Why the Problem of Evil is No Problem at All

You've been warned: This Theodicy is BASED

Bad things happen.

“They shouldn’t happen if God exists!” insists the atheist.

While the Problem of Evil has been philosophically "solved” centuries ago, significant pockets of our society continue to find it compelling.

And I get it.

On an emotive level, the horrors of unexplained suffering that one might encounter can be overwhelming—existentially so.

To help someone successfully integrate the experience of suffering with belief in God requires a meaningful engagement at the individual level, with a discerning and loving ear toward particulars of that person’s circumstances.

Obviously, if your heart is currently subsumed in existential turmoil with respect to suffering, I can’t do the work of walking step by step with you through the medium of this email newsletter. (though I’m otherwise happy to discuss over a Space on X)

Rather, my intention here is to succinctly offer you the general answers to the “Problem”, leaving you to explore the specific applications in your own life however you please.

So let’s get to it 👇

Answer 1: The Docility of Job

In the biblical story of Job, Job is a wealthy, devout man whose faithfulness to God is tested by Satan.

With God's permission, Satan strips Job of his wealth, children, and health to challenge Job's piety.

Throughout his suffering, Job laments his misfortune and struggles with understanding why such calamities have befallen him, despite his unwavering faith.

Friends visit Job, arguing that his suffering must be a punishment for sin, yet the reality is: Job has done nothing wrong.

He is completely innocent. Yet he is exposed to unimaginable suffering.

When Job starts to waver (perhaps beginning to doubt God’s goodness, power, and knowledge), God climactically speaks to him.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?. . .

Can you loosen the constellations of Orion’s belt?. . .

Do you send lightning bolts on their way?. . .

Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread its wings toward the south?. . .

God goes on with this line of reasoning for 4 chapters within the story of Job, emphasizing the vastness of divine wisdom and the limits of human understanding.

Job then acknowledges God's omnipotence and repents for questioning God's justice.

God then restores Job's health, wealth, and blesses him with more children, demonstrating that Job's faith, tested through suffering, remains unbroken.

What’s the takeaway?

Epistemologically, neither you nor I can ever declare whether some experience is “pointless”, not matter how arbitrary it may appear to our localized senses.

You are a mere component of the system.

You do not have the all-seeing perspective of the entire system.

Your life experience is just one variable among an equation of trillions upon trillions of variables.

You are in no place to make a definitive judgment on how any particular instance of suffering impacts the entire system, nor speculate on the ultimate destiny of the individual who is the subject of that suffering.

You simply don’t have the reference point of being able to sit outside the totality of reality, see the full Story, and then declare the Story “good” or “bad”.

Neither do I.

While this Answer 1 doesn’t prove that the reason for suffering is good, it reminds that we can’t declare with any certainty that the reason is bad.

It is a mistake to demand a generalized explanation account for the “reasons” behind every specific instance of suffering.

Answer 2: This too shall pass

Here’s an X post I made a few months ago that struck a nerve with many viewers:

If eternal continuity of consciousness exists, earthly life is so infinitesimally short that any example of suffering you cite means absolutely nothing, in that context.

Imagine having lived one million years in a state of pure bliss, in Heaven. How much would you care that you had a couple of bad ones way back in the past when you were on earth?

Similarly, imagine you were offered the deal of: “You will experience 1 millisecond of terrible suffering, and in return you will live a full 100 years of your life in perfect peace.”

Wouldn’t everyone accept that deal, if it were available?

The experiences of our existence weigh heavily in the moment that we are experiencing them.

But to the degree we can zoom out and take an eternal perspective, we quickly realize how fleeting they are.

This perspective must certainly have driven the mindset of the great martyred saints, who said things like:

𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴; 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘴; 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴, 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴; 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴; 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺; 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘦: 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵.

(St. Ignatius to the Ephesians, 110 A.D)

Of course, the validity of this framing is completely contingent on Christ having been resurrected, which enables the eternal continuity of our life in a state of Beatific bliss.

Yet even still, if consciousness did cease for everyone upon the moment of their death, the mantra of “This too shall pass” still applies, as past suffering won’t mean anything to the person who no longer exists.

Consider Answer 2 to be a positive nihilism of sorts.

Answer 3: The more you think Evil is a problem, the more you recognize God (Ultimate Good) is the solution

The strength of the Problem of Evil argument relies fundamentally on the realness of evil, which can only take on meaning when considered in contrast with the existence of good (as evil is the absence of good).

The atheist who hates God because he sees evil does so because he believes there is a real Justice that is being violated.

He believes that things should have happened differently because some Objective standard of Goodness is being violated when suffering happens.

There is a Moral Law or Ideal that makes one set of circumstances authoritatively better than another, and the atheist subconsciously believes he knows and has access to this Law.

But where can one find this Justice or Goodness that is being violated? Where does this come from? You can’t see it or touch it. It’s not measurable in terms of particles and waves.

By a materialist’s standards, we might as well confess that it’s imaginary.

And even if it weren’t, why believe the notion that reality should conform to this Platonic ideal?

Why should anything happen at all?

An atheist can only say that “things happen”. He has no objective basis for using the word “should”.

The more an atheists tries to juice the argument of the Problem of Evil (“look at this really really terrible example of suffering. . . FEEL the outrage boiling within. . .”), the more he juices his dependency on there existing an absolute and authoritative standard of morality that is allegedly being violated.

But any such standard is inherently God-like, given its transcendence, universality, and imposition of an objective ought principle (“should”).

So, in effect, Answer 3 allows you to see the Problem of Evil reframed as the contradiction that it is:

“Justice is violated by the presence of suffering, therefore Justice doesn’t exist. But since Justice doesn’t exist, nothing is being violated.”

The complaint against how reality is is only valid to the degree that there exists an objective manner of how it should be. But if you can’t authoritatively establish any objective standard, then are you really justified in complaining?

“Come on, Drago, are you telling me that it’s not obvious to you that, for example, a child shouldn’t experience the suffering of bone cancer? Of course we know that if the child didn’t have bone cancer that would be better… We don’t need any justification for this, and if you think otherwise, you’re delusional.”

Again. . .

1. The fact that you think it’s “obvious” that there is something wrong, all else being equal, with a child experiencing bone cancer, means that you believe there is an objective and transcendent Good that is being violated. The nature of your objection reveals your hunger for that Ultimate Good, yet your worldview lacks the ability to fill it.

2. It’s not at all “obvious” that the experience of a child suffering with bone cancer is irredeemable in the context of the entire heavenly system when all butterfly effects and multi-realm destinies are taken into account (See Answers 1 and 2 again).

Answer 4: Ever hear of Jesus?

One of the best things about Christianity is that it reveals God to be infinitely intimate and empathetic to the human condition while simultaneously holding the Glory of King of the Cosmos.

Answers 1-3 may remove all of one’s logical objections to God and evil, yet they don’t make him feel any less cold to the atheist who sees God echo the father figure who abandoned them.

The beauty of the Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is that it demonstrates God doesn’t put his creatures through any suffering that he himself hasn’t experienced.

Jesus experienced the complete depth of human suffering—from the psychological devastation of betrayal and reputational destruction to the unimaginably excruciating end of physical torture.

Whatever suffering you are currently experiencing, you can mystically unite it to Christ’s Passion and redeem it through his Resurrection.

Jesus de facto gives meaning to all our suffering, which we can access to the degree cooperate with his Grace and participate in the divine life of the Trinity.

Suffering is not an inconvenient bug to be avoided, but rather it is the feature of existence that we are called to embrace and redeem.

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Happy Easter — Christ is Risen!
Drago