Still Searching

My sister Judy recommended several weeks ago that I read the fiction book entitled The Shack by William P. Young. It has been a bestseller for quite some time and is now number one on the paperback list. It basic story centers around a man who is searching for answers from God after the abduction and murder of his young daughter Missy. His question centers on a basic conern we have had for thousands of years: Why does God permit evil, pain, and suffering in the world? I am still not sure we have an answer--or that we ever will.

Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great, have recently presented arguments that religion is the cause of great misery in the world. Other writers, like Bart Ehrman in his book God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer, have argued that perhaps God does not exist because no one has ever been able adequately to explain suffering.

Young's arguments are basically traditional ones from the organized church. Yes, God loves us greatly and gave his Son Jesus for our sins, but He also gave us free will and independence to choose either good or evil. God is with us in all pain and suffering, yet he does not always choose to intervene.

The area in which I have the most trouble understanding occurs when children, like Missy in Young's book, are hurt by adults who choose to do evil. I would think that, if ever God would intervene, it would be in these cases to protect the ones He most loves.

As for the many explanations that are continually given to explain pain and suffering, or to repudiate the belief in God, none have ever been sufficient for me. I am still searching for answers.