Big Questions

When people blame God

War, disease, a death in the family, a cruel verse, a God who seems silent or male or vain. These are the reasons people give for blaming God, or for walking away. Each one is answered here head on: a strong case, a fair reply, and every faith in its own words.

Early Morning After a Storm at Sea. Winslow Homer. Gift of J. H. Wade · CC0 1.0

Blaming God is very old. Abraham argued with Him over a city. Job demanded a hearing. The Psalms shout “Why?”, and the Qur’an records the angels asking why God would make a creature that sheds blood. Asking hard questions is not the opposite of faith. In every tradition on this site, it is part of it.

These pages take the charges people bring against God one at a time. Each sets out the plainest, strongest case a believer can make, then gives the sceptic’s reply fairly and briefly. Then Jews, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and people of no religion answer in their own words. We don’t mock and we don’t pretend. Where the evidence runs out, we say so.

If you are here because of a loss, you may want to start with Why did God take someone I love? Every group ends at the same place this whole site starts from: we exist, we did not make ourselves, and the natural reply is thanks.

Why is there so much pain?

The charge that a good God would not allow suffering: from disease and disaster to the death of someone we love.

Qur'an 2:155–156 · PhilosophyWhy is there suffering?The oldest question, and the hardest. It is asked inside every faith, not only against them.

Germs and genes · Natural evil · Healing as a sacred dutyWhy is there disease?Charles Darwin could not believe God designed a wasp that eats caterpillars alive. In the same letter he wrote that he could not believe it was all brute force either. Both halves of his letter belong on this page.

Lisbon 1755 · A restless planet · Natural evil · The helpersWhy do earthquakes and floods happen?On a holy day in 1755, an earthquake brought down Lisbon's churches on the people praying inside them. Europe has argued about God and disasters ever since. The science adds a twist: the shaking planet is also the living one.

Ivan Karamazov · King David · The Prophet's son · Kisa Gotami · GriefWhy do children suffer?The hardest form of the hardest question. Every faith has a parent at its heart who lost a child. This page goes gently.

Grief · “The Lord gave” · Innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rājiʿūn · Bhana · What helpsWhy did God take someone I love?When someone dies, this is rarely a puzzle for philosophers. It is a cry. This page is not here to win an argument. It is here to sit with you, and to share what every tradition has learned about grief.

Abraham tested · James 1 · Qur’an 67:2 and 29:2 · The vale of soul-making · A sceptic’s replyWhy would God put us here to be tested?Exams are stressful enough. Why would a loving God make life itself one? The traditions answer that a test is not a trap. It is how something grows strong.

Watch

**Doesn’t all the evil in the world show there is no God? Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Templeton Prize**Templeton Prize · 2 minRabbi Sacks for the Templeton Prize: doesn't evil show there is no God?

Why does God let people do evil?

War, atrocity and cruelty done in God’s own name, and the question underneath them all: are we really free?

Free will · Responsibility · What each faith says war is, and isn'tIf there is a God, why are there wars?Before there were any people, the Qur'an says, the angels asked this very question. Every tradition gives the same first answer: war is something we do.

Qur'an 5:32 · HistoryDoes religion cause war?Every faith has blood in its history, and every faith has peacemakers who stood against it. The honest answer is more interesting than either slogan.

The scriptures' own warnings · Churches that apologised · Scholars who condemned · Why good people do terrible thingsWhat about the evil done in God's name?Jesus warned that people would kill and think they were serving God. The Qur'an describes those who spread corruption while calling themselves reformers. The traditions saw this coming, and each has had to face it in its own history.

Jewish responses · Christian reckoning · Rescuers of every faith · Holocaust Memorial DayCan anyone believe in God after the Holocaust?Six million Jews were murdered. Some survivors lost their faith, some kept it, and many argued with God for the rest of their lives. The question belongs to them first.

Rabbi Akiva · Boethius · Qadar · Hukam and karma · Libet’s experimentIf God knows everything, are we free?If God already knows what you will do tomorrow, can you choose otherwise? Philosophers have argued about it for two thousand years, and brain scientists for forty.

Is God unfair?

The hard verses, hell and judgement, the demand for worship, the prayer that got a “no”, and the picture of God as a man.

The Flood · Canaan · Verses out of context · How each tradition reads its ownIs God cruel? The hard passages in scriptureEvery holy book has pages that make readers wince. The traditions noticed first. Here is how each one reads its own hardest passages: honestly, in context, and without pretending they are easy.

Gehinnom · Three Christian views · Mercy before anger · Karma and rebirth · The humanist objectionHow can a loving God punish anyone?Hell is the teaching sceptics find hardest to forgive. Inside each tradition, the arguments about it are older, kinder and more varied than most people expect.

Psalm 50 · Acts 17 · Qur’an 35:15 and 51:56–57 · Worship as thanksWhy would God need our worship?If God has everything, why ask us to bow, pray and praise? Every tradition gives the same surprising answer: He doesn’t need it. We do.

Moses told “no” · Gethsemane · The three answers · What the research foundWhy doesn't God answer my prayer?Moses begged to enter the Promised Land, and was told to stop asking. Jesus prayed for the cup to pass. Every faith remembers prayers that got a “no”, and each has something to say about what prayer is for.

“He” in scripture · A mother’s comfort · Beyond male and female · Ik Onkar · DeviIs God a man?Scriptures often say “He”. Yet the same scriptures compare God to a mother, a nursing woman and a hen gathering her chicks. What does each tradition actually believe?

Is anyone there at all?

The deepest charge: that God is hidden, invented, out-argued by science, or simply not there. And the honest question for all of us: what if I’m wrong?

Moses on the mountain · Isaiah's hidden God · Schellenberg's argument · Signs everywhereIf God exists, why doesn't He just show Himself?Moses asked to see God. So did Arjuna. Both stories end the same way: the seeing was more than a person could bear. A modern philosopher has turned the question into one of the strongest arguments against God.

The reasons people give · What the research shows · Doubt inside every faithWhy do people not believe in God?Even Abraham asked God for proof. Doubt is not only something that happens to faith from outside. Every tradition has room for it, and every non-believer deserves to be heard in their own words.

Feuerbach · Marx · Freud · The science of belief · The genetic fallacy · The longing argumentDidn’t humans just invent God?Three famous thinkers said God is a human creation: our best qualities projected on the sky, a painkiller, a father figure. They were serious arguments. So are the replies, and the oldest critics of made-up gods turn out to be the prophets.

Qur'an 112 · PhilosophyWho made God?The question every child asks, and philosophers still argue over. It is a fair question, and the right place to be honest about what believers actually claim.

Qur'an 3:190 · Science and faithDoes science rule out God?On every big question we looked at, serious scientists and philosophers stand on both sides, and none of them is settled by the evidence. That is the honest position.

Qur'an 29:46 · Each faith in its own wordsIs it the same God?Jews, Christians and Muslims all speak of the God of Abraham (peace be upon him). Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews call Him Allah. Whether it is the same God is answered differently inside each faith.

Qur'an 2:256 · Society and the inner lifeWhy do people leave belief, and why do others stay?Millions of Britons have stepped away from the faith they grew up with. Others hold on, return or find faith for the first time. Each story deserves respect.

Qur'an 12:76 · ReflectionWhat if we’re wrong?Every tradition here has its own way of saying “we might be wrong”. A question each of us can ask ourselves, believer or not.

Where the questions lead

After every hard question, one plain line of reasoning still stands: I exist, I did not make myself, so I give thanks.

A plain line of reasoning · Psalm 103 · Qur'an 14:34 · 1 Thessalonians 5:18I exist. I recognise. I give thanks.Three steps. You are here. You did not make yourself. Thanks is the natural reply.

Modeh Ani · Eucharist · Alḥamdu lillāh · Shukrana · KataññutāWhy do we give thanks at all?Someone holds a door open and we say thank you without thinking. So who do we thank for eyes, ears, air and fruit?

Another question in this theme

Why do children suffer?12 min · Suffering

Watch more: When people blame God

6 films and talks, chosen for this page. They play here.

The Real Answer to Why God Allows Suffering
Ascension Presents · 8 min
Why Is There So Much Suffering in The World? | Why Me? EP. 23 | Dr. Omar Suleiman
Yaqeen Institute · 11 min
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski On Understanding Suffering
JINSIDER · 2 min
Questions of Suffering – Timothy Keller [Sermon]
Gospel in Life · 34 min
Does Suffering Disprove God? | Alex O'Connor (Part 6 of 19)
Closer To Truth · 29 min
Closer To Truth: does suffering disprove God? The sceptic's case, fairly put.
If there is a God, why…?
whoisallah.org.uk · 1 min
More films and talks on F-ILMWatch free