Why Does God Allow Tragedy?

One of the questions people ask whenever there is a terrible tragedy such as this weeks Haitian earthquake is "Why would a good God allow bad things to happen?"   The argument that one often hears from skeptics at a time like this goes something like this, "God cannot be both good and all-powerful."

If he is all powerful and allows evil then he is not good but if he is good and allows evil then he must be powerless to stop it.  Since there is evil in the world it must mean that he is either all powerful and evil or good but not all powerful but he cannot be both." 

It is the question that has confounded philosophers and scholars for generations.   "How can a good God allow evil and tragedy in this world?"  Many are asking today as they see the unbelievable misery and suffering in Haiti, "Where was God in this tragedy?"

The answers are not easy, but I do think it is helpful for us to remind ourselves of a few important truths whenever people are asking the question.

1.  First of all, we should all remember that Christianity teaches that we are all limited in our understanding and that there is no way that any one of us can have a clear picture of reality on this side of eternity.  What we see in this life as human tragedy has to be measured against the full scope of eternity.

Paul the apostle pointed out that "...we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12).

It is easy for us to make broad assumptions about what we see as God's powerlessness in evil and suffering but none of us truly see things as they are from the perspective of eternity.   C.S. Lewis has said that he believes the first thing we will all say in heaven are the words, "Ah hah!" 

Only God sees true reality.  The rest of us here only sees a part of that reality and because of our weakness and limited understanding none of us can fully know what God knows from His perspective.

Evil and suffering in this world is not evidence that God does not exist nor is it evidence that God is evil or merely good but not omnipotent.   This is not a complete argument regarding the character of God for one simple reason:  Just because you and I cannot see a good reason for what happens in the world does not mean that God is not in control and does not have reasons.  Just because I don't understand something doesn't mean there is no explanation.  Our reality is not the only reality and it is certainly not the complete reality.

For a person to say "Because I can't understand the reason that God allows suffering in the world it must mean that there are no reasons" is an amazingly presumptuous and self serving statement.  When you think about it, it takes a tremendous leap of faith to believe in yourself in this way.  It is like saying "I don't really think that can be real because I don't see or understand the reality of it."

We do not employ this kind of logic to other parts of life.  We may not know how electricity works and yet that doesn't mean we don't believe it's real.  We may not see the tiny insect that is biting us but that doesn't prove it doesn't exist.

Just because we don't understand fully and see clearly the purposes of God in human tragedy does not mean they do not exist.  So as Christians we have to first of all understand that God's ways are not like our ways and that He is the only one who has the complete, eternal perspective on this life (Isaiah 55:8). 

2.  The very fact that we know something is evil and tragic is evidence that there is a loving and just God in the universe.   When you think of the tragedy in Haiti keep in mind that you and I would not even know that this was tragic unless we first knew that there was such a thing as tragedy.   There is something within our spirit that cries out at the injustice of suffering.  What is that?  It certainly is not the result of evolutionary impulse.

Darwinian Evolution teaches that the human species is inscripted by millions of years of "survival of the fittest" type impulses.  If that is true then wouldn't the human species cry out in delight that thousands of potentially competitive predators and foragers have been eliminated?  And yet that is not what we feel.  We feel a sense of horror and sadness welling up from our inmost being.  The only logical explanation for this impulse is that it was put there by a loving and just creator who teaches us through our very senses that our hearts cry out for His mercy and love.

Have you ever noticed that when tragedies like this occur it is the churches and religious charitable organizations that flood into the area to offer assistance?  I remember years ago when our church sent a tsunami relief team to help with the clean up in Sri Lanka how amazed the people there were at the numbers of Christians from around the world who had come to their aid.  By contrast I don't remember seeing or hearing about a single atheist organization that sent help.  I may have missed it, but there weren't scores of atheist organizations who set up tents and trailors and work groups in Indonesia, Pakastan or New Orleans in the aftermath of those disasters either.

There is a simple reason:  the atheist has no answer for human tragedy.  C.S. Lewis, once an atheist himself, made this observation in Mere Christianity:

My argument against God was that the world seemed so cruel and unjust.  But how had I got this idea of "just" and "unjust"?  What was I comparing this universe to when I called it unjust?  Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by sayng it was a private idea of my own.  But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too- for the argument depended on saying that the world really was unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my private fancies... consequently atheism turns out too simple.

3.  As Christians we are to see that all of life's suffering is answered by the redeeming work of Christ on the cross.  Christianity, unlike any other religion, teaches that God Himself suffered on the cross and that by taking that suffering onto Himself accomplished the redemption of all creation.  The extent of His suffering was not just physical, for there are many people who have suffered more physically than Jesus suffered on the cross.  But none have suffered to the extent that Jesus suffered the rejection of the Father and the incredible consequences of our sin when He took all of that on Himself.  No one person has ever suffered the way Jesus suffered.

And yet it was through His suffering that the earth is being redeemed and will be redeemed.  It was through His suffering that I find my salvation and everyone who calls on Him finds salvation.

We know from scripture that Jesus carries the scars from His crucifixion with Him even in His glorified state.  This can only mean that every scar we recieve in this life will only make the next life better.    Everything we suffer in this life will be undone in the next.  So the more we lose and suffer in this life the more we experience joy and celebration in the next.

Every Christian can cry out, "Bring it on death!  Bring it on suffering!  The lower you lay me the higher He'll raise me!" 

I love this quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov

"I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they've shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened."

If you are interested in reading more on this subject, here are some books I recommend:

The Reason for God by Tim Keller
What's So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza
Disappointment With God by Phillip Yancey