The barber said: “Look man, I don’t believe that God exists as you say.” “Why do you say that?” asked his client. “Well, it’s so easy, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God does not exist. Tell me, if God existed, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be no suffering nor pain. I can’t think of loving a God who permits all of these things.”
The client stopped for a moment, thinking, but he didn’t want to respond so as to cause an argument. The barber finished his job and the client went out of the shop. Just after he left the barber shop he saw a man in the street with shaggy, long hair and a beard (it seems that it had been a long time since he had his cut, and he looked so untidy). Then the client again entered the barber shop and he said to the barber: “You know
what? I think barbers do not exist.”
“How can you say they don’t exist?” asked the barber. “I am a barber and here I am.” “No!” the client exclaimed. “They don’t exist; if they did there would be no people with shaggy, long hair and beards like that man who walks in the street.”
“Ah, barbers do exist,” said the barber. “What happens is that people do not come to me.” “Exactly!” affirmed the client. “That’s the point. God does exist. What happens is people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”