LasVegas wrote on Oct 23rd, 2011 at 5:30pm:For those that believe in God...
Why would He allow this Beast of a Devil to torture us?
I'm losing faith by the hour!!!
Why stop at CHs? The bigger question is: why does God allow suffering and pain? This is a huge question, and perennial to all who believe, and there isn't room here to answer it thoroughly. I will say all believers have to struggle with it sometime, and come up with something that they can live with as an answer. But still, there are a few starting points for us all:
1. What makes us assume the presence of pain and suffering is an argument against a loving God rather than a marker toward a loving God who wishes to alleviate pain and suffering?
2. Why do we assume, given the realities of our material existence, that pain and suffering are necessarily wrong, or evil? Are they not instead indicators of this present reality falling short of the hope we generate for a greater and better future?
3. Who said we would not have pain and suffering in this life? Not the God of Judeo-Christianity. Quite the opposite in fact.
4. And finally, I began to find my own answers to this question by asking, what alternatives did a Creator God have? God could have created a world in which pain and suffering were not possible, which describes roughly a padded cell within which no harm can come, but which does not allow for a free exploration of the world or self. God could have created us without the ability to feel suffering or pain, which is another description of leprosy or a numbness of body and soul, also incapable of feeling joy and pleasure. Or, God could have created us with ability to feel both pain and pleasure, all the while giving us the capacity to aspire for that which is greater and better than our current state.
The third option is the only that makes sense to me. It is actually a bit more sophisticated than in the quick summary above, but that was the best I could do in a thumbnail. In short, we are fallible human beings living in a fallible world, where we receive glimpses of something higher and more noble than we currently know, and which draws us beyond ourselves through hope, for that which we only see partially. Pain and suffering are real and need to be addressed. Hope is real and is the underpinning for our continuing battle against pain and suffering. And every once in awhile, grace breaks through and we not only see more clearly, we are able to live more fully, despite the worst this world can do. Blessings. lance