Two highly respected theologians recently began a debate on why God would allow so much suffering in the world if He is good and all-powerful.
NT Wright, the Bishop of Durham and author of Evil and the Justice of God, and Bart Ehrman, the James A Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of God’s Problem, began their “Blogalogue” on Beliefnet.com last week.
“Suffering increasingly became a problem for me and my faith,” confessed Ehrman, who was an evangelical Christian most of his life but is now an agnostic. “How can one explain all the pain and misery in the world if God – the creator and redeemer of all – is sovereign over it, exercising his will both on the grand scheme and in the daily workings of our lives?”
Ehrman went on in his first blog to question why God does not stop starvation, droughts or answer the prayers of Holocaust victims.
“If God is concerned to answer my little prayers about my daily life, why didn't he answer my and others’ big prayers when millions were being slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, when a mudslide killed 30,000 Columbians in their sleep, in a matter of minutes, when disasters of all kinds caused by humans and by nature happened in the world?” the distinguished religious studies professor asked.
NT Wright, the Christian representative, responded, saying Ehrman is appealing too much to emotions.
“You spend a good deal of time in the book, and even in your brief posting, detailing some of these horrors, as though to remind readers of what (surely?) all intelligent people know already,” Wright responded.
