How are you asking the question? Why is there so much suffering in the world? Philosophy Department? Pub Discussion? Personal Suffering? West or Rest?

How are you asking the question?

Why is there so much suffering

in the world?

Philosophy Department?

Pub Discussion?

Personal Suffering?

West or Rest?

How are you asking the question?

Why is there so much suffering

in the world?

John 115 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

John 1121 "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

John 1125 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27 "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

John 1132 "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied. 35 Jesus wept.

How are you asking the question?

Why is there so much suffering

in the world?

Which God are we talking about?

Why is there so much suffering

in the world?

Without this God, suffering is...

Natural

Hopeless

‘The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.’

Richard Dawkins

Without this God, suffering is...

Natural

Hopeless

With this God, suffering is...

Not Natural

Not Hopeless

33 Jesus was deeply moved in spirit and troubled....

35 Jesus wept.

Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

With this God, suffering is...

Not Natural

Not Hopeless

Where does suffering come from?

Why is there so much suffering

in the world?

Why doesn’t Jesus stop it?

Why is there so much suffering

in the world?

John 11:5-6

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy?

How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?