God Is The Reason

Interesting question; in fact it had an answer. Yes, everything has a reasonable cause and effect as per Karma Theory. I studied and felt the impac, thus I am quoting it here. God definitely Grants good things to you, but it is our perception through which we look at that and find it bad. He does the best for you in the given situation considering the fact of your previous lives, your account of good and bad karmas, but any human being would not like to be counted on bad, it's nature. So even good sometimes looks like bad. Also, good for us is all about money, prosperity, health, wealth, welfare… but have we given any place to God in this, and that's why we feel bad sometimes when we find the medicine a little sour in taste.

I can't speak for all religions, but I can answer your question from a Greek Orthodox perspective. However, to answer this, you must go back to the purpose for which God designed us.

The Bible teaches that God loves us and Jesus straight tells us that the greatest commandment is to “love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” God created us with the sole intention of sharing his love with us and offering an eternal, loving relationship with Him and He calls us to the purpose of showing His love to others while here in life. But if this is to be our primary purpose and drive in life, then God had to design us with the ability to love. But love requires free choice. We must be free to choose whether or not we will follow this greatest commandment in order for it to truly be love. Otherwise, we are relegated to the status of automatons following the pre-programmed instructions of our designer. If we are not free to choose, then we are not free to love, and we cannot follow the greatest commandment. Likewise, He is a just God and will not force himself on those who don't want to love Him and be in His presence. Therefore, love necessitates free will, and any loving God who wanted us to embody that love toward Himself and each other must therefore impart free will onto us as well, even if it means that some people will use that free will to commit acts of evil. When people choose to act against God's moral law, the results are catastrophic.

To this, many people respond that an all powerful God could simply step in and prevent these terrible events. Kill the guy before he rapes the girl. Prevent the terrorist plot. Cause the gun to jam before the murder. This sounds great, but it raises the question of where God should draw the line. Jesus says holding anger in your heart is equivalent to murder - so should God kill a man who gets angry with someone else? Jesus says that staring at a woman in lust is equivalent to committing adultery with her - so should God gouge out our eyes so we can't commit adultery with beautiful people? The point is that many of our very thoughts and "harmless", private actions are contrary to God's moral law; so if God stepped in to prevent all moral evil, He would effectively be taking away our freedom of thought, and possibly our lives. We may want God to prevent the murders and rapings in the world, but as soon as we learn that we might not be free to watch a racy movie or we might drop dead for being angry at a certain political candidate, that prospect doesn't seem so great anymore.

So what sounds like a better definition of an “all loving” or “all good” God? One who will not force Himself on us, who gives us complete freedom to choose whether or not to love Him as He has intended for us; or One who commands your affection, and destroys you at the first instance of a thought or action that goes against His moral law? If you lean towards the former, then you must also embrace the possibility that some people will use that freedom to commit evil, terrible acts. In order for Hitler to be capable of love, God gave him the ability to choose freely his own actions - unfortunately Hitler abused that freedom. If even Jesus was not spared pain and destruction at the hands of men who choose evil, none of us should expect any different for ourselves.

But this only addresses half the problem of evil. There is also the question of evils that are not a direct result of human agency - i.e. natural disasters, a.k.a. Natural Evil. The Bible teaches that our world reflects the broken state of our own sin. Before addressing why God might allow creation to be in such a state, let's put things in perspective.

We should take note of the incredible difference between natural events on Earth compared to other places in the universe. Venus has active volcanoes on 80% of its surface. The "Red Spot" on Jupiter is a cyclone storm larger than two entire Earths and has been active for at least hundreds of years. So while our planet does contain these natural events, their size and scope are well controlled so as to maintain the development and survival of complex life, which is something amazing in and of itself.

And let's not forget that the same forces that lead to these events also contribute significantly to many of the things we enjoy in our planet, and are essential to supporting complex life. The same plate tectonics that cause earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis are what formed the mountains and ski slopes, and help to recycle nutrients from the ocean floors back into the biosphere. The entire chain of Hawaiian Islands comes from lava flows and volcanic activity. The frequent flooding of the Nile river distributes nutrients across the local soil for fertile agriculture. The same forces that bring tornados and hurricanes complete the water cycle and make possible agriculture and infrastructure. Sometimes in our emotional distress, it is difficult to see beyond the present catastrophe and understand that these processes might actually serve a purpose that enables complex life to exist in the first place or draw more people to God.

But God didn't have to design the laws of nature such that life required a trade off in natural disasters - so then why might God allow creation to reflect a broken state; why might He allow Natural Evil in the first place? Here is at least my theory on the matter. God allows creation to reflect our broken state specifically to pull at our heartstrings and wake us up to the idea that things are not the way they should be - something is wrong, not just unpleasant to our own opinions, but objectively wrong. Think of it like the nervous system in the body. Yes it serves to bring pleasure at the physical touch of a loved one, but it also brings pain when something is wrong. There is a genetic disorder called Congenital Analgesia, where the person cannot feel pain. Sounds great, but if this child breaks her arm, she may not know it's broken and it won't heal properly which can cause drastic side effects during growth. If this man steps on a nail, he may not realize until the infection has already spread to his entire foot causing potential loss of limbs. If this child places his hand on a hot burner, he could unknowingly burn all the skin from his hand before he realizes something is wrong. So physical pain plays a very important part in warning us that something is wrong with our body - that things are not the way they should be - and that we should seek help. When things are perfect, no one seeks help from the doctor. It's only when we're in pain, when our body is afflicted by a sickness or disease that we seek help. Same is true with God. When things are going great, money is flowing, the house is functional, the family is healthy, it's so easy for us to sit back and enjoy life without so much as thinking about God at all. But when a loved one dies, when we face our own mortality, when we lose a job or a house, when we witness massive loss of life in a natural disaster, only then do we start asking bigger questions about life and God, and seek help. Church attendance skyrocketed after 9/11 in the US, filled with people looking for relief from the pain, answers to questions, and just looking for someone to whom they can ask the question: why? So from the Greek Orthodox perspective, it makes perfect sense that God would allow natural evil, because pain speaks to our senses so much more loudly than does momentary pleasure. I believe God takes our pain, our discomfort, our envy, and even our loss, and uses it to force us to ask questions like this with the intention of drawing more people to Him. Just as our pain receptors tell us that something is wrong with our body, God allows natural evil to exist to inform us that there is something wrong with our world, that things aren't the way they should be.

Also, think about the massive efforts of people after Hurricanes in Texas and Florida in the US. Recall that for just a few days, people (the same people who verbally abuse each other for voting a different way, or who kill each other for no reason at all) banded together - regardless of age, race, religion, or political affiliation - to go help others in need. We forgot about our own selfish lives for two seconds and dedicated our time and money to help those who needed it - that is exactly the teaching left for us by Jesus. So maybe, just maybe, God allows natural evil to exist simply to wake us up from our own tendency toward narcissism and force us to actually take care of fellow human beings - to love them as He intends for us to do.

The world we want, one without pain, without suffering, without tears, without death…that is exactly what God is offering us. He tells us that after the end of our universe, those who sought and loved God in this life will spend eternity with Him and in perfect fellowship with all other Christians in a new creation, where there will be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, and no more pain, because these things will have passed away. It is my sincere belief that God uses our longing for such a life as a catalyst to draw us toward Him and His offer of a perfect loving relationship with Himself. Pain, suffering, heartache, loss...these things scream at our senses, waking us up to a desire for meaning and purpose so much more than does pleasure and comfort.

So for me, it all comes back to the reason He created us - to share His love with us for eternity. Some people may not want to share in that love, and that's fine. But if natural evil reminds us that this life is not our intended destination, that things really are broken, that there is something better to be had, then I see no reason for God not to allow it to happen. If moral evil is a necessary result of a loving God designing us with the capacity to love and giving us the freedom to live it out, and if moral evil wakes us up to the existence of objective moral values and duties that have clearly been violated in such instances, then it makes perfect sense that God would allow it to happen. The only "god" whose existence is threatened by the problem of evil is the one whose sole desire and purpose is to make your life as happy and comfortable as possible - but that is not the God of the Bible. He wants something so much better for us than a mere 80 years of comfort and pleasure, but we're too short-sighted to see it. C.S. Lewis summarized this phenomenon best:

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."