Suffering and Evil – For our benefit?

by Philip Sudwoth.

This is part of two of a series which began with last week’s article.

It is often suggested that the world God designed was good and did not originally contain any suffering or evil. It is expected that, when Jesus returns, he will remove suffering and evil from the world and return it to a state of perfection. But would an absence of suffering and evil really create an ideal world?

Once all danger, effort, and suffering are removed, there’s no scope for the best human qualities.  Without danger there’s no courage; without shortages, no generosity; without struggle, no achievement; without hurt, no compassion; without uncertainty, no hope or faith; without sacrifice, no self-giving love. If there were no death, none of us, and none of those whom we have known and loved, would ever have been born, because the world would have been full up long ago.  Without the deep inter-personal feelings that can lead to grief and heartache, we would never be able to enjoy the wonderful intimate love of the special people with whom we’ve shared so many moments of joy, fun and quiet togetherness.  Without the freedom to act wrongly, there’s no virtue.  If everything were perfect, there would be no room for development and progress, for vision, or for challenge.  This may seem to be an imperfect world, but our responses to these very imperfections have given rise to all the creativity, love and self-sacrifice and the glorious diversity that God has developed in humanity. 

For parents one of the most difficult things is to allow your children to make mistakes, particularly ones that can lead to them into harm.  Yet, if we want them to grow into mature and confident adults, we cannot always be there to catch them before they fall.  Few learn to ride a bike without incurring a few grazes.  As they grow up into young adults, they will acquire emotional hurts too, as they learn to handle relationships.  Part of our love for them is to help them to become independent from us.  While continuing to offer support, we must gradually give up all control over them.  When they make key life decisions, we can offer advice, but the choices – and the consequences – have to be theirs. 

If we have free will, God can have no direct control over us.  We cannot be free to choose good unless we are equally free to choose evil or to hurt others or ourselves.  We must take the consequences of our decisions and actions and of those that flow from other people.  We cannot expect God to suspend the physical laws of the universe every time we or others make a wrong decision. 

If one believes in life beyond death in which the person continues to develop spiritually, suffering in the present life can be seen in the context of a much broader total picture.  It is one experience amongst many, a way of giving people insights into what is really important as a preparation for a new existence. John Keats saw this world as a ‘vale of soul-making’.¹  ‘Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a Soul.’[1]  Several of the epistles show that the early Christians, many of whom suffered persecution and even martyrdom for their faith, not only gained comfort from Christ in their adversity but considered it a means of grace, and a cause of joy, to suffer for him. 

Romans 5:3 sees the role of suffering in creating “perseverance, character and hope.”    However, while a saintly person may be helped to new heights of spirituality through the experience of pain, what is the possible benefit to a once intelligent and caring person who has a severe stroke, and spends their last months unable to recognize their family, doubly incontinent and in constant pain?  How does the painful death of a young child contribute to its spiritual growth?

Those who feel that pain is ennobling maintain that God never asks us to carry more of a burden than we can bear.  However, there are also those who are crushed by tragedies that befall them, some who are bitter for the rest of their lives, or who are scarred mentally. Suicide is the greatest cause of death in the UK for men aged between 19 and 49. Legislation to make available assisted dying to relieve intolerable suffering is now within parliamentary process in the UK towards new law being enacted.  When a drunk driver kills a pillar of the community who is the parent of a young family or a fatal disease strikes down a child, there is a sense of lack of fulfilment.  In each of these situations, there is the effect on those left afterwards to consider. For many people the suffering they bear continues to be without purpose, and there are no simple resolutions.

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[1] Forman M.B. (1952) – The Letters of John Keats (Oxford University press).