Why does a good God promote suffering?

[Calidore]

Isaiah 45:7

This "benevolent" god boasts of creating all evil.

I suppose that depends on the translation and the reader's interpretation thereof. It reads to me more like an affirmation of all-encompassing power than simply a boast of creating evil.

For reference, Isaiah 45:7 (NET Bible translation):

I am the one who forms light
and creates darkness;14
the one who brings about peace
and creates calamity.15

Notes:

14tn On the surface v. 7a appears to describe God’s sovereign control over the cycle of day and night, but the following statement suggests that “light” and “darkness” symbolize “deliverance” and “judgment.”

15sn This verses affirms that God is ultimately sovereign over his world, including mankind and nations. In accordance with his sovereign will, he can cause wars to cease and peace to predominate (as he was about to do for his exiled people through Cyrus), or he can bring disaster and judgment on nations (as he was about to do to Babylon through Cyrus).

[Jassy Melson]

Deleted by Jassy Melson

[Jassy Melson]

That's a question I have posed to some of the delusional apologists on this forum before but none seem to have any real answers. All they ever say is, the great god is ever so good that anyone who has suffered will soon realize how good the SOB really is. Dunno how that will benefit the aborted fetus but, somehow, people still cling on to their delusions.

Hitler's quote shows that it's a maniac speaking; not God.

[caddy_caddy]

I don't know,actually there is too much suffering in life but I don't think He is sadistic. He is not happy for our suffering .
From my own experience, I've learnet not to judge any happening or event in the right moment . I've learnet to give it time . It's only with the passage of time that we can discover the right nature of things. When I review the chain of events in my previous life I discover that what seems to me at a very specific moment something so bad, too much suffering, unfairness or injustice, was the cause of sth good. In the chain " cause -effect " of our life, something bad, as suffering (cause)might have a good ( effect ).In this respect suffering might not always be sth bad. Suffering has to do a lot with creativity for instance. Great persons have suffered a great deal in their life. On the other hand , no one can deny that suffering might be so destructive. Here I remember one saying for ' Ibrahim Alzenedy :" Pain is the tool for anger or sublimation, and it's up to you to decide which one to choose"
Regards

[Redzeppelin]

Most attacks against God's goodness come in the form of this rather simplistic idea: "God is good, therefore nothing bad should ever happen to me or anybody else." That idea reveals a number of important things:
1. The individual speaking it has never really read the entire Bible, and if s/he did, s/he didn't understand it very well.
2. The individual speaking it doesn't understand that you can't "have it both ways" in this world. We can't all have free will and then have a God that steps in to thwart all attempts by others to freely use their will in harmful ways.
3. If God isn't good, then He must be something else (which means "bad," "selfish," "malicious," "evil," etc). If this is so, and God is not good, then why would he suffer to allow anybody criticizing Him to continue to exist? If God is not good, then neither is he Just (since we would assume that justice and goodness go together) - and if God is not just, then what "law" of fairness requires Him to allow scoffers to attack and mock Him? Only a good God would allow those who misunderstand Him to malign Him and speak ill of Him.

Interestingly enough, most who attack God fail to either realize, or acknowledge these realities.

[cafolini]

Most attacks against God's goodness come in the form of this rather simplistic idea: "God is good, therefore nothing bad should ever happen to me or anybody else." That idea reveals a number of important things:
1. The individual speaking it has never really read the entire Bible, and if s/he did, s/he didn't understand it very well.
2. The individual speaking it doesn't understand that you can't "have it both ways" in this world. We can't all have free will and then have a God that steps in to thwart all attempts by others to freely use their will in harmful ways.
3. If God isn't good, then He must be something else (which means "bad," "selfish," "malicious," "evil," etc). If this is so, and God is not good, then why would he suffer to allow anybody criticizing Him to continue to exist? If God is not good, then neither is he Just (since we would assume that justice and goodness go together) - and if God is not just, then what "law" of fairness requires Him to allow scoffers to attack and mock Him? Only a good God would allow those who misunderstand Him to malign Him and speak ill of Him.

Interestingly enough, most who attack God fail to either realize, or acknowledge these realities.

You are making a moral judgement. It's simpler, much simpler than that. There are millions of fools for whom God provides, as they like it.

[Redzeppelin]

I'm hard-pressed to see how my statements are "moral judgments." Number 1 deals with the reality that any judgment upon God should be based upon our knowledge of Him. That knowledge comes from the Bible. Without reading that book and understanding it, any judgment made of God's goodness is merely uninformed opinion. If we're going to judge Him, we ought to know what we're told about Him. Number 2 deals with logic: you cannot have free will in a universe where evil behaviors are forbidden. That's pretty obvious on the face of it. We can't argue for free will and then criticize God when He isn't selective about who gets the freedom to choose his/her behaviors. Number 3 deals with logic as well. People like to say that God is evil, and yet an evil being has no need to be fair, just, or tolerant of those who attack Him, so if God is bad, why does He continue to allow those who malign Him to live?

You're pretty quick to call people fools, but you didn't deal with any of my points in the least. You categorized them, said "it's simpler than that" (without bothering to explain yourself), and then denigrated believers. Is that all you've got in response?

[Anton Hermes]

This is a real problem faced by religious people who believe in a conventional, active God who rewards and punishes. The whole matter of theodicy is a significant part of Western religious philosophy. But there's no real solution. The Book of Job in effect admits that there's no rhyme or reason to the way God permits suffering; the only explanation Job receives from the Almighty is that it's presumptuous to even ask.

I see this as the dilemma of attributing moral meaning to events or natural phenomena. Does it trivialize people's suffering more when we assert that there's no grand reason for it, or when we dismiss it as being all part of the Almighty's inscrutable plan?

[ralfyman]

Try books like Hall's God and Human Suffering.

[cafolini]

I'm hard-pressed to see how my statements are "moral judgments." Number 1 deals with the reality that any judgment upon God should be based upon our knowledge of Him. That knowledge comes from the Bible. Without reading that book and understanding it, any judgment made of God's goodness is merely uninformed opinion. If we're going to judge Him, we ought to know what we're told about Him. Number 2 deals with logic: you cannot have free will in a universe where evil behaviors are forbidden. That's pretty obvious on the face of it. We can't argue for free will and then criticize God when He isn't selective about who gets the freedom to choose his/her behaviors. Number 3 deals with logic as well. People like to say that God is evil, and yet an evil being has no need to be fair, just, or tolerant of those who attack Him, so if God is bad, why does He continue to allow those who malign Him to live?

You're pretty quick to call people fools, but you didn't deal with any of my points in the least. You categorized them, said "it's simpler than that" (without bothering to explain yourself), and then denigrated believers. Is that all you've got in response?

The last thing I'd do is entangle with explaining to your foolisness. Your stuff is inconsequential.

[Volya]

If there is a benevolent god out there then why the hell does he allow something like this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti..._campaign=1490

The simple answer is that if there IS a god, he sure as heck isn't a nice one.

[ennison]

Anyone can snap. Having easy access to guns that have no purpose than killing people is the fault not of any god or God but of yourselves. Who are you all afraid of?

[chrisiacovetti]

As far as human actions go, it seems a little bit overzealous to immediately blame them all on God. Unless free will is cruel, (which it could be), God is neither cruel nor responsible for human actions.

Whether or not free will is, in itself, evil is another question. I'd be curious to hear thoughts on that.

Natural disasters and things like that are a whole lot harder to explain away from a theistic standpoint. But:

1. If there is some spiritual evil force that opposes God, it certainly could be that these are to blame for natural evils.

2. Many natural evils are caused by human actions (e.g. environmental carelessness can result in environmental disasters).

[ralfyman]

The world is the Devil's, only we in it can oppose him.

It's the same argument, I'm afraid: we attribute the world, etc., to beings whose existence we cannot prove or disprove scientifically.

[chasingthetruth]

"O people! This world is an abode of absurdity, not an abode of straightness, and an abode of distress, not an abode of joy. Whoever knows it will not be jovial for affluence nor distressed for misery.

Verily, God created the world as an abode of affliction and the Hereafter is an abode of success. He made the affliction of this world a cause for the reward of the Hereafter, and the reward of the Hereafter a compensation for the affliction of this world. So He takes in order to give and He tries in order to reward.

This world passes very quickly and turns unexpectedly. Therefore, beware of the sweetness of its suckling for the bitterness of its weaning, and abandon its present joy because of its future distaste.

Do not strive to construct a home whose destruction God has decreed. And do not befriend it while God wanted you to stay away from it. That causes you to be exposed to His wrath, worthy of His punishment."

- Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)