Lord You Are Good Analysis

There are instances of intense suffering which an omnipotent, omniscient being could have prevented without thereby losing some greats good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse

The existence of pain and suffering in a world created by a good and almighty God is a fundamental theological dilemma and may be the most serious objection to the Christian religion. In the book, The Problem Of Pain , author C.S. Lewis addresses the issue of pain as a mere problem that demands a solution; he formulates it and goes about solving it. "If God were good, He would make His creatures perfectly happy, and if He were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both" (p. 16). According to Lewis, this is the problem of pain in its simplest form. In his attempt to solve the problem of pain Lewis evaluates the past and the origin of religion, he

Many of the choices we make, using our free will, lead to suffering. We participate in risky behavior, without thinking of the consequences. For example, people that smoke have greater chances of developing health problem (e.g., cancer), which results in pain and suffering. This type of suffering is caused by our errors and mistakes. Many of the choice we make have consequences, but is it is impossible to live in a way in which we do not take risks. Furthermore, God's existence comes from intellect and not the sense, but suffering is felt through through our senses, whether it be external or internal pain. Suffering is adventitious and not

What comes to mind when the word 'suffering' is mentioned? It usually brings up images of pain, hardship, and unpleasantness. However, C. S. Lewis brings new meaning to suffering in The Screwtape Letters. In one of the letters, Screwtape writes to Wormwood about the paradoxial use that God makes of our suffering. By the end of Chapter 8, the reader is left to see that suffering itself can be more powerful than times of ease and happiness in drawing someone closer to God.

Hi Nyla, nice post! I agree with your comment, I think a person is more vulnerable when they’re experiencing distress verses when things are going well. I believe when things start to spiral when a person believes that it cannot happen to them and their in change of a situation. It often leads from being controlled to uncontrollable especially when pleasure is involved. A person may began as an occasional user or using in moderation. A person’s mind tricks them into believing that they may be able to handle their consumption or intake all the while forgetting that one may become many when dealing with pressures, escaping, having fun, or is septitable from family history traits of abuse. A person’s heart speaks values to intervene to them as

Why Does God allow suffering? This question is probably as old as religion itself. It is a stumbling block for some of us, and for many more at given moments of tragedy. There are as many answers to this question as there are people who care to engage in theological dialogue. One understanding is that yes, God allows "bad" things to happen; God does not cause them to happen.

That being said, I respect greatly the continued humble position that he takes in this book of reaffirming that he is not a theologian, but a layman who is doing his best to reason through, in this case, the Problem of Pain. This humility is present as a precursor to the main meat of his argument that being: an omnipotent God whom is sovereign in a world that is pain filled, in that he admits that this is merely his best conception of what is God’s true Intrinsic Impossibility. Whittling down Lewis’ argument to a far too simplistic paraphrase: He states that because God has created a World with natural laws, and men with a free will He is only able to act supernaturally so often while still having these laws and freedom remaining. Illustrating the free will of man being usurped by the power of God "impossibly", one could think of a man wishing to kill another by pulling the trigger of his gun only to find that, his bullet has in fact turned into a feather.

As Christians, we claim that God is all powerful and compassionate, and that he is omnipresent, meaning he is everywhere all the time. The biggest argument against the presence of God here on earth is that, even with these characteristics, God seems to be incapable or reluctant to put an end to the infinite amount of hardships, darkness, and suffering in the world. While I understand this stance, I believe that God’s intentions are always pure and good, and come with perfect intent. Without pain and suffering in our lives, God would be nothing more than a genie in a bottle that we go to only when we need something. This idea is described perfectly in an article called, “How God Uses Suffering for His Glory” written by, “Randy Alcorn”, it states, “God uses suffering to purge sin from our lives, strengthen our commitment to him, force us to depend on his grace, foster sensitivity, discipline our minds, and impart wisdom. And once he accomplishes such great things, often we can see that our suffering has been worth it” (4). This explains that God has a purpose for everything, even suffering. His purpose is to make your spiritual life obvious to everybody you came into contact with, and make it apparent that he is in fact present, here on earth, all of the time! God wants to be sought out, so if you are waiting for God to come to

This question had always been brought up throughout history; If there is a God, and He is all loving and powerful, why would He let there be suffering in the world? There are a few answers in which I think would answer this question, such as human’s free will, and God’s desire to use suffering to exercise and to teach people. As a Christian, I believe God created suffering to give us the freedom to choose to rely and to turn toward Him or to turn away from Him. In some sense, it is as if it was a test, if we believe in God, regardless of the suffering and pain, we will trust in Him to bring marked the end of the suffering for us.

Although they provide different rationalizations for why gods allow humans to suffer, Seneca and writers in the Old Testament and New Testament all agree that suffering is always beneficial in the end. The writers agree that without suffering, humans would not be able to live successful lives. Seneca writes, “[Hardships] benefit the individuals to whose lot they fall, and, in the second place, they benefit the whole body of mankind” (“On Providence,” 32). Humans are at least partially responsible for this positive outcome, however. He further writes, “[Good men] must not shrink from hardship and difficulty or complain of fate; they should take whatever befalls in good part and turn it to advantage” (“On Providence,” 30). By identifying the greatest men who are best able to turn their sufferings into positives, the entire community will improve, according to Seneca. Without suffering hardships, humans are not able to live the best lives possible for them. Seneca uses soldiers as an example; “[T]hough those who returned from the fray unhurt may have fought as well,” he writes, “the man who brings back a wound is more respected” (“On Providence,” 37). In life, those who face the hardest struggles and still live productive lives should be honored and stand as an example to the whole community.

What is “freewill”? Freewill is the ability for us and only us as humans to control our faith and to a certain extent, our destiny. Without the attribute of freewill our lives would become very simple and meaningless, with no end goal to our lives. Did God create suffering so we could choose between good and evil? As children of God, He gave us the power of freewill at birth, whether to be upright or malicious. He gave us the choice to be blissful and go to Heaven or to sin and suffer then go to Hell. Suffering is a key component in every aspect of freewill. Without suffering freewill would not exist. There needs to be consequences for every action we take throughout our lives, without consequences our lives would be pre-determined and extremely

The central argument that Lewis puts forth in The Problem of Pain, is that it is man’s free will that is responsible for the suffering in the world rather than God’s will or lack of goodness. He states, what he believes to be the problem of pain in it’s simplest form, that, “If God were good, He would make His creatures perfectly happy, and if He were almighty He would be able to do what he wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both. The possibility of answering it depends on showing that the terms ‘good’ and ‘almighty’, and perhaps also the term ‘happy’, are equivocal: for it must be admitted from the outset that if the popular meanings attached to these words are the best, or the only possible, meaning, then the argument is

Author explained in his sermon why God allows Tragedy and suffering in .... He said that God did not create suffering; mankind did. God gave us free will in order for us to truly love Him, but mankind decided to turn away from Him. When humans rebelled, sin entered the earth and corrupted nature and human morality. We are the ones who choose whether we sin or not, and that creates an effect resulting in a tragedy or a blessing.

Lewis begins chapter two with God Almighty, by questioning the meaning of God’s omnipotence. He asserts that God’s omnipotence means that God does not have the power to do anything but God does have power to do anything that is consistent with his nature. “God has the power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. We may attribute miracles to him, but not nonsense.” Lewis then suggests that not even God’s omnipotence could create men with free wills without at the same time creating a relatively independent and unavoidable nature. Lewis establishes a universe where free souls can communicate with one another and have free will. That man, possessing this free will, may take advantage of the laws of

If God loves us, why does He allow us to suffer? The central question in Shadowlands challenges traditional religious and moral conventions. It is a question asked by many, with few satisfactory answers. Before attempting to answer the question, and explore its relationship to Shadowlands, let us first define the question, so its implications may be more clearly understood. At the heart of the question is a doubt in the goodness of God, "If God loves us". From the beginning it is clear that God is being judged and criticized by the question. Then the second phrase follows"Why does He allow us to suffer?". The assumption made in the second phrase is that God has enough control over the world to prevent suffering. If He can prevent