Tough questions make me squirm. You, too, I suppose. They should.
Non-believers regularly rehearse the usual litany of legitimate objections. Chief among them is “How do you account for evil?” “Why is there suffering?” “How can a good God allow all the bad in the world?”
Excellent questions. (Of course, when raising moral objections, one is presupposing the existence of morality. A classic case of wanting one’s cake and eating it, too!)
Christian doctrine offers answers (namely sin, free will, and fallen creation) which are sufficient but not satisfactory. Not surprising. Even biblical writers voiced candid irritation with God regarding extremity in life. I concur. Theological answers fail to satisfy me when I see injustice, share other’s pain, or witness just plain evil. Worst of all, when I personally suffer in any form, I’m one unhappy camper! (However, choosing to endure in faith I find, beats the meaningless alternative. That, is unsatisfactory!)
Let’s turn this around. Permit me to posit an equally tough question to the skeptic. (And, have you ever noticed, as that viewpoint progresses, one inexorably morphs from being a skeptic to becoming a cynic?) Hence, to the secular critic I ask, “O.K. then, if this world is mere matter and we are simply biological masses of protoplasm, how do you account for the existence of good?” “Why is there mercy?” “From whence compassion?” “ Explain self-sacrifice.” {For those who prostrate at the alter of Darwin: benevolence flies in the face of natural selection via survival of the fittest. It therefore has no evolutionary reason for being!}
“Where does love come from?”
If I, as a believer, have to speak for God and thus justify evil; then you, as an unbeliever, equally must speak for non-God and explain good!
So you see, we both have questions. But only one of us claims to know “The Answer”.