Apologetic Responses to Questions

Considering the large amount of evil in this world and especially the suffering of innocents, is it not more probable that God does not exist than that He does exist? Why doesn’t God prevent the worst of the suffering in this world? Questions such as these are often raised by atheists as they formulate their argument from evil to demonstrate that God most likely does not exist. Even those who believe in God are often disturbed by similar questions, not as arguments against God’s existence, but rather as emotional questions in light of horrific evils. This session critiques the greater-good justificatory Christian response to these questions and then offers an alternative paradigm for answering the argument from evil.

In this session we also seek to increase the confidence and effectiveness of Christians using suffering and other similar questions as the point of entry into a discussion about God. We discuss how to use the arguments atheists and non-believers employ to deny God’s existence, and to open a meaningful discussion about God. We then work through these issues using case studies from the teacher’s 30 years of counselling experience and answer questions raised in the session.