“Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself” -C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
The existence of suffering in a world created by a God we refer to as good and almighty (aka “the problem of pain”)… it’s a fundamental theological dilemma, a serious and understandable objection to the Christian religion, and definitely a question that begs an answer from our faith.
Recently, Elijiah had the opportunity at a youth conference to share with a number of the attending students some of his own thoughts and studies on this matter and offer some insight and explanation as to how we can approach a question like this. We join him in the classroom.
Elijiah T is a Christian, new father, blogger, armchair philosopher/theologian, podcaster, and aspiring scientist. He graduated with a bachelors in biology in 2013, and regularly writes on apologetics, science and the practical applications of well thought-out philosophy. As humans created in the image of God, Elijiah believes that we ought to critically examine all aspects of our lives, even [especially] the areas that may make us uncomfortable. He may be constantly flirting with heterodoxy, but that is only to discover what is true about God and His creation. Follow him at @ElijiahT.
Dan is a husband, father, and freethinking follower of Jesus. An aspiring podcaster at @LiveChristianly, he enjoys conversing about theology, philosophy, and reasonable thought as it pertains to all areas of life. Though often skirting the lines of heterodoxy, he believes that defensible living is important and finds himself regularly questioning both tradition and cultural norms for the sake of better understanding God and the Christian’s responsibility relating to the world around us. As for less intense interests, he can be caught sleeping (though not so much now that he has a kid), reading a good book (or maybe even a bad one), enjoying his favorite music on vinyl (or Spotify), writing and recording his own music, catching up on his documentary-ridden Netflix queue, listening to a podcast from his seemingly-endless subscription list, or just enjoying time together with his family. Though he’d call himself an aspiring blogger, he generally does not faithfully produce new content (which he continually regrets). You can find him on Twitter at @danieljryan.
- Live Christianly – Episode 4 - June 26, 2015
- Live Christianly – Episode 3 - June 12, 2015
- Live Christianly – Episode 2 - May 29, 2015
