• Human Suffering—Due to Whose Failure to Care?
    Awake!—1974 | October 8

    • Yet at the same time we can see vast areas of this earth that are truly lovely, even breathtaking in their beauty​—verdant woodlands, rich, rolling pastures and meadows, majestically rugged mountains, crystal-clear lakes and sparkling streams and waterfalls, sun-drenched beaches fringed with palm groves, cloud-decorated skies that are pastel pink and blue at sunrise, fiery-red, purple and gold at sunset.

      Again, if we charge the first​—the scenes of human misery and squalor—​to God, then to whom do we credit the second? Who is the source of the beauty and grandeur that human eyes never tire of drinking in and that no human artist has ever matched?

  • Human Suffering—Due to Whose Failure to Care?
    Awake!—1974 | October 8

    • Amazing Contrasts in Our Own Bodies

      We see the same contrast in case after case. On the one hand, we see cancer, heart disease and other ailments afflicting mankind. On the other, we are faced with the human body’s marvelous abilities and makeup.

      We rightly marvel at the heart’s capacity, in the course of one day, to pump the equivalent of 7,000 quarts of blood through a network of 60,000 miles of blood vessels and supply oxygen and nourishment to some 30,000,000,000,000 cells​—each cell containing over a quarter of a million protein molecules, each molecule consisting of about 20,000 atoms.

      We cannot help feeling amazement at the body’s natural defenses against disease and infection​—the way that any penetration of germs triggers an unseen and immediate counterattack by the body: first, an increase of blood-flow to the site of the invasion; the arrival of antibodies that fasten on to the invading bacteria, in effect identifying them as enemies and causing white blood cells called neutrophils to surround the bacteria and break them down by digestive enzymes; accompanying this, an immediate speedup in production by the bone marrow of these defending antibodies and neutrophils; the activity of the blood plasma’s clotting agent (called fibrinogen) to form a network of strands around the infection and seal off the area; then the arrival of slower-moving lymphocytes and monocytes to feed on and clean up the debris resulting from the battle waged; and, finally, the growing of new cells and tissues to restore the damaged area.

      So complex and numerous are the human body’s defenses that the late Harvard University physiologist Walter Cannon was moved to say: “When you understand a great deal about the human body and its resources for health, you wonder why anyone is ever sick.”

      Yet people do get sick, and loved ones die. Why? Is it because God does not care? Then why all the provisions for maintaining health?

      The Problem That Remains

      Clearly, to attribute human suffering to a lack of God’s care raises as many questions as it answers, or more. It makes life on earth a paradox, full of contradictions. To say that God does not exist only makes the problem worse. Why are we here in the first place if there is no Creator? What purpose does life have in such a case?

      When we see a house with its doors, windows, rooms and other features that are obviously designed for human use, we recognize that the house had a builder. This entire planet has many more features that fit it for human habitation than any house that man has ever made, for houses need outside sources to provide them with such things as food, water and fuel. With good reason, the inspired apostle Paul wrote: “Of course, every house is constructed by someone, but he that constructed all things is God.” (Heb. 3:4) If someone commits a crime in a house, or individuals in that house get sick, does that deny the existence of the builder?