Belief in God

So a few days back we were talking with a friend who mentioned they had a friend who didn't believe in God because of all the very bad things in the world and if there were a God how He could let all the bad that exists- exist. This thought came back to me as I was reading the scriptures the other day. In The Book of Mormon it relates the history of Alma as the high priest of the church about 82 B.C. who went about calling people to repentance and how he met up with a man by the name of Amulek who then became his companion in spreading the gospel. In the town they were teaching called Ammonihah there were many wicked men. As a result of their teachings many came to believe in God and change their lives. The wicked persecutors martyred the women and children who believed in God by burning them and cast out the husbands and fathers out of the town.

Amulek responds to this act by saying, "How can we witness this awful scene? Therefore let us stretch forth our hands and exercise the power of God which is in us and save them from the flames."

Alma responds, "The spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in glory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing or that the people may do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the judgments which he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea and cry mightily against them at the last day." (Alma 14: 10-11: http://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/14?lang=eng)

I have often thought why bad things are allowed to happen and here it states it is so that justice might be brought about for the wicked. We also know that bad things just happen and are allowed to happen and here is a great quote about why.

President Spencer W. Kimball offered the following counsel for when we

witness suffering:

“If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence,

then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be

calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing

stretching far into the premortal past and on into the

eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be

put in proper perspective.

“Is there not wisdom in his giving us trials that we

might rise above them, responsibilities that we might

achieve, work to harden our muscles, sorrows to try

our souls? Are we not exposed to temptations to test

our strength, sickness that we might learn patience,

death that we might be immortalized and glorified?

“If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the

righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed,

the whole program of the Father would be annulled

and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency,

would be ended. No man would have to live by faith.

“If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously

given the doer of good, there could be no evil—all

would do good but not because of the rightness of

doing good. There would be no test of strength, no

development of character, no growth of powers, no

free agency, only satanic controls.

“Should all prayers be immediately answered according

to our selfish desires and our limited understanding,

then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow,

disappointment, or even death, and if these were not,

there would also be no joy, success, resurrection, nor

eternal life and godhood” (Faith Precedes the Miracle

[1973], 97).

Just looking around at all the good in the world- how can we not believe in God?