distressed, become emotionally drained, and struggle with living and losing loved ones. What about me? What about you?
Life meets us where we are with unpleasant experiences that we cannot avoid. Sometimes, we think we could if only we didn’t do this but that. However, we don’t know what life would bring if we did that instead of this and if we would think doing this could have been better than that. But why do we have to go through all this? Yes, why do people experience suffering?
Below are five reasons why people suffer in this world:
1. The disadvantaged life.
2. The crime of existence.
3. The factor of sentience.
4. The desire in man.
5. The consequence of choice.
Many people view suffering as an essential part of our existence; some see it as a utilitarian tool for learning about and growing in this world, while others view it as a pandemic that needs to be eradicated.
While some people, including those who subscribe to religion, present suffering in a good light, it is worth knowing that one thing we’ve learned from suffering is that it is not good. While that could lead to good things, it doesn’t follow that suffering is good. That’s why some advocated that women shouldn’t bear children to avoid bringing them to experience the suffering in this world, and others advocated that humans should go into extinction or the population be maintained to combat suffering in this world.
Whether or not we are, suffering is. The reason is that not only do we experience suffering, but animals do, and perhaps plants and something else out there could. But then, it makes one wonder about the idea of God and the argument for a perfect designer of a world such as this. Therefore, the question, “Why does God allow suffering in this world?” is asked.
Why Does God Allow Suffering?
This is an aspect of the philosophical discussion known as the problem of evil, but it’s not simply about there being evil in the world; it’s about the effect of it on living things, including human beings and animals. Therefore, we have Theodicy, a proposed philosophical concept that explains why God permits evil and suffering. But here is my question: Won’t God allowing suffering mean that God is evil?
I can bet that you’ll find 3 or 5 reasons why God allows suffering in the world, and most of them will be centered around us, the people, and not God, the one who allowed it. More so, as if we caused ourselves to begin with.
For instance, you will get the following reasoning:
- God gave man free will to choose between right and wrong.
- Man freely chose wrong from right.
- Suffering became the result of man’s wrong choice.
Assuming man has free will, those could be valid theodical points to address why there is suffering in the world, but not so much why God allows suffering in the world. Why not? The reason is that both man and the “free will” came from God, who brought them into being, with the knowledge of everything that would be.
God could not have given man free will if God didn’t want there to be suffering in this world. Since they did, they would have an independent reason for creating a world where humans and animals exist to experience suffering and pain. So why does God allow suffering?
I opine that to know why God allows suffering in this world, we must first know if God exists. Assuming we take the affirmative position that God exists, the next step would be to know what this God is made of, what they can or cannot do, what they would or would not do, and what they did or did not do. From there, we can discuss what God intends to do in the future. But do we really know?
I understand that many great minds have wrestled with the question and come to different conclusions that have shaped the positions they assume. However, the most common understanding of the God that exists is one that is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent; that is, a God that is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving.
Granted that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving, the question, “Why does God allow suffering?” stands strong, with more curiosity attached to it. But let me point out that from the story of the fall in Genesis 3, of which comes the three points of reasoning above, there’s a clue that suffering is not the product of the fall or free will.
All you need to do is consider that when God declared the curse on the woman, God promised to increase her pain in childbearing, supposing an already existing, intended pain in childbearing. It’s more like suffering existed in their ignorance in the same way nakedness existed. They needed the knowledge to become aware of what they were into, but God didn’t want them to know (so they increased their suffering), or maybe God did.
So why would God intend suffering and pain despite man’s free will? As I said, there are at least five reasons why God allows suffering, but three reasons seem to stand out for me. They are as follows:
1. For the greater good.
2. For God’s pleasure.
3. For reasons unknown to us.
With the assumption that we know God, I don't think the last reason does much. So let’s deal with the two outstanding reasons.
The Greater Good
In the Bible, you’ll find several occasions where God brought suffering, pain, and destruction upon different groups of people, including the Israelites, for simply committing sin or to show how powerful they are and prove that God alone is God.
A unique case is how the many who suffered much against the few who experienced divine favor (like the story of Noah and the flood) experienced suffering as a figurative pointer to the salvation that God would bring in Christ Jesus and the suffering that would follow for those without Jesus Christ.
Therefore, some speak of the beauty in the idea that God identified with us in Jesus Christ and experienced suffering on the cross. As Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:28 KJV, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Even so, with the greater good comes the greater evil for those who are not “the called according to his purpose.” The liberation doesn't seem to work for everyone who experience unnecessary suffering, but only does who meet a particular standard that God is in control of.
God’s Pleasure
As it is written in the word of God, according to Colossians 1:16-17 KJV, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
Revelation 4:11 KJV says, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
Remember when God gave the accuser approval to delete the seven sons and three daughters of Job to show how meaningless life can be, without regard for the meaning they could have created for themselves, and later produced ten replacements after winning the bet against the accuser, Satan?
How about when God punished David and Bathsheba’s baby, the innocent child begotten in adultery for the sins of their parents? More so that God allowed the baby to suffer unnecessary pain and injustice for seven days before dying, while David sought his face in sorrow, was amazing for God to pleasure themselves. Or what purpose necessitated such consequences coming from Yahweh, a lesson for David, the bringing forth of Solomon, or what?
If that God only promises a world to come where there will be no evil, suffering, and pain, they could take responsibility for this. It’s either they don’t know about the nature of suffering in this world, don’t care about all the people suffering in this world, can’t do much about the situation, or are taking pleasure in seeing people, including pregnant women, babies, children, diseased, disabled, etc., and animals suffer in the world and therefore evil.
I learned there’s a scientific process in progress through biotechnology to mitigate human suffering, and we also have morality and social laws to help manage immoral situations and maintain order in our societies. Is this what God wanted us to do while they sit on their throne somewhere we cannot see and have a good time watching? How many people keep suffering and dying in pain until we figure it out? Well, I think I have an alternative to posit.
The alternative is that God does not exist, or the knowledge of “God” is unknowable. But whether or not you believe that God exists, is good or evil, or whatever concepts of God you create, that alone still doesn’t appear to suffice the problems in the world. It might bring you comfort or a lack thereof. But as reality dawns on us, you should realize that what is, is. My suggestion is that we unite and cooperate, irrespective of our beliefs. In doing so, we might accelerate a progression towards reducing suffering and perhaps a redemption for humankind.
