I saw this meme on Instagram recently: "Atheists be like: If god exists, why my tummy hurt? 😂😂😂😂" But honestly? It's actually a pretty solid point. It's just the "problem of evil" stripped down to its core.
Religious people usually try to defend suffering by splitting it into two categories. First, there's "good" suffering like a tough workout or failing a test. Stuff that builds character. They say this is part of God's plan because it makes you better.
But then there's the completely pointless suffering. Kids getting cancer, random accidents, testicle torsions, stuff with zero character-building value. The usual defense is "God works in mysterious ways" or "It's a test" and that we just can't comprehend the master plan.
Here's the problem: we have to judge things based on what we can actually see. If you saw a guy violently beating his kids in the street, you wouldn't say, "Well, maybe he has a hidden, benevolent reason we just can't understand 🤓." You'd assume he's a piece of shit.
So why do we abandon all basic logic just because the guy doing it is supposedly divine?
Theologians will argue that God is so far above us that we are like toddlers getting a vaccine. We just can't understand the "greater good" of the pain. But if God's version of "good" includes letting children suffer randomly, then the word "good" has completely lost its meaning.
The "tummy ache" meme is literally just pointing this out. If an all-powerful, all-knowing god is supposed to be entirely good, they wouldn't just sit back and watch intense, pointless suffering happen when they could easily stop it. The fact that pointless suffering happens all the time is pretty solid evidence that this god doesn't exist.
If a god allows this much unnecessary pain and hides behind "secret reasons," they're basically indistinguishable from a malicious or completely indifferent being. The tummy ache isn't a stupid meme, it's actually the exact reason the whole "divine plan" argument falls apart.