The question of evil, why is there so much suffering in the world,
must be addressed by every human being regardless of religion
or lack of religion. The amount of pain and suffering in the world
is so immeasurably huge that contemplating it can easily overwhelm
even the most stoic personality.

Realizing the apparent contradiction between the existence of an 
all-powerful, all-loving God and unnecessary suffering is enough
to cause sufficient cognitive dissonance to shatter any faith
and drive any individual to despair. Please bear with me as I 
try to briefly explain how I have come to grips
with this challenge. I don't know how much of my answer is
official Christian doctrine, (or what my grade would be on a
Philosophy test,) but it works for me.
I will distinguish between evil and suffering. Suffering is
the pain we feel, evil is the impulse to cause suffering in others.

"It is obvious that there is suffering in the world." Being the 
free-thinker that I am 8-) the word "obvious" sends up an immediate 
flag. Is there unnecessary suffering? What about the baby that 
dies in a blaze? How could an all-loving God allow that?
My first response, not the first I think of but the first I will
give, is that suffering is not all that bad because it is finite. 
When I was a toddler I caught my finger in the bathroom door and 
cut the tip off. My mother took me to the emergency room and
they sewed the tip back on. How do I know this? Well my mother told me,
plus I still have a scar. The point is I don't remember it. I have
no doubt that it hurt, that I screamed my head off. The next day it
probably still hurt. After a month I could probably barely remember,
after all I was only one year old. By the time I was five someone had
to explain to me the scar on my finger. So, did I suffer needlessly?
Did I really suffer at all if I can't even remember? Did this accident 
actually cause more suffering for my mother, since she remembers it
for longer? Imagine ten billion years from now and we're all at
a cocktail party in heaven. We decide to play a game "How did you die?"
The first person says "I died peacefully in my sleep." The next person 
says "I think I was tortured to death by terrorists." The third person
says "Mmm, let's see, oh I remember, I died as a baby when my house 
burned to the ground." It's all in the past so what's the difference?

I realize this sounds incredibly insensitive, but I think my point
is valid. Any amount of earthly suffering is finite, it ends. Even 
if my whole body is racked with pain for my entire life at least it 
ends in death. Compared to infinite time it is negligible. It can 
even become a badge of honor for people who live through it. If one 
person complains about waiting in line for twenty minutes there is 
sure to be someone else who waited three hours. Get a group of new
mothers together and the conversation quickly turns to who had the 
longest and most intense labor. What are the best war stories?
"We snuck through the forest without incident and came to a clearing
just as the sun was setting. Man it was beautiful!" No, the best
war stories go: "It was the middle of monsoon season, we only had
soggy crackers to eat. That's when I caught some shrapnel in my leg.
I had to hide under my buddies' dead bodies for two weeks until
I was rescued." That guy has our complete respect. At the heavenly
cocktail party we all nod and vote for the the guy who was tortured 
to death. 

Of course everyone is now mad at me, how can I be so callous 
and flippant, why aren't I more sensitive
and compassionate. That brings up my second point. One positive
result of suffering is compassion. Have you ever seen the picture
of the dog that was tied up when Vesuvius erupted? It was covered
with ash and died. Its body decayed and the gap was filled in with
rock. We now have a grisly statue of that dog, preserved in its
death throes, hopelessly thrashing, trying to escape. When I first
saw that picture I felt my heart sink. That dog died two thousand
years ago, his pain has vanished, but I still feel sorry for him.
Have you ever walked through an old graveyard? I always stop at 
the tombstones of children. 
"Beloved Nathan. b. Sept 3, 1834 d. May 4, 1835"
I wonder what happened. Some illness that would be trivial today
or some needless accident doomed this boy. What did his parents feel? 
I have children myself and I know how I would feel. Do you see my point?
I can feel compassion for these people because of their pain,
their pain becomes my pain. The pain of all the people who ever lived 
or will live can reach across time and space and arouse in me 
compassion. And compassion breeds love.
That is the startling point God was trying to make when He 
gave us Jesus. We complain to God, "Why are you doing this
to us? Don't you know what it's like?" And He can truthfully answer,
"Yes I do know." The pitiful image of Jesus on the cross becomes
our icon of love.

Because suffering is finite we know there will be great relief when
it is over. If all pain and suffering ended tomorrow do you think
we'd be happy? We'd make the day an international holiday
and have world-wide celebrations. But how could we have the great joy
of release from suffering if we don't suffer in the first place?
Who celebrates freedom more, the master or the slave?
How can we enjoy heaven if we don't die? 

But what about that baby? Say it took one hour to die, couldn't
it have taken only a half hour. We would have been just as sad.
It would have been just as relieved to finally die.
Why do millions have to slowly starve to death, wouldn't half
a million suffice? This elicits another "cold, logical" answer:
suffering is relative. My kids think I am the meanest father
in the world because I make them suffer the indignity of going to
bed at 8 o'clock. If I let them stay up til 8:15 they still 
complain. Since suffering is relative a finite amount more or less
does not change the perceived suffering. Is there any objective
measure of suffering such that we can say, "O.K. I've had my
quota, now let me alone, any more is unnecessary." If our only 
existence was a beach party we would complain that the sand was 
too hot. Well then, why couldn't God just give us the illusion
of suffering? Of course I would answer that maybe he did, but
what's the difference? Suffering has to at least seem real 
enough to make it worth fighting. 

Did you ever watch an end of the season basketball game between
two teams that aren't in the playoffs? Pretty boring. The game
has to mean something to be worth playing. I've heard people say 
that they don't want to go to heaven because it would be boring. 
Well life is not boring precisely because there is so much danger 
of suffering. This is the paradox. Our life on earth is limited
and anything we do doesn't matter much in the grand expanse of
existence. But to get anything out of it we have to live our lives 
as if it did matter. Suffering is here and it is real and it is
our assignment to fight it. I think that is the real crux of 
Pascal's wager. (It was Pascal, wasn't it?) He put it in terms 
of believing in God but I think I have an appropriate paraphrase.
"If my live doesn't matter and I live as if it did then nothing 
is lost. But if my live does matter and I live as if it didn't 
then all is lost."

Now let me put the ball back in the atheist's court. How does an
atheist explain the existence of suffering? Maybe pain is a result of
biological evolution that helps us survive. Shine a light
in my eye and I blink. Tap my shoulder from behind and I start.
I can program a robot with thermometers and pressure sensors
and an electric eye and it will react to stimuli. But does the
robot feel anything. The reason we don't like 
suffering is because we can feel it. It's not just an impulse,
in the case of emotional pain it might not even have any physical
cause. I'll be more specific. How does someone who only believes
in the material world explain the human capacity to suffer?
I can program my robot to thrash around and scream if it puts
an appendage in a fire, but does it really feel pain like I do? 
I can understand having impulses and reactions and instincts but 
why do I have desires? Why would some poor dog dead for two thousand
years elicit such a strong emotion in me? 

And how does an atheist explain evil in the other sense, that
some people take a perverse pleasure in causing other people pain?
I can understand selfishness and greed, increasing one's pleasure
at the expense of others, but some people are just plain mean. 
Only because they can feel pain themselves and understand what 
causes pain can they purposely inflict pain on others.

I know I have not proven that God exists, or that He is 
all-loving or all-powerful. I have merely tried to demonstrate
that the existence of such a God and the existence of suffering 
are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Once again I can make 
Pascal's wager. Because there is so much pain and suffering, because 
I get so depressed just thinking about even little bits of it, that 
is why I make myself believe in a loving God. If He isn't loving
then what's the difference. But if He is then at least I can talk to
Him and hope that one day He'll show me what it's all about.
Don't misunderstand when I say I make myself believe. Right now
I am comfortably at my desk so I can meditate dispassionately
about these issues and convince myself that I am right. However,
when the challenge comes, when the doctor tells me my daughter
needs an operation, when my other daughter is crying because a boy
in her class said he hates her, when I see a good friend die of
leukemia, that's when I have to remind myself that someday we'll
all be laughing about it at that big cocktail party in heaven.

Here is a summary of my ideas:
- Our suffering is trivial compared to eternity.
- Suffering binds people together in compassion.
- Suffering is necessary to appreciate its absence.
- Our lives are tested and strengthened by fighting and enduring 
  suffering.
- Suffering forces us to question our lives.
- Suffering forces us to seek God.

Some inspirations for my conclusions include: Dostoevsky's short
story "Rebellion", the Biblical Book of Job, "How the Grinch Stole
Christmas", a lecture by a Holocaust survivor, football practice in
high school, in other words anything and everything. My answers will
not satisfy everyone, perhaps that is all for the better. Each person
must try to answer this great question himself.

Chris Mussack