Why is There Evil and Suffering in the World?

At our previous life group study, we discussed the "problem of evil" as it is popularly called, or "why is there evil and suffering in the world?" Some other ways to ask this question are, "why do bad things happen to good people?" or "if God is all-powerful, and all-loving, why is there evil in the world?" Anyways, this is a common question for a lot of people and it definitely prevents some people from believing in the existence of a good God.

Our group decided that it is possible for evil and suffering and a good God to exist at the same time. The reason for this is that God created us with free will and this free will gives us the ability to choose if we will do good or evil. God created us with free will because he wants us to be able to love Him and each other. If we don't have free will then we can not truly love. Just imagine if God created us with only the ability to do good and not evil. If this were the case, we would all essentially be robots under his control. If He did make us as robots that were forced to love Him, then it wouldn't really be love, would it? Love does not mean anything if it is our only choice. It only means something if we have the ability to choose to love or not to love and we choose to love.

"Well," you might ask, "what if God created us with free will, but then whenever anybody was going to do something evil, He would intervene and stop them?" Our group decided that if God created a world like this then we wouldn't really have free will. If He stopped us from committing any evils then we wouldn't really have a choice to do evil or good, we would only have one choice.

Another question that was raised in the book we are reading through was, "Is free will worth the possibility of such great suffering?" Well, let's think about this. We already decided that in order for love to be possible, evil must also be possible. Therefore, if great love is possible there must also be the possibility of great evil. This can then lead us to conclude that the amount of love possible can only be proportional to the amount of evil that is also possible. This is the nature of love. But yes, love is risky. Anyone who has given their heart to another person knows this. That person then has power over your heart to give you great joy, or conversely to cause great pain. So is it worth it? What do you think? If you have ever been hurt by somebody, did this cause you to stop loving anybody? Or did you eventually decide to try giving your heart again to someone else? Most of us will choose to try to find love again because of the transcendent joy that come with finding true love. Love is what makes life worth living. What would life be like without any love? What if there was no love or evil in the world, what kind of life would that be?

God took the greatest risk when he created this world because he has the greatest investment in it. His heart breaks every time that anyone in his creation is hurt or lonely. His heart cries when he sees the helpless being downtrodden. He mourns every injustice that takes place and He sees everything that happens. His heart also breaks every time we reject Him and his laws that are designed for our own good. The amount of His risk is best seen in the event of sending his own son to earth to die on a cross in order to save humanity from evil.

Another good response to this argument that I like is the one that Ravi Zacharias uses: The skeptic claims that the existence of evil and suffering proves that God does not exist. However, when you say that evil exists, you are also admitting that good exists. And if good exists then there must be a moral law. And if there is a moral law then there must be a moral law giver. Therefore, the existence of evil doesn't disprove the existence of God, but in fact proves that He does exist.