Apologetics Question Response

You asked me the question, “How can I believe in a God that allows pain and suffering in the world?” I too ask this question at times, especially when I when I am going through a difficult time with family, friends or life in general. I have come up with a few reasons as to why I am able to believe in a God who allows pain and suffering.
First of all, in what religion is there a god who does not allow evil and suffering? Obviously it is all around us and everyone experiences it in one way or another. Yes, in some religions your suffering means that you have sinned in another lifetime, but that still means that their god had to allow that suffering into the world to punish you.   Hindus and some atheists claim that evil isn’t really real. Well if evil isn’t really real, then how do we know the difference between right and wrong? If there were no evil and only good, how would we know that there was ever such a thing as sin? Richard Dawkins of Oxford says that evil does not exist, but that our “DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And we dance to its music.” But if this were true, why do criminals get put in jail every day for the crimes that they’ve done. If they were merely “dancing to their DNA,” the court system would have to rule them innocent because the criminals did not have any control over what their DNA told them to do.
Second, I believe that God uses the pain and suffering that exists in the world to bring us closer to Him and to show us how powerful and wonderful He is. If we didn’t know what sin was, then how would we be able to really appreciate God’s grace and mercy? John Tucker, my history teacher, says, “I can believe in a God that allows pain and suffering because only that same God is capable of taking that same pain and suffering and turn it around and make something good and beautiful come from it.” And I agree with him completely. When I was going through a particularly tough time in my life when I broke my ankle, I had to cling to God...