Posted by
Josh Kon on Friday, March 06, 2009 12:16:02 PM
Among
the many discussions about God's existence, one point appears to strike
a cord with both atheists and theists alike. That is, if there is a
God, He apparently allows an inordinate amount of pain and suffering to
exist. Indeed, taking into account the horrors many humans face, it
seems that when arguing that God exists, a theist is on the
defensive from the get go. Without getting into the many arguments
that aptly respond to this issue, one commonly raised -- and ultimately sophistic -- point
must be exposed.
Simply
put, the immeasurable suffering many people endure says absolutely
nothing about God's existence. It merely says something about His
potential nature. That the good suffer only argues that God may not be
the benevolent God some believe him to be. Yet, most atheists posit this point to somehow argue that it establishes a lack of God
altogether. Maybe God is just a petty tyrant, looking down laughing at
the tribulation many people must endure. He still exists, and for some,
must exist to explain the otherwise unexplainable complexity we find
in this world.
Now, of course, such a God would seem to in many ways fall short of his
oppressive goals. As it happens, many people have lives, or
even mere moments, of immense meaning and happiness. Why would a diabolical tyrant allow for any pleasure? All the same, one must
acknowledge that the profound hardships of many argues
persuasively that God is not the type of being many people might think
him to be; however, we must also acknowledge that human suffering says
nothing about whether He in fact is.