Giving Credence to the Problem of Evil<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Paul Shelby Lewis
This Memorial Day, I met one of the most fascinating gentlemen I have ever encountered in my life.  He was an English man in his sixties.  Well trained in languages, especially German, he worked as a translator.  While he makes his residence with his family in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Portsmouth, VA, he has traveled to several places along the eastern seaboard, and makes extra income singing at churches.  He was terribly intelligent, and an atheist.  Except, he wasn't an atheist so much as he was a disparager of God.  Whether or not God existed, he did not care; but he had a particular distaste for God if he did exist.  If God was the creator of this world, he "messed up" in colossal fashion. 
Of course, this begged my question of why he felt this way.  He responded with what has become, to me, a familiar line of attack.  How could God allow such needless suffering?  How does a Christian believe in a God who is both omnipotent and omnibenevolent after watching a two-year-old die of AIDS?  To a reasonable observer, it would seem quite evident that God either lacks the good will to intervene in such dreadful circumstances, or he lacks the power to do so.  For my new acquaintance, the bottom line (in language that can be printed on this website) was this:  If God exists, then he does not deserve anybody's worship.Now, I often answer these types of objections by pointing out that the presence of evil actually proves that there must be something good by which we make such comparisons, and that there must be an ultimate Good that we use to differentiate between good and evil which is God.  Such an answer usually works when someone does not believe in God at all.  But things become much more difficult with some one such as this man; he sees the world and everything in it, and hates God for what he has done. 
Far too often, we Christians think that the problems presented by evil and suffering can be solved in a sentence, or a paragraph, or a book, or a library on the subject.  We sprinkle a fairy dust onto the problem in guise of "God's love," wave the magic wand we like to call "Providence," and snap-crackle-pop, the problem is solved.  God has a plan, we tell the widow.  God is in control, the pastor tells the mother who just lost her three children in a car wreck.  What is it about our desire to give and seek consolation that leads us to over-simplified answers to problems that have plagued the most brilliant philosopher's for centuries?
When it comes to the problem of evil and suffering, we are without a solution.  In point of fact, I do not believe we will ever find a solution in this life.  There are too many questions to be answered, each of which opens a door to a host of other problems in and of themselves.  In fact, it seems that whenever someone discovers a viable solution, it is only at the expense of some divine attribute.  The problem of evil would be easy to fix if we gave up God's wisdom, foreknowledge, perfection, love, and so forth.  Some theologians have gone so far as to say that we should "forgive God" for his imperfections in creation.  This, however, is not and should not be an option for the orthodox Christian. 
The sad fact is that, for whatever reason, there is a great deal of what appears to be needless suffering and pain that goes on in this world.  We can talk about sin and the effects of the fall, but that just leads to a hundred other questions that need answering, which each leads to a hundred more questions .  .  .  .  Thankfully, as says Ravi Zacharias, we find resolution in the cross of Christ and in the words of Scripture.  More than that, we find in Christ an example of how to deal with the wounds of others; we suffer with them.  Think about Lazarus.  What did Jesus do when told of Lazarus' death (and when he was blamed for it as well)?  Did He begin a treatise on the perfect plan of God and the effects of man's sin?  Jesus wept, Scripture tells us.  Maybe that's the answer that we need to give to others when they are struggling with the problem of evil.  That doesn't mean we should stop studying, or stop seeking a solution, but lets not con ourselves into believing that it's a simple answer.