I have had many conversations in recent years with people who have left the Christian faith for one reason or another. Some of the reasons are understandable, and some are not, but for the most part I understand why this has been happening so frequently. As a Christian it might be easy for me to get discouraged or frustrated with these recent turn of events (even the fact that many of my friends, present company included, don't even attend Church regularly at the moment), and so for me I have dedicated a lot of time and quiet moments to thinking these things out and hearing their arguments against something that I hold so dear.
Ten years ago I might have had a different reaction to this, but I know the problems we Christians are facing in an ever increasingly anti-Christian world, and I understand how throughout history, ages of intellectualism (which is what many people believe they have entered into when discussing these things) tend to lead us away from conceptualizing God, and instead take comfort in our own enlightenment. With thoughts as long as cigarettes, we believe to understand that everything is as it is, and not as we wish it were. Hope is replaced by firm dedication to discovering truth, and we bow down at the alter of our own intellect and that of those whose intellects we follow in the footsteps of.
Having come to grips with where we are today in the new intellectual age, I have been considering taking a stab at making a coherent reply to all the atheists out there who have made it their mission in life to convince the rest of us to leave our superstitious, faulty religions behind and keep up with the times. Don't get me wrong, atheists still make up a single digit minority in the world today, but their voices are the ones being heard, and their own misgivings about religion (namely Christianity) have led way to a culture that is slowly devolving into a misinformed, and ignorant understanding of the gospel message and what makes the doctrine of Jesus so unique.
So in a blatant attempt at goodwill, I have decided to address some of the more convincing arguments put out their by atheists. Not all arguments are good, and not all reasons are worth mentioning, and this is not a comprehensive guide to the Christian faith. This is simply a reply. Some Christians may take issue with my interpretation and use of scripture, and most atheists may find my arguments lacking in what is necessary to defend the faith. All I am wanting to do is start the discussion, and see where it leads, for I too have had many problems with digesting some fundamental Christian beliefs, and while taking issue with this certainly could have led me to reject the faith, it instead led me to consider whether or not our current understandings might have been skewed, and what the gospel message actually is. In the words of some who are much cooler than I am, don't hate, participate.
I will be addressing these topics one by one as time allows, and will start with perhaps the most popular reason many leave the faith.
Reason #1
There's so much suffering in the world.
The argument goes like this: If God is so good, why does He allow so much pain and suffering? This question is perhaps more relevant than ever before as the present age has allowed us to keep tabs on what is going on around the world and not just in our own backyard. We see images of hunger ravaged nations, effects of diseases and war, and images of natural disasters that take thousands of lives and destroy them before our eyes.
When I was living in Tennessee, I remember one day when a powerful tornado came through and tore up about two miles of real estate. I could see the effects of the tornado from the interstate where it had barreled through the trees that had lined the freeway and into the fairly new sub-divisions that were built just past it. For me the devastation was evident, but it wasn't all that personal. For the man who lost his house, his business (he worked out of his garage) and his family, it was devastating. I often wonder how he could have moved past such a tragic moment and continue on when his entire life was ripped out of the ground and he lost his wife and infant child as his house came crumbling down around him. Certainly a good God wouldn't allow this to happen, right?
When we think about all the oppression that goes on around the world, the slavery, human trafficking, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, sicknesses, famines, diseases, and countless other things, it is easy to wonder whether or not there is a God, and if you are one who goes through it, to even grow bitter and angry toward God and religion that pretends to have the answers but lacks the empathy to really address the struggles with anything more than blind rhetoric.
For years the Church has responded to these questions with something along the lines of how we live in a fallen world, and people are evil. Christians quote scripture, and speak of God's goodness, meanwhile the unspeakable is happening right outside their doors. Sure, without Christian charities, much of the suffering would be worst as there are some great foundations out there. Ultimately however, life isn't fair, and to stand behind the notion that God is good even when all we see is bad, it not only seems disingenuous, but also completely incomprehensible.
Here's the thing that might surprise a lot of you; the Bible never says “everything happens for a reason”. Many people in our culture today try to cope with the bad by quoting this very popular phrase, but the Bible never says such a thing. What it does say is that “God can cause all things to work out for the good, for those who love Him” Romans 8:28. How this translates into all things happening for a reason is beyond me. Yes, reason can be found in all things (See C.S. Lewis' acclaimed and personal book 'A Grief Observed'), but to say all things happen for a reason is to say that God either causes all things to happen, or He at the very least allows all things to happen for a purpose. This ultimately puts the blame on God (whether good or bad, and the Bible never makes such a claim).
Secondly, we find it almost unfathomable that an omniscient, all knowing God would let his creation, a people He claims to love, go through so much pain. As an American, a lot of what goes on around the world is experienced second hand. We hear stories, see pictures, have conversations, and cry out that either God doesn't exist, or if He does, He must be a mean, antagonistic fellow bent on tormenting us. While these feelings are justifiable, they also seem oddly misplaced when considering how people in other countries, and all through history, seem to cope with these struggles.
In China today there is a resurgent underground movement of Christians where tens of millions of people are added each year in spite of the intense pressure put on these Churches and the people who choose to participate. They risk imprisonment, torture, and sometimes death, just for associating with these “home churches” instead of the government sponsored Church which preaches a government approved form of Christianity. North Korea continues to kill Christians and put their bodies on display as a warning to anyone who dares become one, yet they are adding people every day to their cause, even when they risk to lose so much. This is not to say that the thriving Church in Asia is proof of God, just that people who are suffering, and oppressed, don't usually turn toward atheism but rather toward God as they are clinging to hope and finding people who they could share community with in the midst of very trying times.
This is no different than how the early Church started, when Rome would arrest the followers of Jesus and put them in the arenas to get publicly mauled by wild animals. While Rome was still living comfortably, this new religion grew by leaps and bounds because people like Justin Martyr saw these Christian's willingly going to their deaths and wondered what it is they believed in and why they would risk everything for it. In fact much of the New Testament was written during this time of great persecution against the illegal Church and the followers who were risking everything to participate. I only bring this up because it happened during a period of enlightenment when many of it's followers were learned, well educated members of society. Naturally the Church was still largely made up of unlearned people which is why letter's being passed around had to be read out loud during the meetings as many of them couldn't read, but we find that the early political structure, and the debates between scholars in the orthodox Church and scholars of the more mystic variety were not based in ignorance or superstition, but rather in abstract thinking and interpretation of the teachings of Jesus and the writings of the early Church leaders.
Perhaps a better example would be to point out how full the Churches were following the tragic and horrific events of 9/11. Suddenly people were turning to God instead of their own intellect to try to gain perspective on what happened that September day. It is my opinion that religion has always been man's attempt at understanding that which makes no plausible sense. You can say that our enlightenment in modern science and a well educated mind could protect us from venturing off into superstitious quests for answers that don't exist, but know that it is still human nature to want to find a reason and hope in the midst of pain and suffering.
I don't believe all religions point to God, but I think religion is in itself an attempt at doing just that. You could look at all the religions around the world, from the tribal ancestor worship to the grand Catholic Church, and make a good point that all of these contradictory religions seem to prove in a round about way that there is no God, or you could look at this simply as man's attempt to understand something physically that they only know of internally. The knowledge of a spiritual existence transcends all cultures and heritage, and is evident in all religions. Some are based in ignorance such as Hinduism (which one might argue is a product of Greek or Roman mythology in that it includes all sorts of god's to understand that which is obviously not a deity at all), and some are based in humanism such as the theology of many eastern Buddhist based religions that believe we are all connected and the point of life is to be better for the sake of our next life. When we narrow it down, only three religions actually strive to know and please one God as the supreme being, and that being Judaism, and it's two by-products, Christianity and Islam.
I am not saying here that God allows all pain and suffering simply because it's the best way to get us to seek Him, nor am I saying that everything happens for a reason. As is the case with life, each circumstance is unique and should not be confused with the whole. There are certainly some things that God allows to happen, and yet sometimes, bad things just happen and no rhyme or reason can be found in it. In superstitious ignorance, we used to point to people who went through tragedy, or even nations who suffered famine and disease, as being under the judgment of God. Today, not only is that not a popular stance to take, we also know that it is not necessarily a biblical stance. Bad things happen, and when they do we must respond with empathy and compassion. Everyone from Christian, atheist, humanist, etc, all know the joy and reward that comes with helping those in need. For whatever reason, morality and generosity still trumps selfishness, and whether you give to please God, or you give because it makes you feel better, the point is that it is human nature to respond, unless governed by religion that tells us they are getting what they deserve.
Perhaps the greatest reason to believe in God in the midst of terribly dark times is the evidence that good still exists. That while things seem dark and hopeless, there is still a moral code that makes the injustice bad, and the love good. That we speak of tolerance and acceptance as a social standard that should not exist if evolution and chance were the actual rulers of our destiny. The fact that there is still goodwill and charity, still love and sympathy, still patience and tolerance, all of these things point to something good even when the suffering is so great. Perhaps we have put too much responsibility on God and removed ourselves too far from the equation. Bad things do happen, but even Jesus told us to take care of the orphan and the widow and to love relentlessly.
It is said that there are enough resources on this planet to effectively rescue the hungry from the terrible grasps of famine, and many of our diseases can be cured by herbs and natural remedies that are banned from medical practice by institutions placing priorities on profit verses actual betterment. Bad things do happen, but I have a feeling they would be much less severe if man himself wasn't so inwardly focused and actually put his resources to good use. I believe the problem here is man, and not God, and since God does not appear to be a micro-manager, He has placed the responsibility on us to make good with the resources He has given.
The evidence of evil is not evidence that God doesn't exist. On the contrary, it is evidence that He does exist, for without knowledge of what is good (not just acceptable, but truly good), we would never actually know what to consider evil. Who's to say what is bad when there is no actual moral code to live by? The Ten Commandments didn't consist of new ideas for humans to follow, but rather the sensibility of that which has always been understood. Jesus cleared things up precisely when He explained that loving God, and loving your neighbor as yourself sums up the entire purpose of the law. If you truly love one another you won't murder, you won't steal, you won't slander, and you won't covet. By simply acting in love, you ensure that you are doing your part to make this world a better, less hostile place.
Since I do not place blame on God for all the bad that happens, (nor on the devil or demons as well) but rather insist that some bad things just happen and there can be no real blame, just that such is life, then I have no problem with the idea of God allowing so much pain and suffering, because I understand that He has given us the resources to address these problems. Perhaps our frustration should be centered more at those who control the resources and do little with them, as opposed to a God who has already provided that which we need to ease the pain; that being the knowledge to see the pain and injustice, the resources to meet the needs, and the means to distribute it.
I don't pretend to believe that my thoughts here would persuade any atheist to reconsider their opinions or ideas, but I also think it to be quite a sound understanding of how one can fully believe in God with eyes open enough to see the pain and suffering around them. It is in no way a paradox to believe in a good God, and still acknowledge all the pain and suffering. When we take responsibility from God to solve all the worlds problems and put it on our own shoulders, it shows just how flawed mankind truly is, which is a central point of what the gospel message preaches. I don't buy the argument that a good God wouldn't allow pain and suffering, for these moments are chances for mankind to respond in a way that is good and meaningful, which gives us purpose. You could say that this is why all the bad things happen, but I simply think this is only fitting with the knowledge of God causing all things to work out for the good in the end.
By the way, the man in Tennessee who lost his wife and infant in the Tornado spent a few months dealing with depression, and trying to find reason in his suffering. Today he owns a roofing repair company and seems to be doing fine. It's amazing how resilient humans are when they are forced to endure such pain and suffering. Somehow he still found hope and the courage to move on, even when pain and sufferings was no longer just an abstract idea witnessed from the bleachers, but a real tangible experience that has forever shaped his life. It's human to have hope, and to trust that things will work out even when the darkness has settled in.
Next up:
A Good God Wouldn't Send People to Hell
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