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Father, I think this is the most common question, but yet I don’t know the answer to, if God is real, why is there so many kids and baby’s getting shot in countries like Syria?
Answer to Question 501 I have written many times on why God allows evil to exist in the world. It is a big subject which needs a big answer because there are so many questions concerning the existence of God.
If God exists and is all-powerful and all good, why does he allow evil to exist in the world? If there is a God, why does he allow earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, floods and other disasters, which man has no control over, to kill so many people? If there is a God, why does he allow wars? If there is a God, why does he allow children to die? If there is a God why doesn’t he perform a miracle and cure my illness? And the list can go on and on. These are questions I have posted in the past and will be reposting again sometime in the foreseeable future, but for now I will answer your question with the short version and hopefully it will be enough for you to understand.
As Adam’s children we inherit the consequences of his original sin; the fallen state of his human nature, but even though the image of God has been distorted in us, we still have God’s greatest gift of free will to choose between good and evil. Most of the evil that now exists in the world is by human choice, it is a direct consequence of our wrong choices as human beings. People choose to do evil rather than good. God can, if he so desired, intervene at every moment that anyone is going to make a wrong choice, but then we would no longer have free will and we would no longer be in his image. If God waved his magic wand every time we made a bad choice, we would merely be puppets controlled by a puppeteer who overruled our thoughts and actions. Would we then want to live in such a world, even if it meant we were insulated from suffering? Could we even speak of concepts such as ‘love’ without it being something freely given, and freely rejected?
The great gift of freedom and love that God has given us comes at the cost of the evil that people freely choose to carry out in the world. War is the main cause of human suffering but God is no way to blame for the choices of humans to kill each other. Did God tell Hitler to rid the world of six million Jews? Did God give his blessing to the Turks to invade Cyprus? Did God vote for Bush so that he could drop bombs on Baghdad? Did God tell terrorist to take over planes and fly them into buildings and kill unarmed civilians? Did God tell the suicide bomber to go to a concert full of children and blow them up? Who is responsible for all these evils in the world, is it not man himself? We cannot blame God for our own wrongdoings. He does not interfere because he respects man’s free choices and the truth is we would not accept him treating us like babies that need a “Nanny” to hold our hands every time we reach out to harm our fellow man.
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