Pain and suffering

[Ghost On The Highway]

I find it interesting that people's experiences of emotional and physical suffering can be polar opposites in terms of their effect on religiosity. For example, a person who is dealing with depression might turn to God to lead him through the pain and to restore hope in the future (even if that future is after death), or might become disillusioned because God "caused" him to feel depressed in the first place.

In my opinion, God allows us to experience anguish for two primary reasons. First, pain forces us to care for each other and rely upon one another for help, and thus encourages love and charity. Second, and a bit more controversial, physical illness fosters evolutionary change. For example, viruses and deleterious bacteria are detrimental to the weak and comparatively advantageous to the strong. In time and in theory, our race should become stronger. Kind of paradoxical in my opinion that we care for the weak in violation of evolutionary principles, but I wouldn't have it any other way. That's the only way I can justify all the problems in this world. Thoughts?

[JKmadu619]

I agree. Either the death of a family member strenghtens resolve in God, or else it destorys the concept. Regardless of if God is real or not, the concept of a God can be strenghtened or shaken by trauma.

I personally believe that God allows evil to be carried out for the sake of freedom of will, freedom of choice, and to strenghten our resolve, because if you were always healthy, how would you apreciate it?

I do not believe God influences us everday, controlling us like puppets, but instead is watching the puppet play from the audience. Because if God could simply control everything at everymoment, why would there be pointless suffering, and genoncide, and pain, and babies dying for no reason?

- Justin

[Dont3verLooseHope]

Well, imagine we could actually tell God what to do. Where would you suggest he starts? How about God gets rid of the terrorists and the murderers. That would mean a lot less suffering for many people—but suffering hasn’t been eradicated yet. How about God deals with the paedophiles and the drug dealers and the thieves? We can see the world’s getting a much better place, but it’s still not perfect.

How about God gets rid of the unkind, the gossips, the liars, the selfish—oh, but that’s actually me.

You see, when we ask God to get rid of suffering, we’re actually asking him to get rid of us. We do suffer, but we actually cause loads of suffering ourselves. That time when we lost our temper with someone… when we trod on someone to get to where we wanted to… when we ignored our kids because we were just too tired or busy… when we gossiped about a work colleague… when we were just plain nasty to someone. We cause much suffering.

So if we demand that God throws suffering out of this world, we’re actually demanding that he throws us out too. Make Sense ?

[JKmadu619]

Originally Posted by TotaallyWorthless

Well, imagine we could actually tell God what to do. Where would you suggest he starts? How about God gets rid of the terrorists and the murderers. That would mean a lot less suffering for many people—but suffering hasn’t been eradicated yet. How about God deals with the paedophiles and the drug dealers and the thieves? We can see the world’s getting a much better place, but it’s still not perfect.

How about God gets rid of the unkind, the gossips, the liars, the selfish—oh, but that’s actually me.

You see, when we ask God to get rid of suffering, we’re actually asking him to get rid of us. We do suffer, but we actually cause loads of suffering ourselves. That time when we lost our temper with someone… when we trod on someone to get to where we wanted to… when we ignored our kids because we were just too tired or busy… when we gossiped about a work colleague… when we were just plain nasty to someone. We cause much suffering.

So if we demand that God throws suffering out of this world, we’re actually demanding that he throws us out too. Make Sense ?

This was an excellent way of putting it, and if this were school it would be worthy of an A grade. Well said.

- Justin

[~Mr. Self Destruct~]

Pain and suffering have infinite interpretations regarding their purpose.
But there's nothing that suggests that they are anything but arbitrary or the result of a cause and effect relationship fulfilled by beings that are observable and known to exist.
I personally believe that there is no real purpose for neither pain nor suffering. They occur and affect individuals, and not due to any form of systematic reasoning or other purpose.
Pain and suffering simply are.