The Case for Faith

Objection #1: Since evil and suffering exist, a loving God cannot.

A bear, A trap, A hunter and God

I thought, "Is it possible to believe that there is a loving or caring Creator when all this woman needed was rain?" How could a loving God do this to that woman? Who runs the rain? I don't; you don't. He does-or that's what I thought. But when I saw that photograph, I immediately know it is not possible for this to happen and for there to be a loving God. There was no way. Who else but a fiend could destroy a baby and virtually kill its mother with agony-when all that was needed was rain?...And I began...considering the plagues that sweep across parts of the planet and indiscriminately kill...and it just became crystal clear to me that it is not possible for an intelligent person to believe that there is a deity who loves.

"Imagine a bear in a trap and a hunter who, out of sympathy, wants to liberate him. He tries to win the bear's confidence, but he can't do it, so he has to shoot the bear full of drugs. The bear, however, thinks this is an attack and that the hunter is trying to kill him. He doesn't realise that this is being done out of compassion.
 "Then in order to get the bear out of the trap, the hunter has to push him further into the trap to release the tension on the spring. If the bear were semiconscious at that point, he would be even more convinced that the hunter was his enemy who was out to cause him suffering and pain. But the bear would be wrong. He reaches this incorrect conclusion because he's not a human being."

Kreeft let the illustration soak in for a moment. "Now," he concluded, "how can anyone be certain that's not an analogy between us and God? I believe God does the same to us sometimes, and we can't comprehend why he does it any more than the bear can understand the motivations of the hunter. As the bear could have trusted the hunter, so we can trust God."