Horrendous suffering can never be ignored to protect god(s)
Not too long ago, a post quoting Bertrand Russell popped up on social media. It was an excerpt from his 1930 essay, Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization? Much of this essay is devoted to demonstrating that the concept of a god who is all-loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing cannot be reconciled with the depth of pain and misery that we see in the world. His conclusion was that it makes no sense at all to believe in such a god. It was in 1927 that he published Why I Am Not a Christian. He also proposed a thought experiment, The Cosmic Teapot, pointing out that if he claimed that there was a tiny teapot orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars—that could not be detected by any telescope—it is an unfalsifiable claim. The analogy is that claims about gods likewise lack reliable, verifiable, objective data, and are thus not to be believed.
The posting concluded with this statement, providing an example of horrendous pain and misery:
“Image: A Jewish child dying alone in the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto as other children pass by during World War II. It is not known if the dying child or any of the children in this particular photograph survived, but it is highly unlikely. The photograph is believed to have been taken on 19 September 1941. The Warsaw ghetto was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during the Holocaust. At its height, as many as 460,000 Jews were imprisoned there in an area of 3.4 km² (1.3 sq mi), with an average of 9.2 persons per room, barely subsisting on meager food rations. The total death toll among the ghetto prisoners is estimated to be at least 300,000 killed, combined with 92,000 victims of starvation and related diseases, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the casualties of the final destruction of the ghetto.”
I was especially struck by this recitation of disaster and suffering because I had recently finished reading Little Edna’s War, (355 pages, Kindle) by Janet Bond Brill, PhD: the story of two young Jewish sisters who managed to survive the Nazi atrocities inflicted on Poland. At the outset, the author describes Hitler’s madness:
“By the summer of 1939, Adolf Hitler had meticulously finalized his plans to create a ‘Master race,’ fulfilling what he believed was Germany’s destiny for Lebensraum (living space). Ravenous for territorial expansion, he had already devoured Austria, seized the Sudetenland, and swallowed Czechoslovakia whole. Poland now stood squarely in his sights. Hitler’s goal was unambiguous and chilling: murder those of Polish descent or language – sparing only those slave laborers who might prove useful and sympathetic to the Third Reich – while systematically ‘Cleansing’ Poland of its Jewish population. On September 1, 1939, Germany unleashed a devastating surprise attack from air, land, and sea that would soon prove catastrophic for my homeland.” (page 9, Kindle)
The story opens when the two Jewish sisters, Edna (age 5) and Miriam (age 11) were attending a birthday party—that’s the moment when the savage, blistering German attack began, virtually destroying the house where the party was being held. It took two days for the sisters to find their way home among the debris, ruins, and smoke. Theirs was a large family, mother and father, and eight children, including twin infant boys.
The Nazi soldier occupiers continued their brutality. Jews were soon required to wear the Star of David, to be easily identified. The soldiers patrolled the streets…
“People scattered from the pavement as the soldiers advanced. When an elderly man with a flowing white beard failed to move quickly enough, one soldier struck him with a baton. The old man crumpled, his face striking the pavement…an elderly woman wearing her Jewish armband stopped to glare at the soldiers, slowly shaking her head in defiance. The soldiers noticed her silent condemnation and approached… ‘You beast,’ the woman spat. ‘Who do you think you’re talking to, you lice-ridden Jew,’ the soldier snarled, striking her face. ‘That’s how typhus is spread – through filthy Jews like you.’ The woman lowered her gaze, her cheek flaming… He drew his pistol, waving it at the old woman. ‘You’re not so brave now, are you, Jewess?’ The woman lifted her eyes to meet his, and he pulled the trigger. The bullet struck her forehead. As she collapsed to the ground, he surveyed the horrified onlookers and laughed, amused by their shock.” (pp. 56-57, Kindle)
Eventually the ghetto—as described above—was set up. Jews were forbidden to leave, but Enda and Miriam, helped by one of their brothers, were able to sneak out in search of food. Both sisters contributed their efforts to the Ghetto Uprising, which was crushed without mercy—and the ghetto itself was left in ruins. Yet they survived, changed their names, and were able to pass themselves off as gentiles…until the time came when their Jewish identity was no longer a threat. They survived the war by decades, but most of their family had been killed.
There has been a meme floating around on social media for a while: “How did you sleep last night? Very well, thank you, just like God during the Holocaust.” While the Holocaust is an example of colossal suffering—with a good, powerful, loving god apparently paying no attention whatever—there have been many thousands of events in human history that illustrate divine negligence. At the end of Little Edna’s War, there is a list of 107 other Holocaust survival memoirs. Clergy and theologians offer their tiresome, flimsy excuses to get god off the hook, but none of these excuses stand up to rational inquiry.
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes:
· Guessing About God (2023)
· Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available.
· Everything You Need to Know About Prayer But May Not Want to Admit (2025)
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.
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