The Handbook / EVL
If God is good, why is there so much pain?
The argument assumes that a good God would never allow any evil for any reason. But a good God might allow evil if it is the cost of something very valuable, such as creatures who can freely love. Even many atheist philosophers now grant that God and evil are not logically contradictory. And Christianity does not stop at an argument: God entered our suffering in Jesus, defeated evil at the cross, and promises to end it for good.
Natural evil is the hardest part of the problem of evil, and Christians should admit it. But several things help: a stable, law-governed world is necessary for meaningful life and choice; many of the same processes that cause disasters also make Earth habitable; Scripture teaches that creation itself is 'subjected to futility' and groaning; and Jesus shows God's posture toward sickness and storms. He healed, calmed the sea, wept, and promised a renewed creation.
This is the objection at its most painful, and Christians should feel its weight rather than explain it away. Scripture does not treat children's suffering lightly: Jesus welcomed children, warned of terrible judgment on anyone who harms them, and wept with the grieving. We do not know God's reasons for any particular child's suffering, but we know his heart toward children, we know he will bring perfect justice, and we know he promises a restoration in which no child's suffering is wasted or forgotten.
Christians answer this in more than one way, depending on how they read Genesis. Some hold that there was no animal death before the Fall; others accept an ancient earth and look to different explanations. Common ground is substantial: God cares for every sparrow, the Bible celebrates wild creatures as part of God's world, animal pain may differ from human suffering in important ways, and Scripture promises that creation itself, not only humans, will be liberated and renewed.
Your pain is real, and Scripture gives you words for it: many of the psalms are prayers by people who felt abandoned by God. The Christian answer is not a formula but a Person. In Jesus, God came into suffering, was betrayed, tortured and cried out 'why have you forsaken me?' on the cross. He was not absent from your suffering; he has been there himself, he is near the brokenhearted, and he promises that your pain will not have the last word.
