If you want to listen to the whole Bart Ehrman audio that I shared in today's sermon, here it is. It's about 15 minutes long. Ehrman is very articulate on the subject, but below is the question I would pose to him from the sermon:
So here’s my question: Why? He starts by saying that suffering is a problem. He is so sure that suffering is a problem that he makes fun of his students who don’t understand that it’s a problem. But I want to take the students’ side for a minute. Why is suffering a problem? If the history of the universe were compressed into 24 hours, the whole existence of humanity would be a fraction of a second. Our life spans would be impossibly small to even measure. So why does suffering really matter? Why do the images of 9/11 or Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti or the tornado in Joplin bother us? Why do they seem wrong? And as hard as it is for us to avoid suffering, why would he or any of us give ourselves the additional burden of only being happy if other people are happy too?
As Christians, we have a problem explaining suffering. I certainly can’t explain it all to you. I don’t understand it myself. We will all have a lot of questions for God some day. But there is an equally challenging question for those who don’t believe. They can’t explain why we should care.
When tragedy strikes we say, “this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.” That’s why suffering is a problem – because we know in the deepest places in our heart that this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. But where did that knowledge come from? We struggle with why suffering exists, but for the atheist the question is why do we struggle with the question of suffering in the first place.
When tragedy strikes we say, “this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.” That’s why suffering is a problem – because we know in the deepest places in our heart that this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. But where did that knowledge come from? We struggle with why suffering exists, but for the atheist the question is why do we struggle with the question of suffering in the first place.
Here's how Timothy Keller puts it in his book The Reason for God: "The nonbeliever in God doesn't have a good basis for being outraged at injustice, which...was the reason for objecting to God in the first place. If you are sure that this natural world is unjust and filled with evil, you are assuming the reality of some extra-natural (or supernatural) standard by which to make your judgment."
So what do you think? How would you answer the problem of suffering? What about the problem of why we can call something evil or unjust if there is no God?
