Saints and Sceptics

In part 1 I explored some difficulties with several common responses to the question ‘Why does God allow coronavirus?’ and suggested that while we cannot explain why God has allowed so many deaths and cases of COVID-19, Christians believe that God can bring great good out of great evil and suffering. In response to the sceptic’s claim that God couldn’t have any reasons for allowing the suffering from COVID-19, I would suggest that God in his infinite wisdom may have reasons that we in our finite, limited perspective cannot fully grasp. Nevertheless, when we think about God’s purpose for human beings, we begin to see at least some of the ways in which God could bring good out of the current situation.

Note, however, that while such a response might call into question the sceptic’s claim, it also raises a lot more questions. It is one thing to say that God can bring good out of evil and that he could have reasons for permitting the suffering, but will he and does he? And even if God does have such reasons, where is he? People are suffering and dying and God seems to be absent. Can we have any confidence that God cares?

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‘Why does God allow coronavirus?’ is a question a lot of people have been asking. At time of writing, there have been 1.6 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and almost 96,000 deaths. Why would a good God allow so much suffering and loss of life? Of course, the problem of suffering is an age-old question that goes back to the Greek philosopher Epicurus and even further back to the book of Job in the Old Testament. Many books have been written on the subject by saints and sceptics alike and we have looked at some of those debates in previous articles, where you can find more details (here and here).

Here I want to consider a few common responses you might here from Christians and look at some problems with them as well as offer a few thoughts of my own. However, I don’t pretend to know the answer to this question, but I do think we can respond to the sceptic’s charge that there could be no such answer. That might sound confusing, so let me explain. If the sceptic is claiming that there could be no satisfactory answer to the question ‘Why does God allow coronavirus?’, it is enough to respond by showing that there are possible reasons why God might allow it. It is not necessary to go beyond that to claim to know what God’s reasons actually are – who could claim to know such a thing?

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