Here are potential responses to the questions: - Mother Teresa is often cited as someone who coped with suffering through compassionately serving the poor and needy in India. - Holocaust survivors like Elie Wiesel went through unspeakable horrors but used their experiences to educate others on the evils of indifference. Some are broken by trauma while others are strengthened by overcoming adversity. - Suffering is relative - a paper cut causes more distress to a child because they lack perspective of worse pains. However, eliminating all discomfort would not satisfy everyone and life requires some hardship to have meaning. - Difficult experiences can build character when faced with resilience and wisdom is often born from enduring hardships. For example, the

1. Bottom: Haiti – January 2010
Top: Charity workers helping
the needy afterwards

2. Tuesday, 06 December 2011
How can Christians explain evil?
Aims:
• Recap the ‘problem of evil’
• Describe a variety of ways in which Christians attempt
to solve the problem of evil and suffering lessons
• Explain how the Bible teaches that evil and suffering
were brought into the world through people’s sinful
actions
• Give your own opinions about the problem of evil and
whether or not it disproves the existence of God

3. Unique to number 1
Shared by 1 and 2 Shared by 1 and 3
1. A hangover
Shared by all
2. Being hit by a car driven
3. Being killed by a tsunami
by a drunk
Unique to number 2 Unique to number 3
Shared by 2 and 3

4. The ‘problem of evil’ recap
God is thought to be omni-benevolent, omnipotent and omniscient
If God is omni- If God is omniscient If God is omnipotent
benevolent he would he would know how he would be able to
want to remove evil to remove evil and remove evil and
and suffering suffering suffering
Therefore, both God
and evil cannot exist
Evil and suffering
do exist
Therefore, God
cannot exist

5. • Can you give an example of someone who you think
is a shining example of how to cope with difficult
times? What did/do they do?
• Can you think of anyone who has been broken by
suffering, who has gone through so much they have
become bitter? Describe their experiences.
• A four-year-old can create quite a scene from a cut
knee, maybe because they know nothing worse
(yet!) What if the world was less intense, and all our
pains were less severe? Would that satisfy
everyone? In other words, is suffering relative?

6. • ‘All that is best, most valued, and longest lasting
is born out of pain and suffering.’ Would you
agree? Can you give examples?
• Not many people take their own lives, but a few
do. What are we to make of this? Can we
conclude that, for most people, life can’t be that
bad after all? Or could it be the evolutionary
struggle for survival has given us a tough
approach: we seek survival come what may?
• How is a persons religious beliefs reinforced or
undermined by suffering?