Randy begins by defining "the problem of evil and suffering." Simply stated:If god is all good, then he would want to prevent evil and suffering. If he is all knowing, then he would know how to prevent it. And yet . . . a great deal of evil and suffering exists. Why?Randy makes several points in this chapter that I consider extremely valuable. First, this is an age-old problem that crosses barriers of time and culture. It is the central theme of human storytelling. The difficulty of this issued has been grappled with by Christians from the beginning, and the problem of evil is often expressed in the Bible itself (Hab. 1:2-3, Ps. 10:1, Ps. 42:9, Ps. 44:23-24).
Randy's key point in this chapter is, there are no tidy solutions. Although the Christian worldview is "the only one that adequately deals with evil and suffering, there are nevertheless no pat answers that square all the circles and satisfy our troubled hearts. He writes:
I've read books by atheists and Holocaust survivors, , and have interviewed dozens of men and women who have endured extreme evil and suffering. the more I've done so, the more I've asked God to give me wisdom--and I've discovered that wisdom begins with the humility to say there's a great deal I don't understand. (p.22)Next week: a summary of chapter 3: What is evil and how does it differ from suffering?
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