How does God allow evil?

Damn David - my kid with the bald head and the scars and tubes looked at me and asked -Why did God do this to me? And the worst part is that at some strange level I thought God had done it to her. What sins had I committed. What goodness had I neglected. But, I answered as the mother of an eight year would answer. God did not make this happen. it happened and God is in all those who love you and care for you and all the scientists who look for a cure for your cancer. That's the God part. So we forget and find little mild idols to distract us from being God's hand and heart in the world. My computer, the 60 or 70 books I want to read, that great meal I'm planning for the weekend for my family. They are not idols unless they keep me from God. Do they? Or are they a means to God. Are they a means of connecting me to God's creative love and a means of disconnecting me from those things I fear.
Is my prayer life intimately connected to God, or to the overstimulus that comes my way at every moment of the day. I hear TV as white noise so I can sleep; Books surround me, I'm online about an hour a day - is this in some strange way - a means of finding strength, of seeking the voice of God in others - is silence simply too fearful for many in my culture? I know that I long for silence - a place for the relationship with God to grow, to flourish. But the reality is - I hear God in the noise and experience him in the messiness of life. My dear friend, a nun, died last week. I would watch her score volleyball games or knit scarves for the poor, watched her play with my kitty - she had always wanted one of her very own, I watched to become weak and sick and finally she died. I always saw God in whatever thing she was doing because it came from a place in her that was a little deeper. In her death, I saw the mercy of God.
Looked at your pictures from Uganda. The child with the huge jaw tumor - same tumor my kid had - and God was there - right there in the picture. Saw the little kids with the clever cardboard pull toy - saw God in the love of whoever created that toy for those children. Saw it in the joy of those kids shaking the water bottles and saw God in their smiles. You saw it with smells and warmth and clear vision of suffering and you saw God most closely. So close to the face of God and yet you live! It is in the images, not the words that we will see the face of God. thank you for giving them to us.
We will act - on all of it. My first impulse was to quit my job and go back to nursing. then I realized I'm old and have a bad back and - nobody wants me on a hard trip. There are refugees here from the Sudan. They need a nurse and a teacher and voila - that's me. I may actually quit my job and do something else - because you showed me pictures of God in relationship and told me stories about that relationship and caused me to want to drop everything - except maybe my lovely Apple computer - ok I'll let it go - and go do something!!!! Big dramatic change is not possible anywhere - just change in increments of love. St. Teresa of Avila talks about the many tiny loving things we do each day that lead us to God. We all do the best we can. Sometimes we get the proverbial kick in the pants from some blog crazy guy who's seen it up close and we act a bit more. God is in the journey - not at the end of it.

I think the only reality is God.
Our illusions drive us mad.
We are really one and our denial of that causes pain and illusions.
In all sincerity, I recommend A COURSE IN MIRACLES.

Oh David Kuo - you touched my heart again today. I've been worrying (read that praying and thinking) about you - good to know you've apparently reached that bottom spot from which you can climb back up. Yes we are the ones doing the crud - why isn't a useful question - I know the intellectually superior feel why is THE question, after 60 years of life I find that what can I do is the question. Shannon's response is great and Thinker - bless you and thank you. We cannot gain salvation by works - but if we have faith and not works we are not showing anything. Fire insurance (not going to hell) isn't a good policy.

Hey David--I'm pretty sure the answer isn't in THE COURSE IN MIRACLES, but I think it's right in the heart of what God said to you. Thanks for the reminder.

And (on an unrelated note) I need to touch base w/ you re: upcoming DC events, but I know we've had some emails bounce in the past. Drop me a line when you have a free minute?

Thanks so much. Your thoughts speak to my heart.

how can one square free will with the omniscience of god?

if god knows all, he knows your fate, which means that you lack free will. even if you believe you're choosing a particular fate (by virtue of not knowing the future), if god knows what it will be, then you are fated to make that choice no matter what. if you change your mind about a particular path and choose another, god already knew that would happen to. in fact, if god is omniscient, then he knows whether you are going to hell before you've ever even been born, which obviates hell unless god is a sadist (i.e. creating people for the express purpose of sending them to hell forever after 60 or 70 years).

thus there is no free will if god is omniscient.

an old challenge, but one that has not been blunted by time. perhaps christians will have to rethink their theology?

David --

Have you read "Mountains Beyond Mountains?" I was surprised to come across this quote; surprised because I'd never heard it before and I think it distills your point down with amazing conciseness:

"How could a just God permit great misery? The Haitian peasants answered with a proverb: 'Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe,' in literal translation, 'God gives but doesn't share.' This meant, as Farmer would later explain it, 'God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us.'"

God gives, but doesn't share.

David, if your deep query leads to mercy and love from you towards the suffering, it is the finest gift that God can give. Through it you are trans-formed to become love and mercy.

What you ask of God, God asks of God.

God is omniscient (He knows all): He lives outside of time which he created and space which he also created. He knows the hearts of men as well as the hairs on their head. He knows when a sparrow falls to the ground. He knows the stars and calls them by name. While each of the statements above can be backed by chapter and verse, I think this fits into most people's conception. People to not want a befuddled God who is taken off guard by the affairs of men.

God is omnipresent(He is everywhere): In order to know all, you have to see all. That is the extent of this attribute of God. People often seem to get this confused with God then being forced to intervene. Remember, currently heaven is only place where God reigns and intervenes Supremely. Heaven can actually be defined as the place where God reigns. In a more scattered form, God reigns in the hearts of men who give him place. But regardless, he sees.

God is omnipotent(He is all-powerful): God is able to intervene decisively in time, and out of time he holds all authority. We often presume that our meager existence on this earth is on par with the eternal existence of God. It is because of our insistence that we are strong and capable and able in our own strength to do anything that God must allow things to happen to reveal our frailty. In that, it is his intent for us to realize that he is the only all-powerful being in the universe.

God has a free-will (He does as he chooses inside of his character): God is not a genie nor a formula. He can neither be summoned to do the bidding of man nor can he be manipulated to get the right output. He, for his own reason, does what he chooses to do. BUT, he keeps his word! His promises are certain and dependable and ultimately provide for the salvation of man from all sorts of calamities.

Man has a free-will (Man does as he chooses with consequence): Mankind often acts inconsistently, immaturely, and for short-sighted goals. But each man has the gift of choice as to how he will pro-act and re-act as in what he will do and how he will respond to what is being done around him. Men get the choice of which value system they will embrace and ultimately what will mark their existence. As a man chooses to live according to God's principles, God is able to reign in that man's life and bring a piece of heaven to his existence.

David,

Ahhhh. I can truly say that I empathize with your journey. My bitterness toward God for what seems a lifetime of silence.

I am thankful for this post and your honesty. Most "Christians" I know will not admit their struggle with God. I have come to realize we are afraid God is not big enough to handle our struggles.

I am very slowly realizing that God is big enough for me to wrestle him and that if I am searching and fighting for truth, eventually in that search, if He truly is truth, I will gently fall back into his hands, no matter how hard I question and wrestle.

Randy (A fellow Uganda traveler)

There are many things that "we" allow.
Tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, plagues, birth defects, and many more are NOT things that "we" allow.

That's God.

The free will argument doesn't touch this: the misery that God and only God inflicts on his children.

My moral sense, the one that God gave me, becomes viciously angry at this senseless cruelty. Why would God bestow the gift of a conscience, and then tune this conscience so as to be furious at the cruelty of its creator?

Earthquakes, tornadoes, even birth defects are the normal events of a natural world and have nothing to do with good and evil. They may not all be within our control as to their occurrence, but the ability to avoid being harmed by such events is within our ability, and thus our obligation. If we spent less of our resources on war, entertainment and self-satisfaction, and more on studying these events, we might today be more advanced in our ability to keep the negative effects at a minimum.
I believe that God has presented us with many challenges as well as the choice in how to use our curiosity and intelligence. Many choose to spend their lives in pursuits that benefit lives while other choose to spend their lives feeding thier own indulgences. It's about where we focus. It's not God's job to step in and fix things where we have failed to do what we can do. If, on occassion, He does choose to do so we should be grateful rather than demanding that he do so more often at our behest.

Well, my 2 cents: I'm a strong believer in destiny, cos a lot of things I have seen and experienced can only be explained by it. And the man was right above, to be raising a point on what is the "choice" that you have, when your actions are already guided/decided. Also, say a man has committed a lot of sins, and as a means of punishment, he is to meet with an accident. Now the person who runs him down is just doing his "job" (however unknowingly - that he would be running our man down). Why would it be then used against him?
All said and considered, it is my humble opinion that god is a very very powerful, but extremely bored, egoistic, egotist (why else in your "guides to your kids", would you ask them to "Pray to you, and all would be fine"? - they're your kids, you gave them the problem - solve it for them!). Also, and if the earlier text wasnt blasphemous, this probably is - god, to me, is a psychopath and a sadist as well. I can think of no other description for an entity that creates life forms, inflicts endless pain, and sits aside and watches the show. Just when its getting a little boring - he hurts you again - scorching you from there, amputating you from here, checking how long you can hold out. And do notice how your moments of happiness are far outnumbered by moments of grief (yeah pls. dont give me - happy-times-go-faster-than-the-sad-ones). This is cos, in the chief objective of causing pain(physical and otherwise), it is at times a heightened ecstasy when you induce the subject to extreme happiness, and then suddenly give them a whole lot of grief.
Since he is powerful, i submit to him. I am not a fool. But I dont respect god. I feel as of today, before I decide to turn evil, I am a far better person than god. And all who pray to him "religiously" depress me to no end! As they look to me like sad, desperate, people, crippled by bullets still lodged in their knee caps dragging themselves on the floor, inching towards the shooter, begging him to please - oh please - not shoot them further.
This is awful. Life, I mean.