I think one of the most important questions raised by
atheists or any other non-believers of God is the existence of evil. At points in time, it seems that there is
more evil in the world than good. You
watch the news, and maybe 10% is about the good stuff going on in the
world. If God really exists, why does he
allow all this evil to exist? Why does
he let bad things happen to good people?
If God really existed and loved us, then wouldn’t he make this world
perfect for us? Why can’t he just make everyone
good?
These are all plausible questions to
the existence of God; however I believe that they can be answered. I don’t think that he puts evil on the earth
because he doesn’t love us. I think he
does it because he does love us. Some
may say that doesn’t make sense. If he
loved us, he would want to make us happy, and you can’t be happy with all of
this evil in the world. However, I do
believe that he wants to make us happy, but he isn’t as concerned about
temporal happiness as he is with our eternal happiness. Don’t’ get me wrong, I do think he wants us
to be happy during our lives, but I also believe that He puts these trials
(evil) in front of us so that we can grow and become better; moving us towards
eternal happiness. I believe that everything
happens for a reason. God wouldn’t give
us more than we could handle. I think
that by giving us hardship, he is giving us an opportunity to come to Him, and
rely on Him for help and guidance, which is what he wants. He wants to help us, because he wants us to
succeed. Without hardship, how many
people would forget about Him, even if they were believers to begin with?
Others may question why he lets natural disasters happen and
devastate innumerable amounts of people.
Again, I believe that it serves to make us stronger. It also brings people together, and helps
them love each other more. It also
brings people to action. When certain
events like those happen, people rise to the occasion, and become better people
because of it. Although such events are
devastating, I believe that there is always a higher purpose; one that we may
not understand at this time.
Again, people might say, “well, if
he wants us to be happy, why doesn’t he just make us all good? Then we will all be happy, all of the time”. I think that this idea under minds his whole
plan for us here on the Earth. I believe
that we were put here to learn and to grow.
Life is like a big test. Some
questions (or trials) are going to be harder than others. It’s all a matter of agency or what the book
refers to as our “freedom”. In order to
completely abolish all evil from the earth, he would have to take away our
agency. Without that, our life is
pointless. Without our agency, there is
no growth, no improvement in our lives.
That, to me, would show that he doesn’t love us. It is my belief that God is not only
merciful, but also just. Those who do
wrong will face their due consequences and those who do good will be rewarded
in time. Furthermore, how would we know
the joys of happiness, if we lived without pain? We wouldn’t know joy, if we didn’t also know
sorrow. One cannot exist without the
other.
sorry this is so long, it may also be confusing,i wrote this right after reading your post and havent edited. feel free to ask for clarification.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that a loving God wouldn’t try to bring us into his presence out of fear, pain, sorrow, and the other emotions that come about as a result of the hardships we face. I don’t think God gives us hardships just so that we will remember him; after all he is the one who put us on this earth outside of his presence. There is no doubt that trials can help us remember him but I don’t think that is the sole reason we have them.
The question of natural disaster is also a very valid argument. Usually people respond to the issue of evil with agency. “God lets us choose between good and evil.” The next argument that comes up is invariably natural disasters, which have nothing to do with anyone’s agency. I love the way you approach the issue. Although the first couple points are moot (in that a natural disaster could arguably lead to more suffering than an increased ability love, etcetera) I feel you really hit the nail on the head when you said “I believe that there is always a higher purpose; one that we may not understand at this time.” You basically just quoted scripture that Christians, Jews and Muslims all believe making it extremely valid and relevant as an argument.
As one who can see where you are coming from the points in your last paragraph were very intuitive; you made some good claims that I also personally believe, although they weren’t supported with logical arguments. I’m now intrigued to see if I can formulate any arguments to support the claims that without agency there is no growth, and without sorrow there would be no joy.
I love philosophical reasoning, and just took an introductory class this last semester at byui. Since then I have changed to a philosophy minor.
As you probably have learned in your class; the most common and most important argument that atheists employ is roughly as follows.
1. Suppose that God exists
2. God is all powerful, all knowing, and all loving
3. If God is all knowing he would know that pain and sorrow exist
4. If He is all powerful He would be able to stop pain and suffering
5. If He were all loving He would want to stop pain and suffering
6. But pain and suffering do exist
7. Therefore either God does not exist or, one or more of the first 3 premises are false
I feel that Latter Day Saint doctrine provides a unique solution to this problem which you touched upon in your last paragraph. We cant assume that we know everything about God and his reasoning and purposes. However, it stands to reason that if God is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and yet evil exists, there must be a reason that God allows it to be so. There must be some greater good to be achieved through our experiencing this pain and sorrow.
Also, the LDS belief regarding the preexistence helps with this argument. We believe that before this life we lived with God and that he taught us his plan for us. We believe further that we accepted this plan including the pains and sorrows that we knew we would later have to face in morality. God does not inflict us with anything unpleasant, but rather prepared a way for us to pass through tribulation and profit therefrom. And he did so according to our wills, for we unlike any other Christian religion also believe that there were those who chose not to follow Gods plan and who will not be born into this world to pass the “test” as you called it, or to reap the rewards therefrom.
Arguments regarding the possibility of knowledge are also interesting under the light of religious belief and testimony.
It makes me happy to know that there are others who aren’t afraid to allow the existence of God to be called into question, and who, rather than holding to blind faith, seek to justify their beliefs. I’m taking a course on the philosophy of religion next semester and am really looking forward to it.
Thank you so much for commenting on this. Much of what you said I found very insightful!! At the beginning I didn't mean to say that God gives us trials just so that we will remember him. If I came across that way I apologize. What I was trying to get at is that he wants us to come unto Him. He wants to help us succeed because He loves us and wants us to be able to return to Him.
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