How is it possible to believe in a loving God when there is so much suffering in the world?

Gold: How is it possible to believe in a loving God when there is so much suffering in the world?
You would think that this so called God would stop the harm and hurt because he cares for his creatures, yet his creatures find no comfort at all from him. So how is it logical to believe in a loving God?

Answers and Views:

Answer by JD
God doesn’t exist.

Answer by John quill Quill
Have you never hurt anyone before?

Answer by S m
I’ve always wondered that..
He tells us to love everyone, regardless, but if we sin, were sent to hell’?

Answer by JESUS IS LOVE
Do you see the amount of people who curse him each and everyday? Do you see the amount of people who willfully deny him, ignore him and disobey him? It is because of our evil deeds why these things happen. We have allowed the devil our adversary room to move when we deny God.

Answer by motivational_raven
He will stop it.
The real question is, why do humans keep causing it?

Answer by Wisen Smart
God gave us free will to do with our lives and the lives of others what we desire. He did not create puppets. Just think of this, a loving mother raised her son with sacrifice and unconditional love and the son turned out to be a heartless criminal who even slapped her once. Those who think God is responsible for the world’s suffering is just as criminal as the son in the story.

Answer by cowboy
It’s precisely because of His love that He allows humans to suffer. He would be less loving if He allowed people to live in paradise with no feeling that they earned it.

Answer by Christina Waldemar-Gilger
You may not think my response is logical, because it is coming from a personal relationship with God and having faith in him….So here is my answer, hope it helps you.
We must realize that this is not God’s world. God is not the author of the broken homes, shattered marriages, violence, racial and ethnic hatred, governmental corruption, greed, pollution, depression, disease and persecution and the resultant suffering we see around us. Paul pinpoints the cause of these sorrows as “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4), none other than Satan the devil.
How great is the influence of this being? The apostle John tells us that “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). All of humanity is influenced by the thinking, attitudes and actions of this wicked being and his evil cohorts, the demons. John further warns that Satan’s deceptive power is so great that he “deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).
Satan’s influence is as powerful as it is pervasive. Odd as it may sound, one of Satan’s greatest areas of influence is religion, where his ideas—not God’s—dominate. Paul warns Christians of Satan’s deceptive power even within Christianity: Just as “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light,” so do his representatives masquerade as “ministers of righteousness” and “apostles of Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
Paul warns those who would live godly lives that they must constantly struggle against unseen spiritual influences dominating the world around them. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Under Satan’s influence, the world has its own “wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:20-29), a way of thinking that considers the God of the Bible and His way of life as “foolishness” (1 Corinthians 2:14). As a result, mankind does not recognize that it is man’s collective rejection of God and His ways that has brought the suffering and sorrow that permeate the world.
Your are in my prayers,
Christina

Answer by Adam
Good question, and a common one. This quote first:

“People, we believe, ought not to suffer, be excluded, die of hunger or oppression. But the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection DEPENDS on death, destruction, and violence of the strong against the weak – these things are perfectly natural. On what basis, then, does the atheist judge the natural world to be horribly wrong, unfair and unjust? The nonbeliever doesn’t have a good basis for being outraged at injustice…If you are SURE that this natural world is unjust, filled with evil, you are assuming the reality of some extra-natural (or supernatural) standard by which to make your judgment.” – Tim Keller (The Reason for God)

See, you can’t have evil without God. You have no standard by which to say anything is evil, if you don’t have a standard that is outside you, outside me, and outside cultural moorings themselves. Evil is actually a bigger problem for people who don’t believe in God, because they are essentially going against the system they espouse. People who would say, “well no, right and wrong are subjective to what I feel they should be” are being intellectually dishonest. NOBODY lives like that. The same person would feel it unjust and wrong if someone else killed them and said “well, today I felt like killing was fine and so I killed you.” NOBODY actually lives out a relative truth lifestyle. That’s off topic, apologies.

Evil is a definite sign of a real, objective standard of right and wrong, good and evil. The Creator of the universe is the creator of that standard.

So how is it possible to believe that that God is loving? Because He will right all wrongs, justify all injustice, punish all wickedness at the end of time. He sent his Son to love the unlovable. He allows people to live on the earth He created without sending them directly to Hell where sin deserves. You are breathing, that is how it is logical to believe in a loving God.

Answer by Faith
If God was just but not also loving He would have ended all the sin and pain–and every sinful person along with it– a long time ago. But because He is loving He is not willing that anyone would die without Him. He has promised to stop all the harm and hurt one day. Right now He is holding back His wrath against sin and evil so that more people will have time to be saved. It is His grace that extends the time. God has already proven His love for us by sending His Son to die for every person. He gave us all life even though He knew that we would sin against Him and that most would reject Him and His Son. That is incredible mercy and love. God is perfectly just, and everything will be made right in the end of all things. We don’t have to understand how it will all work; that’s His job. We can choose to trust Him and His love for us no matter what, or we can reject Him and be separated from Him for eternity. Every person will choose; He said that those who are not for Him are against Him. There is no neutral ground.

How was it logical for God to sacrifice His Son for people who would hate Him? It wasn’t “logical,” humanly speaking. But God is not like human beings. He loves because that is His very nature. God IS love. We can find comfort in the fact that God is also just and will make all things right in His time. I can find comfort in God when things are unfair or I’m suffering, as I trust in His love for me, even though I often don’t understand Him or His ways. He knows everything—past, present and future. He is all-powerful and perfectly loving. And He will bring perfect justice one day. Faith in our God allows believers to have a strong sense of security and peace. He has promised to never leave us and to work all things together for good, if we love Him and follow Him. God is good. God is love.

Answer by Vern M
The real answer is because of the power of the human brain.

We know that almost a billion people believe faithfully in thousands of hindu gods. From Ganesh and his elephant head, and Shiva with her many arms. Most Christians find this religion ridiculous. So, they can see first hand the power of the human mind when it comes to belief. They will acknowledge that religions can be man-made and easily believed, but ignore this evidence and fact in the face of their own religion. Again, the power of the brain to filter information to fit their belief systems, and ignore or disbelieve other things and facts that could, would or should lead to doubt.

Faith is lack of evidence. If you had evidence it wouldn’t be faith! So, with this belief comes an incredible power of rationalization.

You can see this rationalization quite clearly in many people. From the mentally insane that are sure everyone and everything is against them (paranoia), to normal of our society which follow a religion and are dedicated to that belief.

We are conditioned over a LONG time to believe what we are told. Children were told “don’t swim in that river, it has crocodiles” those that didn’t believe were killed. This, and because of many other things means we are conditioned to believe what we are told, and once we do the brain is very good at maintaining that belief.

It doesn’t matter what happens, what is discovered scientifically and what contradictions are found in the bible or other religious scripture, you can pay homage to the mighty human brain.