There is no doubt that every aspect of faith is burdened with questions, not the least of which is “why does God allow…” Fill in the blank with those questions from your own life, your own doubts. Why does an all-powerful God allow all the tragedies that we see every day? Why does He allow suffering, even to those who are His strongest advocates?

Our human existence is smothered in questions, and the most common questions begin with “why?”

It is the nature of our existence to be witness to many things we don’t understand. Our science struggles eternally with fundamental questions. Most of those questions involve things we witness or experience. Most of these questions involve “how” things work. How does our planet orbit the sun? How does DNA determine our makeup? How does gravity work, or magnetism, or radioactive decay? How does photosynthesis work? How about combustion or any other type of chemical reaction?

Over the course of human history, science has learned to explain many of these elements of our world.

But, the biggest question remains unanswered.

Why.

And it is the core question of “why” that leads us to faith. It is that question that causes us to recognize that there exists a higher power, a Creator, that holds the answer to those unique questions.

We know that our earth as well as the other planets are round. We might even understand some of the mechanics of planetary formation. But why?

We might understand the forces of gravity or the forces that hold the components of the atom together. But why?

We understand the unique combination of elements that make the earth suitable for life to exist here. But why?

Our science and our logical thought processes are so focused on the “how’s” of our existence that we seldom get down to the core question of why these things happen. And we are blinded by our ignorance. All of our judgments are based on our understanding of how things work. Those judgments, in turn, are based on what we can experience with our limited human senses.

If we have learned nothing in our journey of intellectual evolution, we should have learned that some explanations are beyond our human ability to understand, because it involves forces or processes outside our collective experience.

Ultimately, we must recognize that the question of “why” can have only one answer – because our Creator, the force we call God, has designed it that way.

And that is where faith comes into play. because it offers the only possible answer.