Pain and Suffering

The problem of theodicy - reconciling pain and suffering with belief in the Christian God - always seems to come up when discussing evolution & God with atheists (and some YECs as well for that matter). The problem people have is that evolution requires death, suffering through parasites, carnivores, micro-organisms etc., limited resources leading to starvation and also death through old age or organ failure. How could a loving God effectively set up his creation for such things?

There are no easy answers for the problem of suffering, however I think it is much easier to address the problem when agreeing with an evolutionary picture than any other. This is because evolution requires such things in order to operate. Without suffering we couldn't have life as we know it. A consequence of the good things in life is the bad - ying and the yang. This is in comparison to a more traditional Christian picture that finds itself having to justify every occasion of suffering using excuses from God punishing individuals through to the actions of demons. Furthermore traditional pictures have to try and explain problems such as death before "the fall" and the question as to whether only humans can suffer. For me the need for suffering because of evolution is a much simpler picture.

But this still may not answer the original objection - but why did God create suffering? Well firstly because he had to - one cannot imagine a biological world without suffering, but secondly, and almost as a side-effect, because it is through suffering that we actually find God. If everything in life happened without trouble we would get complacent and think we could cope on our own (ever wondered why belief in God is stronger in poorer nations?). Suffering forces us to respond. Without God that response is often pessimistic or negative, but with God we look to the eternal. A Christian attitude accepts the bad, is realistic about the situation, but looks for the good - a hope for the future. The Christian has a reason to always be positive because the Christian knows that life is more than just what we experience on earth. This is not to say that God callously creates suffering to try and prove himself, but rather that suffering is part of the biological innateness of humanity. God doesn't make suffering happen but he does help us to overcome it, and through seeking the positive we find personal healing and salvation.