Illness, Suffering, and the Problem of Evil

During my first depressive episode I ran smack into Christianity's biggest theological dilemma -- the problem of evil. Why was God letting this happen to me? I couldn't see any possible purpose to suffering of such magnitude, especially at the tender age of 15.

Everyone collides with the reality of suffering eventually. Some face it much earlier than I did -- children who lose parents or experience abuse at a young age may never remember a time when it wasn't part of their understanding of the world. For most of us, however, it's a loss of innocence that accompanies suffering, either directly experienced or indirectly observed, that radically shifts our perspective on the human condition.

In theological jargon the answer to the problem of evil is called a "theodicy". The problem theodicies address is the seeming inconsistency of the existence of both evil in the world and a supposedly all-powerful, all-knowing, and entirely benevolent God. In Old Testament terms, it's not so much the question of why Eve ate the apple, as why God let her.  

Responses from the world's traditions run the gamut from "people bring evil on themselves" (think Pat Robertson's claim that the people of Haiti brought on an earthquake by turning away from God), to "there are two opposing forces of good and evil" (think Star Wars theology--loosely rooted in the dualism of ancient religions like Persia's Zoroastrianism and an early Christian heretical branch, Gnosticism). 

I grew up a mainline Methodist. I don't remember the Church promoting any one canonical explanation of evil -- since theologians can't figure it out I don't think the Church expected us to. But the question arose, as it always does, when members suffered pain and loss. One common explanation I heard growing up was that our limited perception prevents us from understanding God's purpose for our suffering (I'll call this the "mystery" approach).

(Theodicy is less a problem for eastern religions. As I understand it, Buddhism denies a personal God, reasoning that suffering comes from attachment. 

Here's a website that provides a short summary of the theodicies of several Christian traditions that is worth looking at if you want to explore comparative theodicies further: Explanation of Christian/Jewish theodicies.) 

Each theodicy has its shortcomings. The dualistic "Star Wars" theodicy denies the omnipotence and singularity of God (after all, it supposes an equally powerful co-existent evil force in the world); the Pat Robertson theology denies God's total benevolence; and the mainline Protestant approach seems to punt the intellectual problem into the realm of "mystery" instead of pursuing a comprehensible answer.

Another reconciliation of God with evil is presented by Rabbi Harold Kushner in his best-seller "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People," a book he wrote in response to his son's death at age 14 from Progeria, a rare disease that causes premature aging. Kushner reasons that God is all-knowing and all-loving, but not all powerful. He can sit with us in our suffering, but cannot prevent it. Again, this approach denies a fundamental trait of God. 

So why do we suffer? Can suffering and evil be reconciled with the divine attributes of God? I've never found a satisfactory answer. True, I may just be unable to see it, maybe "everything happens for a reason," but it's hard to believe that my  spiritual vision is that bad.

I have a hard time imagining why God would allow someone to experience what, in my case, I can only characterize as unadulterated suffering. When I see what others endure I'm just as perplexed. Why does God allow a person to become homeless? Why does God allow anger, bitterness, misunderstanding? Why does God allow murder, war, and rape?  

I don't know. For a long time the contradiction made me sympathetic to agnosticism and atheism--perhaps the most humane responses to the problem of evil because they fully acknowledge a sufferer's pain and the feeling of meaninglessness that so often accompanies it. They acknowledge this complexity by admitting that it makes no sense.

I'm not sure that there is a good answer. For me, suffering hasn't made me more faithful in a traditional Western sense, but I've become open to eastern interpretations of the divine, or less traditional western explanations of God's presence. What I find interesting is that some people become do more faithful in their suffering -- a testament to how individual and unique each person's experience with the same disease can be. 

Comments

[Katie]

Nina- thoughtful post as always. I went in mental circles around and around this question for years, sis, as you might have guessed. Kushner's way of thinking provided me a lot of comfort for a full year, and I still come back to it sometimes...I interpreted his philosophy to be more along the lines of this: God has the power to turn all bad things that we go through into good for his purposes if we invite him to act in our lives. And, I've sincerely found that to be true; the relationship is central to this belief for me, though. I know I'll never have the kind of divine answers that explain the reason for the existence of evil in the world, but I conclude that 1) the earth was never meant to be heaven-our earthly life is temporary, fleeting, and flawed, since we have both limited understanding and free will, and 2) happiness and goodness are defined by their opposites, pain/sadness and evil, and exist alongside each other in the universe. I believe this dualism exists, but I still appreciate the difficulty of having to grapple with the "why?" question when horrible things happen. I feel like all anyone can do is speak from experience- and for me, my interpretation of God managed to turn a disastrous situation into a coherent, hopeful future.

[Sonyas World]

Great treatise on suffering. My wife and I approach this from pretty different angles right now. I've tended to become more spiritual, but less traditionally Catholic, about suffering. When my wife was largely based in good and evil, god and the devil, that sort of stuff. As such, she's angry at God. Very angry. That anger doesn't seem to be going anywhere any time soon. Hopefully she will start making peace with it soon and be able to look at the question of her suffering in a sophisticated way like this.