Sample Solution

Persecuted Jews during the time of the Holocaust tried to justify all the horrific crimes committed against them by questioning their God and wondering how could a God they believed to be all-knowing, all good and all-powerful let such a drawn out and painful series of events occur. Many of them reached the conclusion that God is “dead” because He most certainly wouldn’t have let something as unbelievably cruel as the Holocaust happen to His people. They thought that God was distant and limited and was not the type of being who could actually intervene with the free will of humans. He cannot interfere with the history that humans choose to create, otherwise our ability of choice will only have been an illusion. God knew that the Holocaust was an event bound to happen, due to his omniscience, but did not prevent it, abandoning the Jewish community to exist in the world for themselves. In terms of suffering, eliminating omnipotence as a characteristic of God allows to humans, more specifically Jews, to look for answers in a place other that God. Some tried to pass it off as punishments for sins that they have committed or to teach them some kind of lesson, but having them realize that God could not have prevented the Holocaust and possibly did not even create it takes the weight off their shoulders of wondering why such a powerful and loving being would treat them that way, something beyond their comprehension. It enables humans to realize the presence and extremes of the free will they were given, potentially even strengthening their relationship with God once they can familiarize themselves with the idea that God might not be as “all-powerful” as they once believed.