Does suffering disprove the existence of God?

With the recent occurrences of Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Pakistan, many of us are wrestling with a question that comes up time and time again: How can any good God allow such tragedies to occur?

The Biblical and common view of God is that he is both all-powerful as well as good. Nevertheless, bad incidents happen all the time. The philosopher Epicurus concluded: "Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, and does not want to..." Or, God does not exist. The same objection applies to suffering.

Suppose a young child gets a deep splinter. As soon as the child's mother finds out, she grabs a needle and tweezers and begins to remove it. Immediately the child senses pain and screams out, not realizing what his/her mom is doing. For all he knows, she is being cruel to him, but in reality she is helping him.

Now, isn't it possible that God deals with us in a similar fashion? Couldn't God be using pain to accomplish a greater purpose even if we do not understand it? As Dr. Peter J. Kreeft states, "How can a mere finite human be sure that infinite wisdom would not tolerate certain short-range evils in order for more long-range goods that we couldn't foresee?"

Perhaps we can get a glimpse of why a good God would allow suffering to exist in his universe. Without suffering, the concept of love would not be as meaningful. Additionally, virtues such as courage, mercy, forgiveness, patience and comfort could not exist either.

In everyday life we see that good can come out of suffering. For example, just as physical exercise builds muscle, suffering can build character. It can strengthen relationships, cause us to take life more seriously, and teach us important lessons that deepen our experience in life. Thus, suffering can serve as a blessing in disguise, and certainly many people would attest to that.

Although we as humans cannot know the explanation for every bad thing that happens, nor should we expect to, at least we know that good can come out of bad. We also know that a universe without any suffering would make certain aspects of goodness less meaningful. Therefore, suffering may not disprove the existence of God, nor rule out the idea that God is good.