If we’re being honest with ourselves, the problem of evil is not merely a logical problem; there is something very emotional about the idea of God allowing evil into this world.

Even if we can see logically no incompatibility between the existence of God with the existence of terrible moral evils or seemingly pointless suffering, we still feel like all these wrongs mean there can’t be a right.

We’ll even go as far as to say that life is meaningless, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” as Shakespeare wrote. We go this far, perhaps, because we hope that our emotional pain (whether our own or lived vicariously) will be numbed or eased. Behind this might be a hope that if we can convince ourselves that it’s all just part of life, part of our “meaningless” existence, then we can just move on and not have to worry about it. We want peace – and when life’s evils seem to keep us from this peace, we try to convince ourselves that there is no evil at all. Just existence.

If we take a step back, however, I think we all agree that sometimes our emotions make for bad decision-making tools. The evils and endless sufferings of life impact us emotionally – and we respond based on our emotions. Thus, our emotions govern our actions and control what we believe or how we live.

Emotions: Important but Not Authoritative

I think we would all agree that our emotions are important. Clearly, they can be very helpful as we make big decisions, as we relate to others, and as we undergo self-discovery.

Our emotions can tell us much. But they can also mislead and interfere. We have all had times where our emotions have gotten the better of us, made us say or do something we ended up regretting or even changed so suddenly that we wished we had never listened to them in the first place. Indeed, as helpful as emotions can be, they are not the be-all, end-all, and must be cautiously watched, and constructively questioned and criticized.

This is actually a key element of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: challenging underlying beliefs, many of which are reinforced by emotional hijacking.

Thus the English proverb: “cooler heads prevail.”

When Emotions Hijack Worldviews

When it comes to the problem of evil, perhaps the lesson is thus: we must be careful that emotions do not hijack our worldview and the metanarratives that we hold to. Otherwise, we may be understanding our world through lenses of fear, anger, resentment or sadness instead of reality.

Practically speaking, how you see and understand the world will determine how you live and how you relate to those around you. More importantly, if how you live and thus what you believe have consequences not only in this life but any life that may follow this one, then your worldview (led by your emotions, if you let them) will have great and lasting (even, possibly, eternal) consequences.

Some argue that fear of hell has kept people in the pews for centuries, and that may be true. Perhaps also anger or sadness at evil have led to overly pessimistic atheism?

Either way, emotions can only tell us so much. Ultimately, they cannot be what we base our worldview on – and so when it comes to the existence of God, perhaps the most important question of anyone’s life, we cannot let our contempt for evil and suffering guide us to say, simply, “there is no God”… especially if there are no concrete reasons to do so.

What Emotions Can Really Tell Us

Though I think the above case is sound, I know still the depth and power of emotions and don’t pretend to make light of them. Furthermore, I don’t believe God makes light of them either.

For now, I would insist that we do not let emotions make life’s most important decisions.

Instead of a resentfulness towards the thought of a “so-called” loving God who allows evil, could we see Him as comforter in the midst of a world filled with evil? Could we see pain and suffering as the “megaphone” (as C.S. Lewis puts it) to a sleeping and broken world that God uses to awaken and heal it?

In other words, when you hear the megaphone of evil and suffering booming… what are you going to do about it?