Suffering is inevitable. Everyday people experience all sorts of suffering. Whether it be through human cruelty, emotional stress, physical pain, spiritual, illness, or death, in one way or another, humans suffer. In the end, it boils down to one question: why is there suffering in the world? If God is omnipresent (everywhere present), omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing), and wholly good, why does he not do anything about it? To further understand how to deal with suffering, one must explore suffering’s origin and what it means to suffer. What is suffering then? “Simply stated, suffering is anything which hurts or irritates” and “covers a wide spectrum; it can be pain or grief even emotional pain on a personal level” …show more content…
If God is an all loving God how can he allow for evil to exist? Philosopher J. L. Mackie argues that “the existence of evil and the existence of an all-good, all-powerful God are logically incompatible. And since we know evil exists, therefore God must not exist” (Muehlhauser). In other words, if God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, how can he allow for evil to exist in the world? Per Mackie’s logic, it does not make sense that such a being who is wholly good would not eliminate evil. Based off this and the fact that evil still exists, Mackie concludes that God does not exist. However, Mackie’s proposition does have a few slight …show more content…
Paul writes to the Corinthian church, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). God allows for us to suffer so that when others suffer we may comfort them, just like he comforts us. Suffering gives Christian’s compassion for those who are hurting. Comforting those in need could lead to their salvation, which, if God existed, would be a good
The Problem and Purpose of Pain Identifying the problem with pain is fairly simple according to Lewis, explaining the purpose of pain not so much. In chapter one Lewis tells us that the problem with pain is the fact that we as Christians have to try to make it fit into our belief system and that fact “creates, rather than solves, the problem of pain.” (C. Lewis) It also means that as Christians, we are left facing the dilemma of trying to explain how we serve an all-loving, all- powerful, benevolent God who despite His benevolence allows us to suffer. How can I do this?
Although God’s existence and the validity of the experiences that may imply God’s existence is still not known, it is enough to say that logically, evil can exist along with God and his properties, even in today’s
At the beginning of the article, Mackie states that the initial issue with God’s existence is that, “God is omnipotent; God is wholly good; and yet evil exists” (Mackie, Paragraph 3). If god is such a pure and good being, then he should be able to combat all evil. The first statement that showcases that God is omnipotent, God is wholly good, then evil cannot possibly exist. The definition of omnipotent is
However, evil does exist. Therefore, an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God does not exist. The evidential problem of evil states that since evil does exists, evidence alone is incompatible with a perfect God, and thus negates the possibility of God 's existence. There exist
With a little pain and suffering, there’s always something good afterwards. In the story “Fever 1793” Matilda “Mattie” is a normal girl in Philadelphia who lives in a coffee shop with her Mother and Grandfather. When a terrible disease called Yellow Fever strikes Philadelphia by surprise Matilda is forced to leave. Matilda shows extreme bravery, and commitment to helping others in their time of need.
My perspective on suffering has changed and deepened after understanding and researching more about the Jews during the Holocaust and how brutality took over their lives. After watching Schindler’s List, the confronting scenes with unimaginable acts showed how suffering is immoral in many ways. As it is stated, that everything that happens in a human’s lifetime happens for a reason. Regardless of the fact that it’s bad, it always brings out something positive in the end in some perspective. Jewish teachings often refer to suffering through God’s relation to it, believing that God abandoned his children during their worst of times leaving them to face many hardships and immense torture from the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Suffering, a theme seen all throughout the Bible, shifts from being seen as the product of sin and disobedience in the Old Testament to being seen as a way for believers to share in the suffering of Christ as they
God cannot be the creator of evil if he is all good. If he is all good and powerful and he did create evil, then why does he not get rid of
I was met with the question why does God allow this suffering to happen. Being a Christian has helped me in more ways than I can count while taking this journey through life. I agree with Frankl in that those of us who have any religious belief are able to understand life on another level. I believe that Jesus suffered on the cross for us, to save us of our sins. Therefore, in order to live a life like Jesus we must suffer too.
If god is so powerful and controls everything then why is there pain, deaths, natural disasters and so much sadness all over the world? That’s something an atheist would say but what if god lets these events happen for a specific reason. for example, David had a bad car accident, he is at the hospital in critical conditions. He comes from a family that believes in god, right before he passes away David tells his mom not to worry that god has called upon him and he is going to a better place. As a Christian looking at it this way it shows god working towards a greater good, in this situation death is not evil and in David’s case not feared.
Emotional suffering can sting like a bee, hurt like a burn, or damage like a tornado. Unlike physical suffering, emotional suffering cannot be healed by our own body; the healing process for emotional suffering is much less distinct. Neither physical nor emotional suffering is something that can be seen. Blood and tears may indicate physical suffering, but emotional suffering cannot be identified in this
Suffering is a fundamental function of a given lifecycle. Happiness and pleasure does not last forever; Buddhism provides ways of showing it. Life is
The logical problem of evil is when evil exists, and the world is hurting from it, that it becomes more a challenge to have the beliefs of a god or a perfect god even. God is all-knowing, knows all the good and bad that happens throughout the world. If God is all-knowing or all-powerful, God should be authorized to do something or change the ways of all the evil.
There is clearly a lot of evil in the world. Bad things happen to innocent people every day. People often ask how God can exist if such evil things happen. The Argument from Evil states that if God is all-powerful and all-good, there would be no evil; however, evil exists, therefore there must be no all-powerful and all-good God. Of course, there are numerous ways to critique this argument by using the theodicies.
I personally think that suffering helps us to notice and appreciate true happiness. If we did not feel pain, we would not realize how great life is. Aristotle implies we are able to control our happiness in this way. Once we have experienced suffering we know it eventually passes and life carries