Loading...People react lots of different ways when trying to deal with the problem of how there can be so much suffering in a world that is said to be controlled by the almighty God who loves people and wants the best for them. I decided to write my book God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Address our Most Important Question – Why We Suffer (HarperOne, 2008) both because many people don’t realize how many different answers the Bible itself gives (some of them at odds about it) and also because in my judgment lots and lots of people (most?) simply don’t take it seriously enough.
Here’s how I talk about why I think it matters and
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Dr. Ehrman, On October 9th Hurricane Milton slammed directly into my community. I am an Atheist and would qualify as a “Hard Atheist”. Milton (the 3rd storm of this season that I was in path of) has reaped tens of billions in damages across Florida.
Ironically my home came out unscathed. Does this mean that God missed an oportunity to take devine retribution? Why would he reek havoc upon so many likely devout evangelicals and Pentecostals?
The answer as you have so correctly deduced is that there is no devine supernatural entity that interdicts in our lives now or in a make believe heaven.
When we speculate about suffering, we should first of all realize that we (humans) are only a small part of the bigger picture. While we may be unique in our ability to speculate about the reason for its existence, it’s something that is built into the system of our universe. All other organic life is subject to the same physical laws, so humans are not unique from that standpoint. One could argue that we’re not even that special, as we’ve shared the planet with other hominids and other human species until very recently in geological terms. Whatever suffering we experience, they also experienced, and probably to a far greater degree.
As to why our universe is set up the way it is, who knows? As a Platonist philosophically, I tend to believe that the world we experience is only a small part of a much vaster reality. Whether we call these other worlds, universes, or planes of existence, some are perhaps far better than ours, and some perhaps far worse. Either way, the only way to explain our universe’s existence seems to be anthropically if we don’t wish to invoke an intelligent designer.
I much appreciate this topic as it is one that I cry most over. Relatives say that it’s my problem that I am too empathetic. But who could not cry when you stop at a stoplight and there is a man with no legs, filthy, begging who looks at you with a face that must have been handsome or a starving puppy someone threw by the wayside. No, this is not free choice. I and my companion are becoming sick from following the destruction of Gaza. I am so thankful that a view is held such as the one in this article.
A common theme in your writings is that God does not live up to your expectations.
My writings? I’ve never said that or thought it, so far as I’m aware.
Have you ever considered suffering as a type of relativized experience where the sum of all human and animal suffering/pain and happiness/pleasure exist on some kind of scale and within a closed evolutionary system and within time that will eventually (once that system reaches its end) add up to some basically fixed constant? My guess is that it’s a zero sum type of game. I’m thinking microbes and ants and so un upward may have variations from the mean which get progressively further away from zero but with humans it has become hard for us to be able to abstract it given the chaos, our limited perspectives, and our difficulty in even assessing our own localized definitions of baseline. Pecking order and mood, resource abundance/scarcity, environmental carrying capacity, …lots to think about, but it has been my way of grasping it. (PS – who sets universal constants? I’m atheist, but if there are any Deists left maybe they’d like my view!)
For Bart: will you be using the new Westminster Study Bible (NRSVUE) in your classes?
I use the NRSVue translatoin (when I’m not providing my own translation), but not the Westminster Study Bible.
Your thoughts on the RSV, Bart?
It was a great translation in its time, and needed to be updated by the NRSV.
Professor Bart, I have a question. What is your definition of suffering? My definition of suffering is any event that causes a person to experience painful emotions, such as being bitten by a mosquito, which can be considered as minor suffering. The emotions that arise from seeing someone suffer are also suffering. If according to my definition, God is also suffering, constantly seeing a group of people he loves being tormented. And I believe that God’s suffering is ultimate, because he can understand the inner suffering of everyone in the world. I don’t know if any theologians have studied theologism from the proposition that God is suffering.
Yes, it is a common theological view that in Christ, God is suffering with us.
Dear Bart, [excellent excerpt from your book]
This is personal for me. If I understand correctly you don’t believe there’s a God because of an inability to reconcile the idea of a loving omnipotent God, with Him allowing pain, suffering, injustice and evil to exist in the world. In other words; why does He allow so much pain and suffering to be experienced? Serious anguish/suffering, resulting from nothing the person has done; undeserved. This hurts and angers me.
I had a child who died and a wife who betrayed and divorced me, and God did nothing to intervene on my behalf. My oldest son prayed for two years for God to heal his mom, but she died of cancer anyway. What the heck are we praying for then? Where is God when we need him? Trust in the Lord?And we haven’t even mentioned the greater suffering(than mine) that was experienced by billions of people throughout history. Authors publish books like “Disappointment with God” and “Where is God when it hurts”(Yancey) and never give a satisfactory answer(IMO).If I have the ability to help someone I do it. So why doesn’t God. Is He a figment of my imagination?
CONTINUE:
Jesus guaranteed us that we will have tribulation and suffering;we will experience injustices, and be persecuted/hated for following Him(John15:18-21,16:33,also see Olivet Discourse). However, Jesus also guarantees us that there will come a time when there is no more crying, pain, suffering or death(Revelation21:1-7).So why does He let it go on?
In a previous post you said(about cosmological origin and cause)that“some things are unknowable.”
Is it possible there’s something about suffering that we just don’t understand? Should we conclude there is no God then, or that there’s something we don’t know? When Jesus asked,“will you also leave me?” Peter’s response carried a ton of weight and resonates my feelings,“To whom else shall we go to Jesus, you alone have the words of eternal life”(John6:66-68). Can you think of anyone in history who was greater than Jesus or did greater works than him?(Matthew 12:41,42)GOAT.
My prayer is that BDE realizes he is the Prodigal Son spoken of in the parable(Luke15:11-24)and he returns(metanoia)to God. My heart aches, desiring to see him become the modern day Saul of Tarsus, and lead millions to Jesus! An instrument used by God to bring life.
Maybe some day I’ll understand “why” suffering, but today’s not the day.
Thanks for sharing this. Please accept my sincere condolences for our losses.