Why is there Suffering?
Given so much pain and downright evil in our world, how can people honestly believe that a loving God could exist? Surely a loving God would never have brought evil into the world? Would he not eliminate evil altogether?
I am sure this is a problem that has plagued most people, and it is quite a serious argument. Basically the argument goes like this: It is an obvious fact that pain, suffering, injustice - what we might term as 'evil' - surrounds us. Now if God exists then he would be able to destroy evil, or prevent it from happening. If this God is a loving God, as Christians would argue, then he would have a strong desire to eliminate evil. Therefore many people conclude that God cannot exist, or else he would not let evil happen day after day after day.
So what explanations might there be why God would allow evil? Well a common way of responding to the problem of evil is by shifting the blame to humans. Supposing that the Christian God does exist, we know from the Bible that he gave humans the freedom to make their own choices - both for good and for evil. It was necessary for God to give us humans free will, to prevent us from becoming like mere robots, puppets whose strings are being pulled by God. Thus the very first humans, using their gift of free will, chose to disobey God and bring evil into the world. Similarly, much of the evil we see today is the result of selfish or wicked people whose actions ruin the lives of other people (and often their own lives). In fact, the Bible makes it clear that nobody is free from doing evil...it is part of our nature. As for natural disasters and diseases, the Bible describes how God responded to the disobedience of humans, by withdrawing some of his sustaining power, leading to the deterioration of the world that we see now.
While the free will response does explain how evil entered the world, it evades the question of why God lets evil continue. Also, it shifts God to the side, implying that either he was unable to forsee that Adam and Eve would choose evil, or that he is unable to correct the effects of the fall. If God is still the God of the Bible, then he both knows everything about the future - down to the actions of people not even born yet - and he also has the power to do anything he wants. So we cannot just say that God made a 'mistake' by creating Adam and Eve. God must have a purpose in letting evil exist... and we should be glad that he does, because if God were to instantly eliminate all evil, then you and I would be destroyed as well.
So we come to an alternate way in which we can respond to the problem, which is by pointing out that, while enduring hardship is certainly not pleasant, it often produces good in the long-term. For instance, physical pain can teach us useful lessons ("Don't touch a fire"). In a similar way, emotional suffering can teach us many valuable lessons about how to relate to other people. If we go through very traumatic experiances, then we are in a position to understand and help other people going through the same experiance ("Hurting people hurt, healed people heal"). Many of the hardest situations in life actually help people of faith to gain a deeper trust in God. So hopefully it is apparent that there are some benefits of evil being in the world, although keep in mind that we would not expect to know every reason in every situation, simply because no human knows everything. But there are many different ways in which suffering can be of value.
Alright, so maybe there is some, long-term good in suffering, you might say. But that still doesn't explain why God had to allow evil to come in the first place. Wouldn't it have been better for God to create a world where there was no evil - where humans, having free will, would posess such a perfect character that they would never choose to do evil? Where we would already be so perfect that we would not need suffering to grow us? Surely a place like that is possible, because in heaven there will be no evil. Now as I mentioned earlier, I doubt we will ever know all the reasons God has for doing things, but we can at least guess.
It seems that for God to have created the world the way it is, with evil as an inevitable outcome, there must be some good in this world, which could not exist in any other world. One of the best explanations I have heard is that actions are more important than words - actually going and expressing love to a suffering person, or forgiveness to someone who has wronged you, is quite different to merely thinking about doing it. Somehow, God sending his Son Jesus to bring us forgiveness brought a good that could not otherwise exist. And perhaps 1 Corinthians 12:9 gives us another clue: "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." God's grace and power is revealed in a unique way through the very existence of weakness in humans, when God uses our weaknesses for good! God's grace is also displayed as he carries us through our hardships. This kind of love could not be shown in a world with no evil - sure, God could tell us all about his love, but there would be no opportunity for him to demonstrate his love to us. This line of thought is pursued further in an excellent discussion of How can a good God allow evil in the world?.
So hopefully I have provoked some thought on how evil may not, after all, be incompatible with a loving God. The mistake is to assume that there is nothing to be gained from a suffering world... sure, we find it very hard to see God's purpose in suffering, but I hope you can see that he may well have very good reasons for letting evil happen. Hard times can be used to learn how to grow and depend on God all the more. And evil allows God to put his love into action... But whatever the reasons, we do know one thing for sure: God has promised that he will bring an end to all evil one day, and bring everyone who trusts in Jesus into paradise... to be free from all disease, suffering and pain, forever!