Why does God allow evil?

The three main difficulties that man has in believing in God are: that his laws are a threat to our freedom, the warning of the presence of evil in the world and the suffering of the innocent. We have already discussed the first issue in a previous article entitled The Lord's slaves to which I direct the reader for consideration. It is the second and third difficulties that I now intend to analyze. And they are important difficulties, since part of the reason why there is so much affective atheism has its origin in these reasons.

The issue is summed up in one question: how can an omnipotent being allow bad things to happen? This question is very old, in fact, Epicurus is credited with the famous conjecture that can be summarized in the incompatibility of the existence of evil and suffering in the world with the existence of an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and omnibenevolent God. In order to try to explain it, we shall divide the origin of this evil into four parts: on the one hand, the moral evil that arises from the will of man (we shall call it active evil); on the other hand, the evil that comes from the evil man but is suffered by the innocent (we shall call it passive evil); a third physical evil that arises from man himself and affects him, which we shall call disease; and finally an evil that arises in nature and affects any man, which we shall call physical, casual or fortuitous evil.

Bad asset

Let us begin with the evil that men do (active evil) and that is only attributable to themselves. If God wanted to take the risk of creating beings in his image and likeness, then these beings must necessarily be free and capable of loving, like him. If this were not so, they would not be made in his image and likeness.

In general, we know how to identify the good that affects the whole of the human community in very fundamental things that are accepted by all men. Basically these rules that regulate it are contained in public and private international law. Examples of these laws are the development of universal traffic rules, do no harm to others and respect human dignity.

However, there is a deep difficulty in man to know what is good when it affects oneself or others in daily life. This difficulty has its origin in the distortion introduced within man at the beginning of his creation and is recounted in Genesis. This difficulty undermines the ability to be free, which is to choose the good, so that to the extent that we choose evil, we progressively lose this ability to be free.

God helps us with his norms so that we can develop that capacity for freedom to choose the good in order to live and be happy (Dt 4:5-9). Let us not interpret these norms as a threat to our freedom; rather, they are the GPS that continually shows us how to be happy according to our nature. God's laws do not limit us; they set us free. The question is to trust Him or not. Each one chooses. God wants free children who love him, not slaves who fear him.

This classical explanation could satisfy us to explain moral evil in the world. There are simply people who really want and do evil and voluntarily deviate from what God wants. Moreover, it is thanks to the presence of evil that virtue can be exercised. If cowardice did not exist, one could not be courageous. If pride did not exist, humility could not be exercised.

Bad passive

But now comes the second problem, passive evil, which is less understandable: why do the innocent have to suffer the evil provoked by other men? However, the real question is not why these things happen, but rather: why does God allow them?

Let us consider for a moment the history of God's relationship with man. There are some events narrated in the Old Testament, which have attracted much attention and have been the object of criticism against God, calling him tyrant, avenger and cruel. These are episodes such as when God ordered the annihilation of Canaanite cities, telling the Israelites to kill the entire population (Dt 2, 34: 20, 16-18; 1 Samuel 15, 2-3). The reason was that these people did abominable things, such as the sacrifice of small children or sacred prostitution.

Centuries earlier, God almost wiped out the earth's population with the universal flood because of the absolute corruption into which the earth's inhabitants had fallen. Only eight people remained.

Why do we complain when God destroys people who were doing real savagery, even with children? Earlier we asked why God does not intervene to prevent evil in the innocent, but when he has done so, do we protest and are we scandalized? We complain when he does not prevent evil, but we also complain when he has done it, what then?

Man's complaint about how God does things is very frequent. And the complaints are in two senses. We complain when he is merciful, but we also complain when he is just. God's justice does not oppose his mercy, the only thing that opposes justice is vengeance.

Moreover, we interpret God's laws according to our own interests. We do not want to recognize that God is Lord and owner of the Universe and is not subject to any rule, and our way of thinking leads us to consider that God's mercy is not just or his justice is not merciful.

Does God ask for the impossible?

There is a very demanding moment of God in the New Testament that again may seem unfair to us: when he asks us to forgive seventy times seven (Mt 18:21-35). Will I have to forgive my husband who has been unfaithful to me many times with another person? Will I have to forgive the boss of my company who abuses me at work? Will I have to forgive my father, mother or children when they are continually mistreating me?

It seems that God asks for the impossible, but it is not so. There are several references in the Gospels where it appears directly to forgive seventy times seven. This is true. But Luke, who says at the beginning of his Gospel that he has been reliably informed of everything, says: “If your brother offends you, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; if he offends you seven times in one day, and seven times again says to you, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” (Lk 17:3-4). There is an important detail: “if he repents, you will forgive him.”. So, do I have to forgive my husband who continually cheats on me and is a cynic or a hypocrite? It does not seem so. If he is not repentant, he cannot be forgiven. But not forgiving does not mean wishing him harm. Not forgiving and wishing someone harm are two different things. Many times it is even good to separate from that person because he is hurting us. Peace is a good to be protected. Moreover, a priest may not give absolution of sins if he sees that the penitent does not show repentance when he goes to the confessional. God does not ask the impossible. 

True healing

The true inner healing when we have been passive subjects of an evil provoked by another person is not in forgiving. The true inner healing is in assuming that what has happened God has allowed it to happen in order to achieve a greater good.

To understand this we have to explain, briefly, what happened to Joseph, the penultimate son of the patriarch Jacob. His brothers threw him into a well with the intention of killing him, although they finally sold him to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt and he ended up in prison because he did not consent to have sexual relations with a married woman. But suddenly, events took a turn. Thanks to his ability to interpret dreams, Pharaoh appointed him prime minister of Egypt. It was then that his brothers went there to look for food. After several comings and goings from Canaan to Egypt, Joseph finally made himself known to his brothers and made a comment that is not to be missed: “God sent me before you to ensure your survival on earth and to save your lives in an admirable way. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.” (Gen. 45:7-8). Attributing everything that happens to us in our lives to God's Providence, the good and the apparently bad that we suffer, is the healthiest way to live happily.

However, not content with discussing God's decisions, we also think he does things wrong. In general, we do not make ourselves clear with God. He said so Himself: “My ways are not your ways.” (Isaiah 55:8-9). What may seem to us to be a bad decision, or even things that we think are not right, He says are perfect. In the New Testament it is striking when Jesus was asked: “who sinned this or his parents that he was born blind”.”. And the answer was clear: “neither he nor his parents sinned but was born blind that the works of God might be made manifest in him.”. So, is a child born blind the work of God? Yes, it is. God says in the book of Exodus “The Lord said to him, 'Who has given man a mouth? Who makes him dumb, deaf, seeing, or blind? Am I not the Lord? (Exodus 4:11). And automatically comes our conclusion: God does not make things perfect. And if we continue in the same line of reasoning we will come to the conclusion that either God cannot exist, or God is unjust, or He makes things imperfect.

God's Illogic

If we can say anything about God, in terms of the way he acts, it is that he really does illogical things, if we compare them with our logic. He promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob great offspring and it turns out that their wives Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel were barren. Only when He willed did He make them fertile. Moreover, God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the son of promise.

Then God became a man and was born of a woman without the participation of a man, he even died as God and then, to the bewilderment of the whole world, he was resurrected. God's plans are literally incomprehensible to man. Clearly our way of seeing things is nowhere near the way God sees them. Besides, for Him nothing is impossible.

Sometimes I am surprised by some philosophers who analyze what God can or cannot do, or by some theologians who study God as if he were an object instead of a free person. They put limits on His doing or thinking because He cannot do illogical things. We have to recognize once and for all that He has created the world. It is His and He has given it to us as heirs. We are the children of a landowner but He still holds the title deed and makes it rain on the just and the unjust, when and as He wills.

We try to mold our thoughts and judgments to those of God. And seeing how events have unfolded throughout history, this way of thinking is a major mistake. “How unfathomable their decisions and how untraceable their ways.” (Romans 11:33), “the wind blows where it wills and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (Jn 3:8). It may seem unfair to us, but if we are not aware that God is Lord and sovereign of the universe, we will always be complaining about his decisions and why he did not prevent this or that event.

When Jesus arrived in Nazareth, his countrymen demanded that he do there the miracles he had done in Capernaum. And he refused. And they almost threw him off a cliff. If our disposition before God is one of demanding, of exchanging merchandise or of nonconformity, we will be replacing the image of God within us with an image of ourselves. We will only see and rely on our thoughts. We will elevate ourselves to the category of God, without being God, “you shall be like God” (Genesis 3, 5) and we will not let God act in our life and it will seem unfair that a “stranger” acts in the creation, which is His, without considering that in reality we are guests. And this complaint hides at the bottom a great pride that places us in a situation of defenselessness, before God himself, who will take advantage of the serpent to enslave us, make us lose our freedom and eliminate our capacity to love.

Physical ailments

Finally, we will look at the third and fourth type of physical evils: illness in an innocent person, or a natural catastrophe that kills or cripples many people. How is it possible for a child to die at a young age from cancer? Or, how is it possible that an earthquake kills thousands of people in an instant? Doesn't God have the power to prevent these things?

If we define chance as the name God uses when he acts incognito, then the answer is simple: this is how God's works are manifested in the world. And let us not insist on the idea that it is unfair. Only God knows why things happen. Sometimes God acts, when we least expect it, and in a surprising way, redirecting events in a different way. As with Joseph. Sometimes, he grants us things that are true miracles and, above all, we are unaware of the countless number of times he has been able to act in our lives and we have not been aware of it. When these things that we call misfortunes happen, God may give us an explanation in time and, as it is often said, time heals everything.

However, I believe that the great key to being completely satisfied with this approach does not lie in an unconditional assumption of God's will. That is all very well, but it is not enough. That assumption may even be heroic, but the real foundation of why these things happen rests in the reward that will be there after we die.

The life of man on earth is in reality a sigh, compared to eternity. This life is, as St. Teresa of Jesus said “a bad night in a bad inn”.”. However, this expression is said in the 16th century, when the inns were very poor and the quality of life was generally bad. Today we live very well and it is increasingly difficult to think that we will have to leave this land at some point. But it is no less true that everything would make sense if at death there really was a great prize: what we call Heaven.

The serpent has a special appetite for distorting the idea of Heaven within us, making us think that it is a boring place, always worshipping God, as if we were always praying. Seen in this way, the truth is that Heaven is not very appealing.

Heaven as a reward

Heaven, as Isaiah, St. Peter and St. John said in the Apocalypse, consists in the transformation of the present world into a new world. “new heavens and a new earth”.” (Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1) where we will exist with our own resurrected and glorious body that we can identify, that will obey us without complaining, that there will be no more suffering, no more pain, that we will be happy and every day that passes we will be happier, without feeling satiated, being with God eternally as in Eden, but in a big way, enjoying the promised inheritance on the new earth.

With this perspective in mind, what would we then think of the injustice of this life? Would we still think that God is unjust in allowing suffering if afterwards there is an immense and eternal reward? If we think like this, with our head set on Heaven but our feet on earth, would we not be beginning to think like God, with another perspective? Does our heart not rejoice considering these things?

We have to learn to live detached from this world, thinking that it is temporary and passing and that it will not be the same as the one to come. It will be better than Eden, which was the initial place God intended for man. Knowing this will give us a new perspective on life, and the hope of what God has promised will give us happiness even if we continue to suffer for things we do not understand.

If we were to consider more often this truth of the existence of the Heaven promised by God, we would then understand that the child born blind will later see more than anyone else, the poor, the hungry and the humiliated will possess the whole earth, the one who wept will not stop laughing and above all those who had a good, simple and clean heart will see the face of God.