EXPLAIN THIS: If God Exists, Why Is There Evil and Suffering?
It’s among the most frequently heard criticisms of Christianity because it appears to present an unsolvable dilemma for anybody trying to understand reality – How can there be a loving, all-powerful God when there is so much evil and suffering?
If God truly exists as a loving being, then why would He allow there to be any evil or suffering anywhere in His creation? And if He is all-powerful, why hasn’t He already destroyed all evil and suffering from existing anywhere in His creation? But He hasn’t done either, so therefore He must not exist, right?
These are reasonable questions to ask, especially given the underlying assumption involved. So, let’s bring it out in the open and examine it to understand the real issues here: How do we know anything at all about evil and suffering, including whether these things are “good” or “bad,” without a defining source beyond both qualities? Put another way, what is the basis for our moral judgements?
Eric Lyons of the Apologetics Press explains in the following 8:16 video:
Because we showed our gratitude to him by turning against his word. So he kicked us out of the Garden. He still cares about us, but we’re the ones who chose to suffer.