In a previous post, I explained how objections to one worldview come from another worldview. In particular, objections to classical theism or the Catholic Christian worldview often come from an atheistic worldview.

We now ask two important questions:

• How do the facts of evil and suffering fit with the Catholic Christian worldview?
• How do the facts of evil and suffering fit with the atheistic worldview?

I contend that evil and suffering fit well within the Catholic Christian worldview and do not fit well in atheistic worldviews. This provides yet another reason why the problem of evil fails as an objection to the existence of God.

Point #1

(1) Some of the evil and suffering in the world is a result of God’s judgment for sin. Our first parents sinned against God and lost the original state of holiness, justice, and supernatural life God afforded them. Catholic Christians call this event “the fall.” Also, many natural evils afflict mankind as a result of the Fall. Moreover, throughout the old testament, God brings judgment upon people who act wickedly.

Mankind continues to rebel against God in various ways. So, some of the evil and suffering throughout human history are the consequence of the fall and God’s judgment for sin.

Point #2

(2) Catholic Christians believe all human beings have immortal souls. This life is not all there is. Geometrically, we can represent an individual’s life with a ray (shown below). Part of the ray is life on Earth and part of the ray is the afterlife.

On an atheistic worldview, an individual’s life consists of a line segment. Geometrically, line segments connect two endpoints, representing the beginning and ending of life.

Now, suppose horrible, painful evils and suffering plague a particular individual throughout life. Next, use our geometric model to examine this person’s life.

While we recognize a person deserves deep sympathy and empathy for undeserved suffering, we also see the “afterlife” portion of their existence outstrips this world by a lot. Let’s zoom out.

Let’s zoom out even further.

On the Catholic Christian worldview, any evil and suffering someone encounters in this life represents a small snippet of their total existence. Consequently, the evils suffered pale in comparison to the experience of life everlasting. Catholic Philosopher Alexander Pruss writes more about this idea here.

Point #3

(3) As William Lane Craig notes, “The chief purpose of life is not happiness, but the knowledge of God.” To channel the Baltimore Catechism, the meaning of life is to know, love, and serve God in this life and to be with him forever in the next life.

Craig continues:

One reason that the problem of evil seems so puzzling is that we tend to think that if God exists, then His goal for human life is happiness in this world. God’s role is to provide comfortable environment for His human pets. But on the Christian view this is false. We are not God’s pets, and man’s end is not happiness in this world, but the knowledge of God, which will ultimately bring true and everlasting human fulfillment. [The Problem of Evil, click here for the article]

Summing Up

We see how three tenets of the Catholic Christian worldview help make sense of the problem of evil and suffering. A lot more could be said. As Catholic Christians, we can hardly talk about evil and suffering without mentioning the cross. However, my brief points here merely serve as a further answer to the intellectual problem of evil.

In the next post, I argue that the facts of evil and suffering do not fit well with an atheistic worldview.