At Durham University today I had the challenging task of speaking on the title: “Powerless and Uncaring: How can a loving God allow so much suffering?” I am pleased to say that yet again, we had an increase in attendance. This time we had 300 people there. On this occasion, we were not in the Student Union, for one day only – I think the Taekwondo Society have a block booking on a Wednesday afternoon – so we were in the nearby St Oswalds Church, instead.

I thought it was probably the most successful lunchbar of the 3 so far, though it was very cold. Questions I got at the end included: “Is God so weak that his only design for the world inevitably causes natural disasters or destroys lives or so cruel that he chooses this design?” “I’ve heard some Christians say that natural disasters happen because we live in a ‘fallen world’ what does that mean?” “Are you saying that this is the best of all possible worlds?” “What about suffering that has no benefit? Like for example a girl who suffers excruciating pain for 12 weeks and then dies?” “Why didn’t God just make heaven and then just stop?” “What about those people who never hear about Jesus?” “How can you justify hell?” “Some people are manufactured biologically, genetically to have evil tendencies. Therefore surely their free will is limited anyway because they don’t have complete control over what they do?” “If Jesus was God, how could he cry out ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ Surely he would understand the plan. Besides which, surely God’s suffering is different from ours, so it doesn’t count?” “What is the relationship between sin and suffering?”

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