Can there be a Loving God? PDF Print E-mail
Spirituality
Written by Dada Chandranathananda   
The Question of Human Suffering:
How can there be a Loving God if there is so much human suffering?

How can there be a Loving and Caring God if there is so much human misery and suffering in the world today? Everywhere we look, on TV, Radio, Newspapers, we get bombarded with pictures, images and sound bites of the most shocking unheard of human suffering. So how can a Loving God permit, allow such depravities to occur? Does God feel that His (she or it’s) obligation is already done with the creation of the universe and after fixing the general laws in place and evolution etc, decided that it was all too tiring and went into early retirement? Or does He from time to time pay a visit just to put a few things right and go away again? What is really going on?

This problem of a seemingly passive God abdicating responsibility in the face of real human suffering and existence of evil remains the number one objection to belief in God and is the most enduring difficult issue for believers as well.

God had Four choices of different types of Universes:

1.    Not to create a universe at all.
2.    To create a universe where humans had no conscience thus no conception of good or evil.
3.    To create a universe with no free will. Humans would be pre-programmed to be biological machines just performing good deeds and avoiding bad actions.
4.    To create a universe whereby humans were given the freedom/Free will to commit good or evil.

Obviously God went with the fourth option and created a universe whereby humans were given free will to choose between good or evil actions and a mixture of both (in most cases).

The argument by the Atheistic camp using Human suffering as evidence that there is no God, is divided into two parts; The Intellectual objection- How can God and Evil co-exist? How can there be sufficient reasons for suffering/evil to exist? And the Emotional argument that How can a Loving God permit human suffering/evil to exist.

Objections to the Intellectual Atheistic Objection to the Co-existence of God and Suffering/Evil

i.    The strongest evidence that it was God’s choice (and not a mistake) to create the co-existence of human suffering/evil and a ever-present Loving God is the fact of human free will. God-given Free will makes the act of Love, sacrifice and service very special because it is given freely. Humans have a choice, free will to Love others or not. It takes tremendous effort to keep loving people day in and day out. We values Love because we choose Love over Evil. Can Love exist, if we have no choice to love?

ii.    Human beings are not in a position to judge whether the suffering of a human being is meaningless or not. Human beings are limited by time, space, intelligence and insight. But God sees everything. In Physics, there is an idea called Chaos Theory; whereby the fluttering of a butterfly in East Africa can cause a Hurricane across the Atlantic Ocean. We just don’t understand complex  inter-relationships of the natural world. God’s reasons for allowing suffering may not be revealed/emerge for centuries, if ever.

iii.    The Purpose of life should not be to free oneself from suffering or the rampant pursuit of happiness as materialistic society would have us believe. For genuine spiritualists, the purpose of life is to contemplate on God, to go deeper and deeper into His mystery. Subjective approach first followed by Objective adjustment. Know God first, know His will first, live proper principles and values of life as priority in life then think about how the world can be created taking these central subjective principles/spiritual wisdom into deep passionate consideration.

iv.    Human suffering is an opportunity to surrender to God, dependence and deep trust in God. Human suffering creates deep desire for relief, it is an opportunity to find a way to avoid performing actions that take us away from God. Without suffering we may never feel the impetus to do anything to know God, we wouldn’t even bother with it, if we already were happy, what would be the point? So human suffering performs a function to bring us kicking and screaming to feet of God who is the only entity who can save us and give us deep deep spiritual relief.

v.    Human beings are in a state of rebellion against God by chasing happiness and luxury to extremes. By suffering and sacrificing individual interest we break our through our arrogance which is a very practical functional reason for the existence of suffering. To really understand ourselves, to learn from our mistakes, suffering is needed, and more suffering, until we learn.

vi.    Evil and suffering in the world is representative of human alienation from God and spiritual wisdom. We should be in no surprise about the existence of Evil. In fact we should expect Evil.

vii.    God cannot always intervene in Evil. Humans need to struggle and accept moral responsibility to overcome and confront evil and suffering.

viii.    If God’s existence is discussed only in context of Evil/Suffering, then yes for many people there may seem to be no God. But what about the totality of human experience – the very existence of life itself is a miracle. The Divine cause for the creation of the universe is still the best model. The Big Bang (15 Billion years ago) began the universe. Therefore it didn’t always exist. So what caused the universe to happen? The atheists have no answer. The spiritual creation of the universe model is more hopeful and inspiring that the Random theory model. The probability of life is extremely rare, no chance at all. Less than 1 chance in 10282(million trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion) exists that even one such life-support body would occur anywhere in the universe without invoking divine miracles. The existence of a Cosmic Entity who created and is maintaining the universe it becomes the most plausible sensible conclusion.

Objections to the Emotional Atheistic Objection to the Co-existence of God and Suffering/Evil

The main argument here is; How can a Loving God permit suffering?

Barber Shop story: Story about a gentleman who went to his barber to get his hair cut. While he was getting his hair cut, the barber was complaining about God and how selfish he was and how inconsiderate etc. Barber concluded that God simply cannot exist in the face of so much suffering in the world today. At least not a God who can help us.
The gentleman getting his hair cut was too afraid to argue the point lest he got his ears cut off. So he remained quiet but thoughtful. As soon as the barber had finished, the gentleman raced out of the Barber shop. However on his way down the street, the gentleman saw a beggar with long hair and long bushy beard and thought to himself; “Why is that beggar’s hair and beard so long? Why hasn’t he gone to the barber?” Then suddenly the gentleman jumped up in the air with glee and rushed back to the barber and shouting; “Barbers don’t exist. Barbers don’t exist! I have just seen a man in the street with long long hair and long beard. How can barbers exist, when there are such cases? The barber was astonished and shocked and replied; “It is untrue what you are saying. I am a barbare and I exist! I cut your hair and I can cut the hair of anyone if only they come to me.”

i.    God is not some distant creator/some non-personal consciousness or void. God is a loving parent (Father and Mother) who shares our suffering and hurts with us. God does not stand idly by observing from afar our suffering. He enters into/shares our suffering/endures anguish of seeing our suffering.

ii.    All the great SadGurus (Shiva, Krsna, Anandamurti) and other great Gurus (Jesus, Buddha, Ramakrsna, Anandamoya Ma, Guru Nanak etc) loved humanity very much. Their Love was not academic. They proved their love for us by personally suffering very much for the great Mission of creating a humanistic civilization based on deep subjective spiritual values. Their contributions have done a tremendous amount to avoid unnecessary suffering.

iii.    Shrii Shrii Anandamurtiji, although completely innocent, was sent to Prison for seven years during the 1970s. There was even an attempt by the corrupt authorities to poison Him. Later during the 1980s, Anandamurtiji followed a very harsh schedule (self-imposed) in order to build up an organisation to help implement the great human Mission of building a real Civilization. Why did He do this? Because He loved us more than we can ever realise!

iv.    The question of the problem of Evil should be substituted with the proper question, the Problem of our own Evil. How can we justify our own actions! We should spend more time contemplating our own intentions.

v.    God is the final solution to the problem of Evil. He invites us to a deeper place of fellowship and ultimately…Liberation.

vi.    Finally but not least, God does not judge us and then abandon us, if we make even a small effort to change ourselves, then He helps us. This Help is called Grace. If we are truly repentant and start to make efforts to change ourselves then we get Grace from Him to both endure the suffering AND to finish that particular suffering. We just have to Surrender our ego and rush towards Him. This is the way of escape from endless suffering that we have created for ourselves.

Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

Mary Stevenson, 1936

One of the main ways to resolve the issue of suffering/evil is to work/engage to overcome it. Grace comes when we:

Work on ourselves,
Support others,
Change Society.

If we sit as idle bystanders then we may become overwhelmed and depressed in face of so much seemingly senseless suffering and real Evil.

But if we engage, we both empower others and get empowered ourselves (the main way to overcome clinical depression).

And for spiritually sensitive people, we will feel His grace (which was always there-only our ego was blocking it) working through us to bring love and light into the lives of our sisters and brothers in our dear universal human family.

Bibligraphy:
Dr. William Craig – “The problem of Evil”