Proceso de recogida de datos: instrumentación

How would an atheist define evil? He might say evil is something that is bad or unpleasant. Well, then what is “bad” or “unpleasant”? It’s when things aren’t “good.”

Well, what is “good”? This tactic of asking questions like a four-year-old has a payoff, even if it can be annoying. At this point, I see no other alternative to describing “good”

except as,“the way things are meant to be,” from which it would follow that evil occurs when things,“are not the way they are supposed to be.”

But if everything is supposed to “be a certain way,” then it follows there is a creator and designer of the world who has a plan for his creation—in a word, God. An atheist could reword the problem of evil by calling it simply “the problem of pain” and describe pain as a negative feeling toward something. Now, this would evade the “evil is evidence of God” argument, but it wouldn’t solve it, because we still have a firm idea that evil is real and can be defined only by contrast with the way things ought to be—with some grand design in the universe.

Theists can say that while what we consider to be evil may count against God’s existence, all the other evidence for God’s existence (like the universe being designed to be a certain way) outweighs the evidence for atheism, and we can still be confident that God exists. This approach to the problem involves reversing Rowe’s original evidential argument from evil to show that it is more likely God exists than it is that pointless evils exists. Rowe’s original argument said that if pointless evils exist, then God does not.

However, if God does exist, then the evils we see aren’t pointless. They would instead be a part of God’s plan. This is like saying, “If I am in New York, then I am in the U.S.” is just as true as the statement “If I am not in the U.S., then I am not in New York.”¹³³

From our limited vantage point, we may not be able to see the good God can achieve, even hundreds of years into the future, from the evils that occur now. Instead, our positive evidence of the existence of God forces us into a position where even if we don’t understand why God allows evil we must say, as Abraham did, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”¹³⁴

In order to show God does not exist, it is the atheist who has the burden of proof to show that God would have no good reasons to permit evil. And given the limitations of human knowledge of the universe, this means that such a burden of proof simply can’t be met. Since we can imagine some good reasons God may have to allow evil, and we recognize that we can’t fully understand the goods that can emerge in other times and places as a result of allowing evil to exist, the theist is not in a position where he must give up belief in God in the face of evil.

Of course, the problem of reconciling evil with a loving God is still a mystery, and one that can’t be fully explained, but I think there are compelling reasons to show that evil and suffering do not disprove the existence of God. Atheists don’t have an easy solution to the problem of evil because their conclusion—God does not exist—collides with the equally mysterious problem of good. Why, if there is no God, is there so much love, goodness, and beauty in the world? Why do humans seem so valuable, even those who suffer greatly, when under atheism humans are just a collection of molecules and electrical impulses?

The explanation of why evil exists is an emotional problem for theists, because we are not privy to the reasons God has for allowing certain evils. Since evil is merely a corruption of the good and has no real existence of its own, it follows that there is no logical problem in explaining why good and evil exist. However, the problem of explaining why goodness, or “oughtness” (i.e., that things “ought to be a certain way”)

—or even why anything at all exists as opposed to nothing—is a much more serious problem for atheists. I will explore these issues in the remaining chapters of this book.

The emotional problem of evil

Even if God had good reasons to allow suffering to occur, that still seems like an empty response. Evangelical pastor Timothy Keller writes:

A woman in my church once confronted me about sermon illustrations in which evil events turned out for good. She had lost a husband in an act of violence during a robbery. She had also had several children with severe mental and emotional problems. She insisted that for every one story in which evil turns out for good, there are one hundred in which there is no conceivable silver lining.¹³⁵

What makes this emotional problem of evil so difficult is that a suffering person is usually not able to objectively examine logical arguments for or against the existence of God. Instead, he just wants the pain to go away or else to find someone to blame for it.

The best solution to this problem is not Christian apologetics but simply Christ. Keller answers the woman’s charge against God by saying that although “Christianity does not provide the reason for each experience of pain, it provides the resources for actually facing suffering with hope and courage rather than bitterness and despair.”¹³⁶

By offering others Christ’s hand to hold, his shoulder to cry on, and his words to soothe, Christians spread God’s love and give an answer to suffering. We remember that we can “do all things in Christ who strengthens us.”¹³⁷ We can point out that even if God did not exist, suffering would still exist. We can show that it is better to live in a world where God is apparently silent but there is future redemption than in a world where God is actually absent and in the end evil and injustice are never vanquished. Even better than a bland deistic god, the Christian God understands suffering and has come to Earth to redeem man from that suffering.

Not happiness, but holiness

If God’s only purpose were to make us happy—free of pain, full of pleasure—then the suffering in the world might indeed seem pointless. But God’s true purpose is not that creatures be merely happy but that they come to know him and become truly like him:

courageous, just, fair, compassionate, merciful, and loving. Ancient philosophers and sages understood that happiness is more than feeling good; it involves being good. For them, a person could be truly “happy” or complete only when he became virtuous, not when he had overdosed on pleasure-inducing chemicals in the brain. Even the utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill recognized that pleasure is not the ultimate good in life when he said, “Better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.”¹³⁸

Some atheists argue that, even if God and evil are not incompatible, God should comfort his children when they suffer. They say, “If a father takes his daughter to the hospital for a painful surgery that will help her, he can at least explain to her why it is happening. Even if she is too young to understand, he can at least soothe her pain and reassure her that he is there for her. This is something that God routinely fails to do.”

It could be argued that God does comfort his children by giving them grace to endure evil and face it with noble courage. We see this grace in martyrs like Maximilian Kolbe who gave his life in a Nazi starvation bunker so that a man with children could live.

Atheists may object that God should audibly explain the reasons for every aspect of evil in our life or he should miraculously cause pain relievers to flow in our bodies when we are hurt. But why is God obligated to give us such knowledge or to soothe every pain we experience?

An automatic explanation for our suffering may compromise some of the goods God intends to bring from that suffering. Imagine a man and his wife who are planning to divorce. They are legally separated and the man is hiking in the woods when he twists his ankle. He asks God, “Why would you allow me to suffer like this?” God answers,

“Because, Bob, you will follow that creek to the nearest highway to find help, and providentially your wife will drive by and pick you up because you’re injured. This will result in a chain of events that will eventually save your marriage.” Bob responds, “But I hate that witch. I’m going to keep to the trail instead so I don’t run into her.”

Furthermore, pain may be an integral part of the life of free creatures, and we might be stunted as moral agents if God always removed it. C. S. Lewis recognized this: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”¹³⁹

But why, God?

When we are in the midst of suffering, we don’t want an answer, we want help. That is what makes the emotional problem of evil so difficult to answer. Sometimes, the sufferings of other people can help us understand why God allows terrible things to happen. Nick Vujicic was born without arms or legs and was so depressed as a child that he tried to drown himself in a bathtub. However, after coming to know God and seeing that his life was not an accident, Nick was transformed. Seeing God’s purpose in his life, Nick travels the world to share how God’s love penetrates our deepest suffering. Nick writes in his book Life without Limits:

Sometimes, of course, our prayers are not answered. Tragedies occur despite our prayers and our faith. Even the best people with the purest hearts sometimes suffer horrible losses and grief. . . .

Even in the worst situations that seem beyond our capacities, God knows how much our hearts can bear. I hold on to the belief that our life here is temporary, as we are being prepared for eternity. Whether our lives here are good or bad, the promise of heaven awaits. I always have hope in the most difficult times that God will give me strength to endure the challenges and the heartache and that better days

await, if not on this earth then for certain in heaven.

One of the best ways I’ve found for holding on even when our prayers are not answered is to reach out to others. If your suffering is a burden, reach out to ease that of someone else and bring hope to them. Lift them up so that they will be comforted with the knowledge that they are not alone in their suffering. Offer compassion when you need it. Be a friend when you need friendship. Give hope when you most need it.

I am young and I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but more and more I realize that in those times when hopelessness seems to prevail, when our prayers go unanswered, and when our worst fears are realized, our salvation lies in our relationships with those around us and, especially for me and fellow Christians, in our relationship with God and our trust in his love and wisdom.¹⁴⁰

Does pointless suffering disprove God?

Atheist: I think God, if he exists, is still utterly incompetent, because there is so much evil in the world.

Theist: So you’re saying it makes it really unlikely there is a God?

A: Yeah, like what about earthquakes or tsunamis? Those aren’t caused by people,