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various tragedies happen. But I am not
convinced there are any really solid, hard to
the core atheists out there. In their heart of
hearts. Because we can never disprove the
existence of God. There is no experiment to
be done which declares ‘He’s not there’. And
so each and every atheist has to live with that
niggling doubt. Many who have come to faith
admit the niggle of the doubt they felt. And
the louder and more dogmatically and publi-
caly they declare His non-existence… the more
desperate they are to drown out that little
niggling voice within. The question of suffering
is difficult for us all, of whatever religious
persuasion [or not]. Atheism also is no real
answer to it. In fact, to take God out of the
equation leaves us at the mercy of the winds
of fortune to such an extent that life becomes
a hideous running of gauntlets, defying statis-
tics, fearing the strokes of bad luck and misad-
venture. Ending all the same in death, and the
loss of all we once held dear in this world. And
that final suffering- death itself- is left with
no deeper meaning, nor is it removed, by
atheism. So I cannot accept that the problem
of suffering is a very valid excuse for atheism.
There is no sensible reason why suffering
means there is no higher power. That simply
does not follow. At best it might be a reason
to disagree with certain interpretations of that
higher power, but not to doubt its existence.
Atheism doesn’t take it away. The atheist [if
such really exist] is left with the
problem of suffering. Any at-
tempts to philosophize it away
do not take it away in reality.
The Nature of Humanity
Another window onto all this is
to accept the Biblical picture of the nature of
humanity. We are sinners, and by nature are
no more than animals. We live, breathe and
exhale our last breath, returning to the dust
as they do (Ecc. 3:18-20; 9:5; Ps. 146:4; Is.
38:18,19). “Dying you shall die… you shall
return to the dust from which you were
made” was God’s judgment upon Adam and his
children. Everything within us cries out that
by nature we are so much more than animals,
and our human suffering and death is of a
much higher order than theirs. But that is not
the Biblical picture. There are many human
theories and fantasies about the nature of
man, not least the pagan idea that we are
‘immortal souls’. But the Bible teaches time
and again that the ‘soul’ is mortal; we die,
totally. The only hope of immortality is in
Christ (2 Tim. 1:10), granted at the resurrec-
tion from the dead at His return (1 Cor.
15:53,54), through whom alone immortality
has been revealed to those in Him, by baptism
and abiding in Him. He is the only way, truth
and life. This is all so hard for man to accept.
But without this backdrop to the Gospel, the
Gospel of the Kingdom, of bodily resurrection
to eternal life through Christ, is all really such
vital good news. But once we humble
ourselves to accept our humanity, that we are
no more and no less than human- then actu-
ally, the hope of resurrection and eternal life
is exactly the good news which we need. It is
a perfect fit for that hole in our hearts, that
desperate need, however unspoken or vaguely
articulated.
For those who consider that man is somehow
more than human and higher than the beasts
who perish- the problem of human suffering
becomes the more deeply painful. And more
so, because there is no human way out of it.
No medicine to take which makes us live for
ever, no clever cures for broken legs or
divorces or fires that burn houses down or the
war next door. Those with no place for God in
their thinking become deeply
frustrated with human
suffering- because there is no
human way out of it. Only
cosmetic amelioration of it, a
touch here and a bit there, but
all the same ending in death and
eternal demise. Only allowing
God into the hopeless equation gives a chance
of solving it. And once we accept God’s exis-
tence- then all changes. We trust / believe
that God is love. That He has a purpose. And
we give up seeking to argue or resist His will.
For we are just men, dust and ashes, water
and complex chemicals. And in that humility
is great peace and freedom. ‘Walk humbly
before your God’ is the appeal of the book of
Micah. We are to accept God as He reveals
Himself in His word- and bow before Him:
“Yahweh! Yahweh! A merciful and gracious
God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving
“The wicked, in the
pride of his face,
has no room for
thoughts for God.”
Psalm 10:4