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

Student Handbook Features six studies on Job and the cross

If I were God, I’d end ALL the

pain

SAMPLE LESSON If I were God, I’d end all the

pain

STRUGGLING

WITH

J O H N

EVIL,

SUFFERING

AND

FAITH

D I C K S O N

Written by Simon Smart

Introduction

Weekend of

carnage

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.

By Graham Reilly in New Delhi and agencies October 10, 2005

International national aid, rescue teams and relief supplies ha 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 earl early y on Saturda Saturday y.. It was the strongest to hit y 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 north-western Pakistan and Pakistancontrolled Kashmir Kashmir. About 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 fourth-most populous country, the Health Ministry said.

M

Hurricane kills 1500 across central America October 10, 2005

Desperate dig for survivors

2

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

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

Reuters, Agence France-Presse2

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 Salvador vador,, Honduras, Nicaragua 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 ffacial injuries when they 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 W Wollongong hospital.

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 y. y. today Wollongong Local Court toda W 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?

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

� �

Wh does the author suggest his capacity to Why 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.

Tic the box[es] of the statements Tick that y you 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 very much. � God cares very much for the people involved in these events. � God is angry 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 ering can suffffering above. What other causes of suf you think of?

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 lif life of Jesus. This is the key to understanding something ering and how we should understand it. about suf suffffering God disciplines people with suffering and pain. Everything that happens is caused by God and there must be a reason ffor 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.

M 3

CHAPTER

1.

The last one

standing

ďż˝

For a range of different types of suffering below, describe the possible reasons wh why things 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

ďż˝

Read page 11-13

What makes the author qualified to talk about suf suffering?

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

M 4

Millions die in famine Nature, erosion from poor farming techniques, hniques, corrupt government hniq withholding international aid, rich countries ignore pleas ffor help.

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

Woody Allen1

A friendship breaks down

A child dies of cancer

The company has compromised safety standards by cost cutting to satisfy shareholders.

Time pressured ground crew, negligently fail to follow procedures that could ha have prevented the crash.

A marriage collapses

Does suf suffffering ering

disprove God?

Read pages 13-17

�

�

An airliner crashes

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?

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

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

The author says that the Bible his main source of perspective on suffering - does not offer a complete and final explanation of all evil and suf suffffering. 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.

M 5

suffering & God? Equation of

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

Equation 1 Assumption 1 Assumption 2 Fact

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

Conclusion

ďż˝

What argument does the author use to refute this equation?

Equation 1 Assumption 1 Assumption 2 Fact Conclusion

ďż˝

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

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

M 6

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 flooding 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 left 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 da days went by before any help 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 first chapter..

ixed? or this thing to be ffixed?

What would need to happen ffor

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?

M 7