The problem of evil is a main reason some don’t believe in or have a connection with God. If a God is powerful enough to create, surely God could stop at least some evils that obviously serve no good purpose. Some sufferings lead to good. A surgeon may have to break open your chest to save your life. But, what purposes are served when a child is rape or when a dictator tortures and kills millions? Why doesn’t God like any good parent prevent such evils if they can?
Some appeal to mystery when trying to explain why God’s ways are not always moral in our eyes.
By declaring God ways are not our ways, how can we have a relationship with a God we can’t understand with the brain they gave us? If God calls favoritism evil but plays favorites, this plain and simple makes a supposedly loving God evil.
It is suggested God has a reason for everything to protect certain views of God’s power, but there are no good reasons for many evils.
The majority of evil results from the freedom to be kind or cruel toward others and not in the mysterious purposes of God. It may be that God creating freedom necessitated one being able to do as much harm as they could do good. There is not some divine or “greater purpose” in the suffering of innocent people. Freedom, not suffering, was only necessary in God’s eyes.
One byproduct of freedom is that evil can be pointless.
Not all evil makes the world a better place for some. Thinking God is behind every evil, we go searching for the lesson that God is supposedly trying to teach us, but God leaves us clueless what the lesson is. Does that sound like a loving God? God’s love cannot always be controlling because of freedom. If God could have created freedom and always gotten their way, surely God would have exercised such control.
It is true that some personal tragedies lead to helping others who have the same experience in an imperfect world, but many abuses for example only become generational. God’s ways aren’t mysterious but we may not fully understand all the factors involved that God can see and know. It is believed the flap of a butterfly wing in one part of the world can influence weather in another part of the world at some time in the future. God may be able to perform miracles and answer prayers sometimes without compromising all the factors involved in the gift of freedom, which is necessary for authentic relationships.
We often put our trust in some things we don’t fully understand.
I only fly because I have enough trust in the collective intelligence of those who believe in planes. Is it possible that there are rational, moral explanations for how a good and perfect God cannot intervene in so much evil in the world? Do you have enough trust to think God may prevent all the evil possible when not compromising freedom? Are there explanations as to why God’s love often must be influential but not coercive to remain moral? You don’t have to be free of doubts and questions but are you convinced enough to trust God can explain one day to your satisfaction?
What God May Really Be Like - Misbeliefs About God 