Addressing the Emotional Problem of Evil: Why Christians Hope - Christian Research Institute

As for why God permitted evil, the answer to the question may be surprisingly simple. Perhaps God allowed evil to occur for the same reason good and loving parents allow their young children to play outside knowing the risks involved, such as the possibility of injury. The alternative is to not allow children to play at all so that injury cannot oc

discussion about a large, meaty, theological subject began by framing it as a question, and then asking everyone around the table to begin to answer that question through the story of their lives: Who is God? What is prayer? How to approach the problem of evil? What is the content of Christian hope?

why, we ask, do these things occur if God is able to prevent them?

Theology mattered greatly in the substantive moral systems the church once offered. We needed to think deeply about what certain practices do to us, both in time and in eternity. We needed to be concerned about which forms, virtues, and character traits draw us near to the divine or toward damnation.

We want to be reconciled, somehow, to loss and failure, injustice and human suffering. We are hoping for a truth that will take the edge off our despair.

Within Christian belief suffering is at least a mystery we can hope to make sense of. In atheism, it is simply meaningless.