by Katherine Harms

Created on: August 23, 2007

Omnipresent suffering is one of the more powerful arguments summoned up by atheists and agnostics to attack the very notion that a loving God might exist. Understanding why there is suffering in the world challenges every society, from the aboriginal tribe to the multi-tasking consultant working via i-phone. No sane person would ever try to say that there is no suffering. Yet everyone must find an explanation, because no one passes through this life unscathed.

Whether the problem arises as a philosophical joust, or the agonized cry of a grieving mother, balm for the soul will be offered in several predictable forms. One of the more common options is to suggest that God either allows or instigates suffering because it will help us to grow stronger in some way. According to this mantra, suffering is good for us. If we follow this idea to its logical conclusion, we might even believe that we should be like medieval monks, daily lashing ourselves if life hasn't lashed us adequately for our spiritual well-being.

Another common suggestion is that we simply can't see life from God's perspective. He is weaving our lives on a loom we see only from the back side, where some threads hang loose and the design doesn't make sense. If we could only get up high where God is working, it would all look beautiful. This idea may sound good when a teen-aged boy is not elected class president, but it is hard to sell when the provider for a family of four is killed by a drunk driver.

Many parents of teens find themselves shouting things like, "Well, if you had studied instead of watching 'American Idol', you would not have failed chemistry." In other words, if people make bad choices, then they experience bad consequences. It is rather easy to link poor study habits to academic failure, but when a three-year-old dies at the hands of a pedophile, it is simply not possible to link that child's choices to his unconscionable fate.

Probably the most objectionable justification for human suffering is offered by those who believe that God simply gives people what they deserve for being wicked. The image of a vengeful God is common and vivid in the Old Testament. People who believe that humans are expected to live up to God's standards or suffer the consequences may satisfy themselves with that explanation, but few others will accept it.

The trouble with all these proposed explanations is that they do not take the entire Bible into account. If we want to deal with universal human suffering,

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