If I were God, I’d end all the pain

Struggling with evil, suffering and faith

When talk turns to the existence of God and his role in the

world, the question of suffering is an inevitable sticking point.

How could a loving God allow people to suffer? Why would an

all-powerful God not intervene to prevent children from dying

starvation, sickness or natural disaster? If God cares why doesn’t

he stop murders and poverty and pain? Why does God allow me

to feel lonely, hurt or afraid?

There are no easy answers to these questions, nor are we

served by glib responses to very real and troubling issues. If I were

God, I’d end all the pain is John Dickson’s attempt at a sensitive

and Biblically informed treatment of the problem of suffering.

Now with student handbook Dickson’s book is well suited to

Christian Studies classrooms and other contexts where this

important question must come up. What students may discover is

that Christianity offers the best answer available and the most

hope for living life in a broken and imperfect world.

Designed for students in years 9 and 10, the student

handbook also features six Bible studies to complement the

chapters of the Dickson book with a focus on the book of Job as

well as the cross of Jesus.

The handbook contains:

[ Interviews with people who have experienced and endured

suffering

[ Stunning illustrations by Julie Bosaker and Kaethe Kollwitz

[ Newspaper articles

[ Explanatory diagrams

[ Individual response and group discussion

[ Room to express questions and objections

[ Quotes from contemporary figures

[ Real life stories

Structure

Introduction

CHAPTER 1

The Last one standingJob – when life falls apart

CHAPTER 2

The alternativesJob takes another hit

CHAPTER 3

Invitation to doubtJob feels the pain

CHAPTER 4

The Justice of GodGenesis – where it all

went wrong

CHAPTER 5

The renewal of all thingsJob and God – time to talk

CHAPTER 6

The wounds of GodJob and Jesus - Has God

left the building?

Student Handbook

If IwereGod,I’d end all the

painS T R U G G L I N G W I T H E V I L , S U F F E R I N G A N D F A I T H

J O H N D I C K S O N

Featuressix studieson Job andthe cross

Written by Simon Smart

If I were God, I’d end ALL the

painIf I were God, I’d end ALL the

pain

sample lesson

Introduction

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Desperate dig for survivorsBy Graham Reilly in New Delhi and agencies

October 10, 2005

International aid, rescue teams and relief supplies have

begun pouring into Pakistan as the death toll from a

devastating earthquake soared, with entire villages

destroyed and thousands of people buried alive under

collapsed buildings.

The earthquake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, tore

through Pakistan and reverberated across India and

Afghanistan early on Saturday. It was the strongest to hit

South Asia in 100 years. Up to 45 aftershocks were felt,

the latest recording 6 on the scale.

Official estimates of the death toll varied. Pakistan’s

interior minister said 19,136 people died and 42,397 were

injured in north-western Pakistan and Pakistan-

controlled Kashmir. About 11,000 of the dead were in

Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, Aftab

Sherpao said. “Casualties are increasing by the hour”.1

WeekendcarnageofThe following stories occurred on a single weekend. A Mondaymorning newspaper reportedeach of these events:

Hurricane kills 1500across central AmericaOctober 10, 2005

San Salvador: Rescuers pulled bodies

from Guatemalan villages devastated

by mudslides, and other volunteers

used machetes and their bare hands to

dig for more victims as the aftermath

of Hurricane Stan continued to wreak

havoc across northern Central

America, killing up to 1500 people.

Guatemalan officials said on Saturday

that 508 people had been confirmed

dead and 337 were missing in the

country as a result of flooding and

mudslides caused by the hurricane,

which roared across the region last

week. More than 100 other deaths

have been reported in Mexico, El

Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and

Costa Rica.

Los Angeles Times, Reuters3

Mother and babybashed, man charged

A man will face court today over the

bashing of a mother and her baby son

on the NSW South Coast.

Police said the 34-year-old woman and

her four-month-old son suffered head

and facial injuries when they were

attacked at a home in Sassafras

Avenue, Windang, about 3pm on

Saturday.

Police allege the woman was attacked

while she was holding the baby.

She then drove them to Shellharbour

hospital and they were transferred by

ambulance to Wollongong hospital.

A 42-year-old man has been charged

with a string of assault and grievous

bodily harm offences.

He was refused bail and will face

Wollongong Local Court today.

AAP4

Sumatra boy tests positivefor bird flu October 10, 2005

Jakarta: A four-year-old boy has tested positive for

bird flu in Indonesia, a case which, if confirmed,

would be the sixth in the world’s fourth-most

populous country, the Health Ministry said.

The boy from Lampung province on Sumatra was

found to be infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of

avian influenza, the Director-General of Disease

Control and Environmental Health, I Nyoman

Kandun, said yesterday.

Reuters, Agence France-Presse2

2

The scale of the loss and destruction reportedhere is difficult to comprehend. Many of us are

desensitised to such stories.We read aboutthem, sigh sympathetically and move quickly on

to the sports or entertainment news.

The stories came from a particularlydevastating weekend, but picking any day’s

newspaper will provide tales of loss, violence,destruction and suffering. The stories may or

may not impact us, but for the people involvedthey are catastrophic moments. They all got upthat morning expecting to live their lives in the

usual manner. For many thousands it was thelast time they would do so. Other lives would beirreparably damaged. For these people things

would never be the same again.

Wherewas God?

Tick the box[es] of the statementsthat you most agree with.

� God wasn’t there because he doesn’t exist.

� God is not able to stop bad things happening.

� God must not care about people very much.

� God cares very much for the people involvedin these events.

� God is angry and caused these events.

� God cares and is in control of all thathappens in the world.

� God created the world but doesn’t intervenein what happens

Identify the different causes of suffering

that were present in the newspaper stories

above. What other causes of suffering can

you think of?

�

�

Read the introduction to ‘If I were God …’ (page 9–10)

Why does the author suggest his capacity to

doubt is a strength when handling this topic?�

What other questions do you have about the issue of pain

and suffering and God? Write them in the space below.

I look at the world and all the suffering that goes on and I justcan’t believe there is a loving God who stands by and doesnothing.

Suffering doesn’t cause me any great philosophical problem.There is just a terrible randomness to what happens and thereis no-one to blame.

God knows about our suffering and he experienced it himself,in the life of Jesus. This is the key to understanding somethingabout suffering and how we should understand it.

God disciplines people with suffering and pain. Everythingthat happens is caused by God and there must be a reason foreverything.

I believe that God is there and that he created the world, buthe must not be able to really help our situation. The world justevolves and life happens – good and bad, and I suppose Godeither can’t or won’t get involved.

Suffering is ultimately good for people. Itbrings the strongest people to the surfaceand they are the ones who survive andprosper. That is a natural thing about howthings develop and might sound a bit harsh,but is for the best in the end.

Rate the following statements with a number 1–5,where 1 means I strongly agree, and 5 means Idon’t agree at all.

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What three questions are posed at the

outset of the book?

•••

1.CH

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'Life is full ofmisery, loneliness,and suffering - andit's all over much

too soon.'Woody Allen1

Read page 11-13

What makes the author qualified to talk

about suffering?

How do you explain the fact that without a

religious background, as a 9 year-old he

asked his mother, 'Why did God let Dad's

plane crash?'

For a range of differenttypes of suffering below,describe the possiblereasons why things went

wrong. Who or what might havecaused the suffering. (In some casesyou need to speculate on thepossibilities.) Some have been donefor you.

2004 Tsunami

Destructive forces of nature.Earthquake at ocean floor causingmassive movement of water into aTsunami.

Millions die in famine

Nature, erosion from poor farmingtechniques, corrupt governmentwithholding international aid, richcountries ignore pleas for help.

A country is bombed by another

The last onestanding �

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A friendship breaksdown

A child dies of cancer A marriage collapses

The company has

compromised safety

standards by cost cutting

to satisfy shareholders.

Time pressured ground

crew, negligently fail to

follow procedures that

could have prevented

the crash.

An airliner crashesWhen people experience suffering

they often ask 'why?' (page 12).

Explain the reason this is a

natural question to ask when

things go wrong.

The author says that the Bible -

his main source of perspective on

suffering - does not offer a

complete and final explanation of

all evil and suffering. What does it give him?

Read pages 13-17

Why does the existence of suffering convince

some people that there is no such thing as an

all-powerful, all-loving God? How reasonable

is such a conclusion?

The Bible's teaching about God

is that he is the almighty

creator of all things who 'stretches out

the heavens' with his hand (Isaiah

40:22), and that he is loving and good.

Do you think that suffering poses a

problem for such a description of God? Explain

your answer.

Does suffering

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�

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disproveGod?

Complete the following diagrams based on the author's

suggestions on page 14-16

Equation 1

Assumption 1

Assumption 2

Fact

Conclusion

What argument does the author use

to refute this equation?

God?Equation of

&suffering

Equation 1

Assumption 1

Assumption 2

Fact

Conclusion

How do you feel about the argument of

equation 2?

The real question(s) according to the author are:

More than flood damage in

Jemile Jackson is 8 years old.Up until hurricane Katrina ravagedNew Orleans in 2005, he lived therewith his single mother, three brothersand their grandparents. Theneighbourhood they lived in was wellaway from the wide avenues and oldplantation homes of the city's wealthy.Theirs was an area of town that NewOrleans' many tourists rarely saw.

When news of hurricane Katrina filtered into the

city, Jemile and his family were part of the mass of

people for whom evacuation was never an option.

The vast majority of these people were, like the

Jackson family, African Americans. Where would

they go? How would they get there? They had

survived this sort of thing before, and expected to do

so again.

The devastation of Katrina was something Jemile

and his family could not have imagined. When the

banks of the Mississippi River broke and the

flooding of the city began, Jemile lost his

grandparents and his home in the floodwaters.

Thousands were forced to seek shelter in the city's

convention centre. Trapped in the cauldron of the

'Superdome', Jamile entered a week that outstripped

his darkest nightmares. It was a living hell.

In the Superdome he experienced the worst that

humanity had to offer. Each night was a nerve-

jangling, helpless wait with his mother and brothers

to see if they would survive. Like everyone else they

were at the mercy of the gangs that roamed the

stadium unrestrained, tormenting random victims.

Gun-shots frequently rang out. Rumours circulated

of rape. Bodies left in the open provided undeniable

evidence of murder.

Help did not come. Elderly people died from lack of

medical treatment. Toilets overflowed with refuse.

The stench was overpowering. In the country with

the most powerful economy in the world and the

strongest army, its citizens were left to fend for

themselves. What little assistance that did

eventually arrive in the form of water and food,

produced scenes of frantic and desperate 'snatch

and grab' selfishness. Survival of the strongest and

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d damage in Katrina's wake

fastest was very much the order of the day.

Jemile's mother remains in a state of mild shock over

the whole affair. 'We just couldn't believe that all this

could go on without the government doing something

about it. We kept thinking “they will get here soon”.

But days went by before any help arrived.'

For Jemile and his family, the months ahead are full of

unknowns. They share a fate with thousands of others

who have been displaced and don't know when or if

they will be able to return to their homes.

From Jemile's story highlightall the negative elements andthe different things that wentwrong in the account.

For each of these, suggest somepossible reasons why things occurredin the way they did.

�

If you could choose just one thing in the

world for God to change and make better,

what would it be?

What would need to happen for this thing to be fixed?

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Points to ponder

What possible reason could there befor God to allow suffering tocontinue?

Is there any suffering that could beconsidered good?

Use the space here to express your own feelings on

the topic and the points raised in the first chapter..

Yeah but...Objections, questions, disagreements

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