Why does God allow suffering?

A meditation

Jul 05, 2025

Despite all I’ve learned in my recent theological journey, one big question is yet to be answered:

Assuming that God is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful, why does He allow suffering?

I’m familiar with a fraction of this pain myself; far worse tragedies have transpired than those I’ve endured—my point being that (1) this is a personal question as much as it is a theoretical question, and (2) there is an undeniably tremendous, incomprehensible-to-most amount of suffering in the world.

Of this suffering, we can partition, so to speak, two separate camps:

“Justified” and “unjustified,” justified meaning not that it is necessarily “fair,” but that there is a greater reason, a cause that led to the suffering, and unjustified meaning that there seems to be no greater reason whatsoever.

The first is easy: people suffer when they sin, when they “stray from their design” (this includes the fact that other people suffer when people sin—for example, a baby still in the womb suffers when a mother drinks alcohol).

But the second is far more difficult: when people (and animals) who are completely innocent—meaning they have not strayed from their Biblical design—endure pain.

Now, I’ve heard that a great deal of suffering, even that which seems inexplicable, can be explained via the straying from our design argument. For example, we might wonder why cancer—a seemingly sourceless, near-malevolent disease—is so prevalent these days, but the Biblical response to this could be that there would be no cancer if society hadn’t strayed so far from Biblical principles. Meaning that if, for instance, all humans ate a sort of diet intended for our consumption (as detailed in, say, Genesis), then there would naturally be less “suffering.” That is a pill, though difficult, I can swallow.

But the one thing I can’t seem to make sense of is the Alex O’Connor sort of question—why would God allow a zebra to be mauled to death by a lion?

In other words, the fact of the matter is that truly innocent beings suffer not as a consequence of straying from Biblical design—or, in other words, as a consequence of sin—but because suffering is woven into the fabric of reality. Meaning that God—who is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful—created the world such that certain beings would inevitably endure horrific pain (I’d put being mauled to death by a lion in the “horrific” category).

Some people might say that a zebra is a lower-consciousness animal than a human (which insinuates that a zebra might not experience pain in the same way a human does—and no, I’m not gonna get into wondering, right now, whether or not animals can be entered into Heaven, or whether they can sin, etc.). So I’ll rephrase it like this: surely, it must be the case that certain innocent human beings have suffered as a consequence of completely natural phenomena, right?

I mean, you can say that even though innocent people have suffered as a result of something like war, their suffering was a consequence of sin—mistakes that led to the war. But you can’t deny the fact that other people, people so young they haven’t had the opportunity to sin (let’s just set aside the idea of original sin for a moment), have suffered as a result of things happening in accordance with their design (for example, children have been the victims of natural disasters over which human beings and their sins had no influence).

Perhaps a theologian might point to original sin as an explanation (although I do understand that there is debate over original sin—I don’t totally have a grasp on the concept yet).

Nevertheless, it remains a difficult question. A very difficult question. How and why would an all-loving god let his people suffer?

And I’ll tell you right now: I don’t have the answer. I don’t think anyone does, no matter how scripturally-versed they may be. I may even go so far as to posit that even if there is an answer (which I believe there is, since I am a believer), we might simply be incapable of comprehending it as a result of the limits of our biology . . . Similar to how certain hardware lacks the capability to process certain software.

Several side notes before I continue:
I’m reminded of how a parent often must tell a child “no” without providing an explanation—for example, a kid may want to go to a party, but the parent may not allow it because he or she knows bad things could happen at the party—because the child simply would not understand and would not be satisfied with the explanation, having not yet grown up themselves. Not exactly apples to apples here . . . Maybe apples to pears??
Not all pain is bad. As noted in one of my podcasts, pain can actually be a guide, a sort of compass as we move through life. Because if pleasure were our only guide, then we’d very quickly end up in a bad situation (to say the least). Better yet, we often have to push through pain in order to acquire or become something better. Which leads me to . . .
I’m reminded of this quote from the movie Jurassic World that goes something like, “You can’t have the appearance of a predator without the corresponding characteristics.” Meaning, in this context, that all the good and beautiful things in life—all there is for us humans to appreciate and enjoy—could not be possible without the corresponding atrocities. That if we are capable of feeling discomfort, there must be an extreme end of that discomfort. That a birth would not be so beautiful if there were no death. That a win would not be so awesome if there were no loss. So on and so forth.
Is life just a test? An opportunity to be a part of the most amazing thing in the physical universe? A sort of field, or stadium, a place in which we contend with darkness? If there were no suffering, human or animal, there would be no point in living. We might as well, then, just exist in eternity. So why would God not just bring us into eternity in the first place?

But is the most sensical conclusion, then, atheism? Just because we can’t understand why these certain horrible things happen, assuming, again, that God is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful, does that logically mean He’s not real?

What I find so interesting—what I’ve witnessed in my own journey—is that I’ve never endured so much pain myself that I’ve been turned away from God. In fact, this supposition (that if God is all-powerful and all-loving and whatnot then he shouldn’t allow suffering) is entirely hypothetical. Meaning that, in theory, it’s a seemingly sound question, but in practice, it seems to be the case that people are actually more likely to turn to God in suffering (and really, who are we to say it is unjust for an all-powerful, all-loving being to allow suffering?).

Indeed, it is often only in their darkest hours that people open their hearts to God.

And if you take into account the Jordan Peterson proposition that pain—because it is something nobody can deny, something that everyone can agree on, in essence—is the most real thing, and that, therefore, the solution to pain is even more real, things get even more interesting.

And it’s not that a relationship with God will make you rich and famous, as mentioned in a previous post, and it may even take you away from those things you desire (because what you desire may not align with what mission you’re designed for). But it does give you what may almost be called a tool, or a method, a way of dealing with the deepest, most existential sort of suffering, a way more infallible than what solutions clinical psychology and psychiatry have in store today.

I mean, the atheists can purport that it is all simply just a convenient and practical delusion, and that just because the Bible helps people through suffering doesn’t mean it’s “legitimate.” But that argument feels overly assumptive. Better yet, it feels like a desperate attempt to quickly overlook something that demands a little more rigorous inquiry.

Why don’t people suffering the worst, most horrible injustices deny God? Why do they, instead, turn to Him? And why does the Bible make such incredible sense? You know, we think we are so smart, so advanced a society . . . but the Bible, like the Pyramids of Giza, would be a supernatural feat by today’s standards! How did this thing come into being so long ago, in a society most people think was far less advanced than our own?

Are you really going to deny, for this one simple fact of suffering, that something truly extraordinary, something literally inexplicable, is going on here?

Of course, this still doesn’t resolve the hypothetical (that being why does God allow such horrible pain?). But it does add some context to it. It does, for the most logical intellect, necessitate further inquiry.

To hop on the atheism train just seems entirely anti-logical.

And yes, if you want to call yourself an agnostic, by all means. But the atheism stance does not make sense. It contradicts itself. You cannot know that God isn’t real any more than you can. You might believe God isn’t real. But you cannot know it.

Anyway, friends, these are just some thoughts I’ve been having, thoughts I wanted to share with you guys today, as I’m sure it is the question, on the fourth of July weekend, that’s most at the top of your mind. (Just kidding.)

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Why does God allow suffering?

A meditation

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