The mystery of suffering

I listened to an excellent talk, by Andrew Wilson, on the question of suffering.  Perhaps you have had someone ask you, 'how can an all-powerful, all-loving God allow people to suffer?'

Andrew points out that this argument against the existence of God only became popular, in western culture, in the last two-hundred-and-fifty years.  This was when western people began to assume that, if God exists, they should be able to understand his mind.

So, their argument went: (1) An all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing God would not permit suffering without good reason, (2) I cannot think of any good reasons why he would allow certain tragedies, (3) therefore, there isn't one, (4) suffering exists, (5) so an all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing God does not exist.  

The problem obviously centres on point 3.

Most cultures look at this issue differently.  They do not assume that they have full knowledge of the mind of God/gods.  So they would reason: (1) An all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing God would not permit suffering without good reason, (2) I cannot think of any good reasons why he would allow certain tragedies, (3) my knowledge, however, is hugely limited, (4) suffering exists, (5) this is a mystery.

'The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law' (Deut. 29:29).