Justice and the Existence of God
“It is not fair” was a cry I often heard from pupils at
school when they thought they were suffering under an arbitrary punishment or
an excessive amount of homework. This feeling is felt not only by children.
Many of us, of all ages have the feeling that things should be just.
If you believe in God the cry becomes more intense. “Why
doesn’t God do something to stop it?” The abuser gets away with it and the
abused is ruined. The powerful glut themselves on spoils from the innocent.
Where is God in this? The temptation is to abandon our belief in God and cast
ourselves on an atheistic explanation. We are part of nature, red in tooth and
claw. Abandon God yet the pain remains. Things should be just.
The Jews of Europe have suffered, but many Jews hold to a
belief in God. The blacks of the southern United States suffered slavery and
yet many are intensely religious. Human suffering does not always lead to
atheism. It is an old problem and one of
the Psalmists deals with the particular problem of evil people who are
successful. “When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till
I entered the sanctuary of God, then I understood their final destiny.”[i] The
human craving for fairness will never be satisfied until we grasp that this is
not the only life. There is another life in which things are put right, the
kingdom of God. The enigma of human pain
drives me to a belief in God.
