If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain Student handbook

Features six studies on Job and the cross

If I were God, I’d end

If I were God, I’d end

SAMPLE LESSON

If

Written by SimonSmart

Weekend carnage of

Desperate dig for survivors

By Graham Reilly in New Delhi and agencies

October 10, 2005

International aid, rescue teams and relief supplies have begun pouring into Pakistan as the death toll from a devastating earthquake soared, with entire villages destroyed and thousands of people buried alive under collapsed buildings.

The earthquake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, tore through Pakistan and reverberated across India and Afghanistan early on Saturda y on Saturday. It was the strong It was the strongest to hit South Asia in 100 years. Up to 45 aftershocks were felt, the latest recording 6 on the scale.

Official estimates of the death toll varied. Pakistan’s interior minister said 19,136 people died and 42,397 were injured in nor th-western Pakistan and Pakistancontrolled Kashmir. About 1 . 11,000 of the dead were in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, Aftab Sherpao said. “Casualties are increasing by the hour”.1

Sumatra boy tests positive for bird flu

October 10, 2005

Jakarta: A four-year-old boy has tested positive for bird flu in Indonesia, a case which, if confirmed, would be the sixth in the world’s four th-most populous country, the Health Ministry said.

The boy from Lampung province on Sumatra was found to be infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of avian inf luenza, the Director-General of Disease Control and Environmental Health, I Nyoman Kandun, said yesterday.

Reuters, Agence France-Presse2

The following stories occurred on a single weekend. A Monday morning newspaper reported each of these events:

Hurricane kills 1500

across central America

October 10, 2005

San Salvador: Rescuers pulled bodies from Guatemalan villages devastated by mudslides, and other volunteers used machetes and their bare hands to dig for more victims as the aftermath of Hurricane Stan continued to wreak havoc across northern Central America, killing up to 1500 people.

Guatemalan officials said on Saturday that 508 people had been confirmed dead and 337 were missing in the country as a result of flooding and mudslides caused by the hurricane, which roared across the region last week. More than 100 other deaths have been reported in Mexico, El Salvador vador, Honduras, Nicaragua and , and Costa Rica.

Los Angeles Times, Reuters3

Mother and baby bashed, man charged

A man will face court today over the bashing of a mother and her baby son on the NSW South Coast.

Police said the 34-year-old woman and her four-month-old son suffered head and facial injuries when they w acial injuries when were attacked at a home in Sassafras Avenue, Windang, about 3pm on Saturday.

Police allege the woman was attacked while she was holding the baby.

She then drove them to Shellharbour hospital and they were transferred by ambulance to Wollongong hospital. ollongong

A 42-year-old man has been charged with a string of assault and grievous bodily harm offences.

He was refused bail and will face Wollongong Local Cour ollongong Local Cour t today

AAP4

The scale of the loss and destruction reported here is difficult to comprehend.Many of us are desensitised to such stories.We read about them,sigh sympathetically and move quickly on to the sports or entertainment news.

The stories came from a particularly devastating weekend,but picking any day’s newspaper will provide tales of loss,violence, destruction and suffering.The stories may or may not impact us,but for the people involved they are catastrophic moments.They all got up that morning expecting to live their lives in the usual manner.For many thousands it was the last time they would do so.Other lives would be irreparably damaged.For these people things would never be the same again.

Where was God?

Tick the box[es] of the statements k the box[es] of the statements that you most agree with. ou most agree with.

� God wasn’t there because he doesn’t exist.

� God is not able to stop bad things happening.

� God must not care about people ver y much.

� God cares very much for the people involved in these events.

� God is ang ry and caused these events.

� God cares and is in control of all that happens in the world.

� God created the world but doesn’t intervene in what happens

�Identify the different causes of suffering that were present in the newspaper stories above. What other causes of suffering can ering can you think of?

Read the introduction to ‘If I were God …’(page 9–10)

Why does the author suggest his capacity to y does the author his to doubt is a strength when handling this topic?

�What three questions are posed at the outset of the book?

What other questions do you have about the issue of pain and suffering and God? Write them in the space below.

Rate the following statements with a number 1–5, where 1 means I strongly agree,and 5 means I don’t agree at all.

I look at the world and all the suffering that goes on and I just can’t believe there is a loving God who stands by and does nothing.

Suffering doesn’t cause me any great philosophical problem. There is just a terrible randomness to what happens and there is no-one to blame.

God knows about our suffering and he experienced it himself, in the life of Jesus. This is the k e This key to understanding something about suffering and ho ering and how we should understand it.

God disciplines people with suffering and pain. Everything that happens is caused by God and there must be a reason for or everything.

I believe that God is there and that he created the world, but he must not be able to really help our situation. The world just evolves and life happens – good and bad, and I suppose God either can’t or won’t get involved.

Suffering is ultimately good for people. It brings the strongest people to the surface and they are the ones who survive and prosper. That is a natural thing about how things develop and might sound a bit harsh, but is for the best in the end.

The last one standing �

� MR ead page 11-13

What makes the author qualified to talk about suffering? fering?

For a range of different types of suffering below, describe the possible reasons why things went y went wrong. Who or what might have caused the suffering. (In some cases you need to speculate on the possibilities.) Some have been done for you.

2004 Tsunami

Destructive forces of nature. Earthquake at ocean floor causing massive movement of water into a Tsunami.

A country is bombed by another

How do you explain the fact that without a act a religious background, as a 9 year-old he asked his mother, 'Wh , 'Why did God let Dad's y did God let Dad's plane crash?'

Millions die in famine

Nature, erosion from poor farming techniques, cor ues, cor r upt government withholding international aid, rich countries ignore pleas for help. or

'Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon.' Woody Allen1

A friendship breaks down

An airliner crashes

The company has compromised safety standards by cost cutting to satisfy shareholders. Time pressured ground crew, negligently fail to follow procedures that could have prevented the crash.

A child dies of cancer A mar riage collapses

When people experience suffering they of ten ask 'why?' (page 12). ten ask 'why?' 12)

Explain the reason this is a natural question to ask when things go wrong.

Does suf fering ering

disprove God?

Read pages 13-17

Why does the existence of suffering convince some people that there is no such thing as an all-powerful, all-loving God? How reasonable is such a conclusion?

The author says that the Biblehis main source of perspective on suffering - does not offer a complete and final explanation of all evil and suffering. What does it giv ering What does it give him?

The Bible's teaching about God is that he is the almighty creator of all things who 'stretches out the heavens' with his hand (Isaiah 40:22), and that he is loving and good.

Do you think that suffering poses a problem for such a description of God? Explain your answer.

Equation of & suffering

God?

Complete the following diagrams based on the author's suggestions on page 14-16

Equation 1

Assumption 1

Assumption 2

Fact

Conclusion

What argument does the author use to refute this equation?

Equation 1

Assumption 1

Assumption 2

Fact

Conclusion

How do you feel about the argument of equation 2? uation

The real question(s) according to the author are: uestion(s) according to the author are:

Jemile Jackson is 8 years old. Up until hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005, he lived there with his single mother, three brothers and their grandparents. The neighbourhood they lived in was well away from the wide avenues and old plantation homes of the city's wealthy. Theirs was an area of town that New Orleans' many tourists rarely saw.

More than flood

When news of hurricane Katrina filtered into the city, Jemile and his family were part of the mass of people for whom evacuation was never an option. The vast majority of these people were, like the Jackson family, African Americans. Where would they go? How would they get there? They had survived this sort of thing before, and expected to do so again.

The devastation of Katrina was something Jemile and his family could not have imagined. When the banks of the Mississippi River broke and the f looding of the city began, Jemile lost his grandparents and his home in the floodwaters. Thousands were forced to seek shelter in the city's convention centre. Trapped in the cauldron of the 'Superdome', Jamile entered a week that outstripped his darkest nightmares. It was a living hell.

In the Superdome he experienced the worst that humanity had to offer. Each night was a nervejangling, helpless wait with his mother and brothers to see if they would survive. Like everyone else they were at the mercy of the gangs that roamed the stadium unrestrained, tormenting random victims. Gun-shots frequently rang out. Rumours circulated of rape. Bodies lef t in the open provided undeniable evidence of murder.

Help did not come. Elderly people died from lack of medical treatment. Toilets overflowed with refuse. The stench was overpowering. In the country with the most powerful economy in the world and the strongest army, its citizens were left to fend for themselves. What little assistance that did eventually arrive in the form of water and food, produced scenes of frantic and desperate 'snatch and grab' selfishness. Survival of the strongest and

fastest was very much the order of the day. Jemile's mother remains in a state of mild shock over the whole affair. 'We just couldn't believe that all this could go on without the government doing something about it. We kept thinking “they will get here soon”. But days went by before any help arrived.' ys went before any arrived '

For Jemile and his family, the months ahead are full of unknowns. They share a fate with thousands of others who have been displaced and don't know when or if they will be able to return to their homes.

�From Jemile's story highlight all the negative elements and the different things that went wrong in the account.

For each of these, suggest some possible reasons why things occurred in the way they did.

damage in Katrina's wake

If you could choose just one thing in the world for God to change and make better, what would it be?

Yeah but...

Objections, questions, disagreements

Use the space here to express your own feelings on the topic and the points raised in the f irst chapter..

What would need to happen for this thing to be f or this to be f ixed?

Points to ponder

What possible reason could there be for God to allow suffering to continue?

Is there any suffering that could be considered good?