Suffering—An Answer

If there is a God, he must have been very angry with us in this region last week. He inflicted typhoons which led to major floods in the Phillipines; earthquakes in Indonesia which destructed buildings; and tsunami which resulted in gigantic waves which in turn devastated Samoa, thus killing many, many people in the process. Many more people are still unaccounted for up to now. By now so many people have written about the devastation and loss of lives in these countries.

And then, over the weekend, while I was on a blog-hopping spree, I stumbled upon a blog named Wrestling With Religion. In it, I found an interesting question in the post entitled: Suffering—A Question. Actually, I have been to that blog before, and I kinda like the blog owner's open-minded views on religions. I think she's able to overcome the pressure of the people around her who're trying to force religious ideas and principles upon her. She often raises interesting questions which might even be considered sinful to ask! Anyway, in this particular post, she raised the question about suffering, she wrote:

"Here’s a question for you all, since I don’t have time to think for myself at the moment (major work challenge going on)…

How do you understand suffering? Is the function of morality that it helps to avert harm and suffering, do you think? If that is the case, why did God put us in a world with natural disasters and other things that cause suffering? Why do we have to get ill and die?

Is suffering redemptive? Does it build character? Does it test us? If so, then why does morality seem to demand that we try to limit the suffering in the world? If not, then why did God put it into the world?

Would an ideal world be a world without suffering? Or not?

OK, that was more than one question."

After reading her post, I embarked on writing a long comment. But when I posted that comment, it did not appear in the comment section. I reckoned it's probably a moderated blog in the sense that all comments would require the approval of the blog owner. After a few days, my comment is still not there. So I might as well offer my answer here in my own blog. So here goes nothing!

I'm guessing that there is God. He probably created everything around us. I don't know where He came from. Maybe He came from another universe out there. Maybe He is just an alien whose origin is unknown. But somehow He had the ability to create all that we see around us. In that sense He is almighty.

But I don't believe in religions. So I am immune from the teachings found in all the holy books. The thing about all religions is that they all boil down to the worshiping of a conceited being whose main preoccupation is to yearn to be worshiped. And so, it doesn't really matter if you've been a good person throughout your life on earth. It doesn't really matter if you went out of your way to help others. At the end of the day, if you didn't accept and worship God, you shall not go to heaven.

Religious people put their faith in God the Almighty. Whenever they suffer for whatever reason, then it must be God who did it because he wanted to demonstrate his powers and love in the forms of help that comes in the aftermath of the suffering. In a way, it's some kind of reminder to behave ourselves—don't forget who's the boss.

God also inflicts suffering upon us because he wants us to learn to become a better person; to become a stronger person. Suffering builds morals and empathy for the plight of others. We can learn from the suffering. We can grow from the experience. And it can only be good for us.

If there is only good in this world, there is nothing for us to compare. But when we have experienced suffering, we will learn to appreciate the good things that God has given us.

And so the explanation continues...

However, sometimes we can't see any goodness that comes from the suffering. And furthermore, we often find ourselves lost for ideas to explain some tragedies which appear to have no meaning whatsoever.

When a teenage boy went all out to help his fellow humans, but eventually sacrificing his own life in the process, we are lost for words. What reward did God give him for his kindness? And here, the most popular romantic explanation is that God loves him so much, and took him into the Kingdom of Heaven much sooner than other people. Similarly, when a newborn baby is thrown down to its death from a high building, God must have loved that baby too, and decided to take it into heaven as quickly as possible.

Some people are born into poor families. They get no education, and hence no opportunity to escape from poverty. Throughout their lives, they suffer the punishment of manual labour to put 3 square meals on their tables. And of course some of them can't even get that many meals per day. From day one of their lives they suffer until the day they die. It makes one wonder why God put them through that kind of test. Why them? Why such severity of suffering?

BUT! the religious people have faith in God. Because He knows best. Because He can do no wrong. Because He has a perfect plan for everything. Somehow He has something good in store for these people who've suffered throughout their lives.

But I am blind. I can't see God in all this. Many, many sufferings in this world are just so purposeless. The African child who's born into poverty, inherited the HIV virus from his parents, suffered malnutrition and starvation, multiple illnesses and finally died before the age of 3. What good did the suffering bring to the child? Absolutely nothing.

If God was the one who punished a child like that, then I would rather not worship Him, much the same way I would not worship the Pharaoh. For these are beings who inflict harm onto others not because of any special reason; rather because they can.

Well, that's how I see suffering—that's my answer to the question. OK, that's an extremely long answer.