Facing Reality

 

Of all the challenges to faith, few are greater and have caused more believers to abandon their faith than the problem of evil. How can a loving, powerful God allow so much evil and suffering in the world?

 

We must first recognize that humans cause much---but not all---of it. Because humans exercise a genuine free will, they do terrible and immoral things. Free will is essential if the world is to have meaning. Christians see free will as a gift from God---a gift that brings meaning to life and is essential if humans are to relate meaningfully to God. For humans to truly love God, other humans, or  themselves they must be free to choose or reject that love.

 

Because we are free, we can choose between real options. Because we are sinful, we can choose evil that in principle God could conceivably block. But for God to stop the evil in the world caused by humans, our freedom would have to be removed. God cannot give us free will while at the same time restraining us from evil acts.

 

Then there is natural evil. Volcanoes erupt and bury villages. Tsunamis inundate coastal cities and drown their inhabitants. Children fall off cliffs, Poisonous snakes bite babies. Lethal viruses and bacteria kill great numbers of innocent people every year. Plagues have ravaged human societies, ending the lives of millions of people in calamities of such magnitude they were often interpreted as divine judgments.

 

Both humans and all creation have freedom. Our freedom comes with a moral responsibility to use it properly. But that does not prevent us from doing terrible things. An often used example of evil is the Holocaust. The freedom God gave humans was exercised in the construction of gas chambers at Auschwitz and Dachau. But because humans have freedom, we do not say God created those gas chambers. God is, so to speak, off the hook for that evil. Unless God micromanages human decision making we will often abuse our freedom.