Where is God When Innocent Creatures Suffer? By Dr Chapman Chen
- Chapman Chen
- 16 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Recently, TT, a member of our FB group, Vegan Theology, left the following comment under one of my posts:- “Ugh... if there was an all-powerful loving God. how can he watch the suffering that goes on (in a factory farm for instance) and not do a thing?!... just because he wants to give free will.. that's such a lame excuse.. the real reason is because that God is totally non-existent.” Whilst TT questions, “How can a loving God allow suffering?”, my line of thought explores the opposite danger: What if there were no loving ground of reality at all? Let me share my experience with you.
1. In a Soulless Universe, Meaning Lacks Itself!
I once viewed the world through an atheistic lens. To me, the universe appeared mechanical, bleak, and ultimately meaningless. In such a reality, morality seemed paradoxical and often hypocritical: it called for goodness in a universe that appeared indifferent to both goodness and cruelty. If meaning lacked itself, then altruism or compassion could feel groundless, even irrational. As a result, the heroes of novels by existentialists like Jean-Paul Sartre and Camus, e.g., Nausea and The Stranger, conclude that it is not important to be good but to be alive; it is not important to be moral but to be authentic (to oneself). As Dostoevsky’s Underground Man suggests, “mad impulse” is what’s alive in us.
2. Veganism Spiritualises Me
My outlook changed unexpectedly. At the invitation of Dr. Simon Chau, a veteran Hong Kong environmental activist and translation professor, I joined the Hong Kong Vegetarian (vegan) Society, initially for health reasons. Yet over time, both the diet and Dr. Chau’s talks transformed my perception. The universe no longer appeared to me as a cold machine but as the manifestation of a loving consciousness. I came to sense that we and all other beings arise from the same divine source, and that what we do to others we ultimately do to ourselves. Veganism did not lead me away from reason but toward reverence.
3. The Universe Exists Within You
Jesus teaches that “the Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) and refers to us as “gods” and “children of God” (John 10:34; cf. Psalm 82:6). These sayings suggest that the universe does not exist outside us but inside us, that we as gods, or children of God, or divine droplets of God, manifest the entire universe out of our own consciousness. In other words, our undesirable inner thoughts (whether conscious or unconscious), shaped by fear, greed, anger, violence, and indifference, rather than love, compassion, harmony, and peace, give rise to sufferings and chaos in the external world, for which we have only ourselves but not God to blame.
4. Mind Control is Important
That is why all great spiritual masters place a premium on mind control (control of one's mind, not others’). From this perspective, the vast suffering of innocent creatures in factory farms and slaughterhouses, or of miserable humans in wars, earthquakes, etc., does not demonstrate Divine indifference. On the contrary, each of us as an individual is to shoulder the responsibility.
5. We are Responsible for Sufferings in the External World
That's also why the prayer "I am sorry, please forgive me, I thank you, and I love you" is so powerful. For we should be sorry for any disasters or injustice out there, and ask for God's forgiveness. In a world that permits suffering, this prayer orients the heart toward compassion and healing instead of blaming God.
6. The Lord Desires Compassion
The question, therefore, may not only be “Why does God allow suffering?” but also whether we are willing to awaken the mercy that God desires and to become agents of that mercy for the most vulnerable creatures. The persistence of cruelty does not prove that compassion is absent from the universe; it shows how urgently compassion is needed within us. “I desire COMPASSION, not sacrifice,” famously declares Jesus (Matt 9:13, 12:7), echoing God in Hosea 6:6. #VeganChrist #VeganGod #VeganTheology