God cannot be both all loving and all powerful #atheist #mormon #religion

Can God Be Both All-Loving and All-Powerful? A Theological Problem That Challenges Mormon Faith

For millions of believers, including members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the existence of an omnipotent and perfectly loving God forms the bedrock of religious conviction. Yet a deceptively simple question threatens this foundation: If God is truly all-powerful and all-loving, why does he permit suffering, especially suffering that appears deliberately structured into human experience? This philosophical puzzle, known as the problem of evil, has occupied theologians for millennia. But when examined through the lens of LDS doctrine and history, it takes on a peculiar urgency that resonates with contemporary members wrestling with faith transitions.

The problem becomes acute when we examine specific LDS teachings about divine punishment and human suffering. As explored in Mormon Stories Podcast, one particularly pointed example reveals the tension: God's curse upon Eve, and by extension, all women, requiring them to bear children in pain and danger. If an all-powerful deity authored this consequence, and if he is truly all-loving, then the logical contradiction becomes inescapable. Why would such a being design a biological reality that condemns women to mortality risk as punishment for an act they did not personally commit?

Background: The Classical Problem of Evil in Christian Theology

The tension between omnipotence, benevolence, and the existence of evil is not new. Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas, Enlightenment skeptic David Hume, and modern philosophers like Alvin Plantinga have all grappled with this dilemma. The standard formulation goes like this: If God is all-powerful, he can prevent all suffering If God is all-loving, he would want to prevent all suffering Yet suffering clearly exists Therefore, an all-powerful, all-loving God cannot exist

Christian traditions have offered various responses: free will defenses (God permits evil because he values human choice), soul-making theodicies (suffering builds character), or appeals to divine mystery (human minds cannot comprehend God's purposes).