What pain can tell us about God

#1084 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 7 June 2015

Fire, flood, famine, earthquakes, war, a host of other calamities, and our own private suffering lead many of us, from time to time, to ask: how can such deep pain and loss and anguish be compatible with belief in a personal and good God?

For children’s author and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis, the existence of pain and suffering is a reason for belief, because it produces a longing in us. As a recent article on the Bible Society website points out:

That longing is in every human being, that longing for the good. The suffering and pain of the world in which we live amplifies that longing. It should drive us to God.

We long for good, for beauty, for righteousness and justice. Lewis asks, ‘where does that come from?’ Pain and suffering leads us to long for the good, and this longing is an argument for the existence of God, because God is the ultimate good.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.