Why does God allow suffering?
I get the whole "Adam and Eve ate the apple" thing, but why is it that thousands of years later God still punishes billions of people for something two people did long ago? Isn't that kinda... mean?
And God told them not to eat from that tree, but he created humans curious and with a weak will power, wouldn't that suggest he actualy WANTED people to suffer?
Well,
Soul_on_fire, I wanted you to know that you can be a Christian, and take the Adam and Eve story as allegory, rather than literal truth. Many perfectly respectable Christians interpret in just this way.
Now. On to the substance of your question. Please note that I am suggesting, rather than pronouncing, answers. As has already been said, there are many thoughts on this matter, since it is a fairly obvious difficulty with God's allegedly perfect goodness.
Broadly speaking, there are two types of evil, and though the resultant suffering may be identical, the cause is different.
There is natural evil, such as earthquakes, predation, and disease.
There is moral evil, such as the holocaust or the tobacco industry.
Moral evil is easier to deflect from God than natural evil, for it is down to the freely made choices of humanity. But, if we were not free, the thinking goes, there would be little for God to love in us, and little for us to love in God.
As for natural evil, then it seems an integral part of the earth that spawned us. It is difficult to see how humanity could have evolved without the predatory 'survival of the fittest' filter of natural selection. Without the tectonic structure of the earth's crust, there would be no earthquakes, but no mountains, no micro-climates, none of the infinite variety of landscapes that we exploit in our various ways to provide our means of living. And as for disease, it seems to me to provoke a need to understand how we are made, so that we can cure, maintain, and possibly in the future, improve, our bodies.
As for suffering itself, it is merely the signal that, physically, psychologically, or spiritually, we are taking damage. It needs to be an unpleasant signal, so that we are motivated to avoid damage. But without that feedback, there would be nothing but death to limit the amount of damage we take, which has obviously unpleasant consequences.
Best wishes, 2ndRateMind.