Why Evil is the Hardest Question

The Uniqueness of the Problem

There are many objections to faith in God. Some say religious belief is just a projection of our desires, as Freud suggested: a way to feel secure, to avoid guilt, to find comfort in a frightening world. Others point to hypocrisy among believers, or even the scandal of wickedness done in God’s name. These criticisms may raise questions, but they are not decisive. At most, they give alternative explanations for why people believe; they do not prove that God does not exist.

The problem of evil, however, is different. It is not just another objection among many; it is the only argument that seems to carry real weight against theism. If God is all-good and all-powerful, why does evil exist at all? If there is one argument that makes people stumble in belief, this is it.

A Universal Struggle

The problem is not merely for philosophers and theologians. It touches everyone. The old question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”, is asked in every language, in every culture, in every generation. The universality of this question itself tells us something important: we do not naturally accept that the world should be full of injustice, suffering, disease, and death. When tragedy strikes, we are outraged, not resigned. Something in us insists that this is not how things were meant to be.

This inner protest against evil is, paradoxically, a clue that points toward God. If the universe were simply meaningless, random, and indifferent, we should expect evil and suffering to be normal, even unremarkable. But our hearts refuse to be satisfied with that answer. We feel the wound of evil because we know, however dimly, that goodness is the proper order of reality.

Not Just a Theoretical Puzzle

Still, we must be careful: the problem of evil is not only intellectual. It is also profoundly personal. For the suffering person, this is not a riddle to be solved on paper. It is a cry of the heart.

It is not just about God and evil: it is about a small child who looks at her father with tears in her eyes and asks, “Why did you let me hurt so bad?” When we ask “Why does God allow suffering?” we are asking it with the voice of the broken, the grieving, and the desperate.

This is why the problem of evil cannot be treated coldly. It demands both compassion and clarity. We must recognize the human dimension as well as the intellectual one.

The Three Levels of the Problem

To understand the challenge clearly, it helps to see that the problem of evil appears on three different levels.

1. Emotional Level This is the most immediate and painful. When tragedy strikes—when a child dies, when cancer returns, when an accident shatters a family—suffering is raw. No argument satisfies in that moment. What we need most then is presence, compassion, and hope.

2. Intellectual Level Here the question becomes an argument:

   • If God exists, He must be good.

   • If God is good, He must hate evil.

   • If God is powerful, He must be able to prevent it.

   • But evil exists.

   • Therefore, God does not exist.

   This level is where philosophers have spent the most time. It asks whether belief in God is logically consistent with the existence of evil. Later posts will dig into this in detail.

3. The Drama of Human History Evil is not just private; it plays out in the great story of the human race. We see how fragile goodness can be: one careless word ruins a friendship, one betrayal wrecks a marriage, one act of pride or anger starts a war. Love, which is the highest good of all, appears weak and vulnerable in the face of betrayal and violence. Yet it is precisely love, God’s love concretized in Christ, that enters into this drama and begins to turn the tide.

   Jesus, when confronted with the woman caught in adultery, neither condoned her sin nor condemned her person. He named evil as evil, but responded with forgiveness and mercy. This scene shows us that the solution to evil is not theoretical: it is lived out in the reality of God’s mercy.

   
   

Why This Series Matters

Because the problem of evil touches us at every level- emotional, intellectual, historical- it demands a serious response. It is the one argument that has troubled even the strongest believers. Yet Christianity claims not only that the problem can be answered, but that it has already been answered in a Person: Jesus Christ, who suffers with us and redeems us through His Cross.

In the coming posts, we will explore this problem step by step:

• the classical arguments,

• the unsatisfying alternatives,

• the principles for thinking clearly about evil,

• and finally the Christian answer in Christ.

  
  

This will not remove every mystery, but it will show why the gospel is not just “good advice” for living, but truly good news for a suffering world.