Most of us grow up—whether going to church our whole lives or not—hearing the phrase, “God is good.” However, looking around, we see that there is a lot of suffering and evil in the world. If God is real and there is good, but we see such terrible things in the world—how can we believe that He exists? Why doesn’t He just stop evil? It seems like quite the controversy. We sought to discover a deeper understanding of this issue at our special talk last Friday.

People of all backgrounds filed into Dwinelle 145—Christian, agnostic, skeptical, hurting, indifferent. As Godwin and Theo took the stage to begin the talk, they asked us to consider the question, “God, why did you let ______ happen?” Many of us have experienced hurt firsthand or have seen it happen in the lives of people around us. This was a deeply personal subject to think about.

As we dove into the talk, we learned more about how God gives free will so that we can have a relationship with him; a loving relationship involves a choice of participating in that relationship. When we saw it from this perspective, it became clear that much of the evil in the world comes from a poor use of free will. The result seemed hopeless—there is so much suffering around us: where is the solution? This is where we learned that God created a solution through the person of Jesus, who came down as a man, who understood all suffering and hurt, died on the cross to pay for it, and defeated death itself. One refreshing aspect of the talk was that the pain that we experienced wasn’t invalidated. Just because we know that God is real and that Jesus loves us, understands our suffering, and died on the cross—doesn’t mean that our hurts are not real. We have a God who hears us and knows our pain.

After the talk, we headed into the hallways where the juniors and sophomores of Klesis put together various presentations on tough questions people often have when it comes to Christianity. Tri-fold posters lined the walls, asking, “Are science and faith complementary or contradictory” and “Do all religions lead to the same God?” Students were able to come and ask their questions and have an open dialogue about God and the intellectual questions behind the faith of Christianity. Having faith does not mean that it has to be blind—one can have both faith and reason.

It’s important to have a place where people can come and ask tough questions about life and find truth. Keep an eye out for more special talks coming up this year and join us for our regular Klesis bible studies to have a space to ask these questions.

Exploring the Question, “If God, Why Evil?”