(I wrote this post early Sunday morning. I finished it at 5am, while sitting in the dark, still suffering with a Kidney Stone. I am presently at 18 days.)
The reality of suffering measured against God’s goodness is one of the foundational problems that unbeliever’s use to disprove the existence of God. The line of thinking usually follows this pattern: There is, without question, a great amount of suffering in the world. If God is all-powerful and he is all loving, then why does he allow such suffering and death to take place? In order to reconcile this problem, it is argued, a logical person must take one of only four positions: (1) that God is not all-powerful and therefore cannot stop our suffering, (2) that God is not all-loving and therefore does not care about our suffering, or (3) that God is neither all-powerful nor all-loving and therefore cannot stop our suffering nor does he care to, or (4) that there is no God at all. The most likely of these four, says the atheist, is choice number four.
Sacrosanct Gospel 