The Problem of Evil and Suffering
Why does a loving, powerful God allow suffering? Explore the problem of evil and, above all, how belief shapes the way Christians respond to it.
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When suffering strikes 🤔
Illness, disasters, cruelty: suffering is everywhere. If God is **all-loving** and **all-powerful**, why does it happen? This is the **problem of evil**. For "Beliefs in Action", what matters most is how belief shapes a Christian's **response** to suffering.
Key terms ✝️
Learn these before you weigh the problem:
Match each term to its meaning
- Omnipotent
- Omnibenevolent
- Moral evil
- Natural evil
- All-powerful
- All-loving
- Suffering caused by human actions
- Suffering caused by nature
Moral or natural?
Which of these is an example of moral evil, caused by people?
- Cruelty and violence between people
- A hurricane
- A wildfire started by lightning
- A serious illness
The heart of the problem ⚖️
The problem runs like this: an **omnibenevolent** God would **want** to end suffering, and an **omnipotent** God could **do** it. Yet suffering continues. This seems to challenge belief in a God who is both all-loving and all-powerful.
How Christians respond 💡
Christians answer in several ways. The **free-will** argument: God gave humans real freedom, and moral evil is the price of that freedom. **Soul-making**: suffering can help people grow in compassion. Above all, many point to **Jesus**, who suffered on the cross, showing that God **shares** in human suffering, and they respond with prayer and charity.
Christian responses
Select the TWO Christian responses to the problem of evil.
- Free will means evil is the price of genuine freedom
- Responding with prayer, charity and compassion
- Concluding that God cannot exist
- Ignoring suffering completely
Match each response to its idea
- The free-will argument
- Soul-making
- The example of Jesus
- The Book of Job
- God allows freedom, which can be misused
- Suffering helps people develop virtues
- God shares in suffering on the cross
- Keeping faith even without full understanding
Belief in action
An interactive activity.
The problem of evil frame
The problem of evil asks why suffering exists if God is _____, all-powerful, and _____, all-loving. Suffering caused by people is _____ evil, while suffering caused by nature is _____ evil.
The free-will response
The free-will argument says that evil exists because...
- God gave humans genuine freedom to choose
- God is not really powerful
- God does not really love people
- There is no God at all
Apply the ideas
An interactive activity.
The responses frame
Christians respond to evil with the _____-will argument, the idea of _____-making through suffering, and the example of _____, who suffered on the cross. In action, they respond with prayer and _____.
Belief into action
An interactive activity.