Someone recently stopped me on my way out of the campus library wanting me to answer a question on camera for his church group: "We're asking people whether or not they believe in God, and if they do what tough questions they have about Christianity that they would like answered. A lot of people ask why God would allow suffering..."
I almost roll my eyes. Suffering the most difficult problem people have with Christianity? Really? That question seems so...simple.
It's not that I can think of anything genius to ask. The best I can come up with is: "Why does God seem so angry and violent in the Old Testament, and so loving and forgiving in the New Testament?" Something that satisfies the level of abstraction I want to wade in, and I suppose also takes a shot at orthodox religion. I half-expect to be reprimanded by the interviewer, but they simply turn off the camera and walk off; no longer interested in my theological viewpoints.
But now that I can reflect on the question a bit, is the question really that simple? If I'm really honest with myself, I probably don't have a great answer.
Even though I am quick to point out that some suffering can be beneficial, considering the fact that it can be corrective and instructive, there is a lot of suffering that seems to serve no purpose.
In the Secret Revelation of God, evil exists in the world because of spiritual blindness. For instance Christ forgave his persecutors because "they know not what they do." This is the kind of spiritual ignorance that causes literally all suffering. But this type of suffering seems to serve no greater purpose. Man continues to inflict the same evil over and over onto the world. No one learns anything, and this suffering is no longer instructional, only ironic.
The subject recently came up on spiralinward.com, where I sometimes like to discuss these things. I'll paste some of the conversation here. The text in quotes is from other posters.
"how is suffering justified? it can't be. it is irrational."
"Maybe the human condition really is epitomized by the figure hanging from the Cross."
i think there is a lot of truth in this. i feel like our physical realm, like our spirits, is one that needs to be rectified. if the physical world is the realm of yalda/satan then i think this problem has to be rectified at some point.
"Gnosticism just washes it's hands of the whole thing. The world is evil, so by necessity anything that happens in the world is going to be evil. Pain, suffering, distress, damage, death are all byproducts of being here, and we are aliens in a place we don't belong."
i believe this is true also. i used to think that suffering was solely our choice and singularly self inflicted. i guess now that i've grown and learned a bit; i feel that is only part of it. certainly a great majority of our suffering is self-inflicted, however i believe it is an illusion that we could escape our suffering simply by ceasing to wound ourselves.
we are all born into the same problematic world, like numbers entered over and over into the same mathematical equation, and we all face the same questions, traps, and decisions. i think there is a real and designed reason for this process, and if we could somehow stop destroying ourselves than it would change the equation to the point where it doesn't serve it's purpose. (does this make sense at all? i'm having a hard time describing my thoughts).
i think the theological question people always ask is: how could a loving God allow us to suffer?
i feel like this only seems like a contradiction because suffering is not inherently evil; it is simply an amoral state of being.
however i have to ask is God being evil by allowing us to suffer needlessly and excessively? i guess the way i answer this question is by believing that our existence is purposeful and our suffering is meaningful in some way, even if it is an unfortunate one. i have said this before, and i still believe it to be true, that God would not allow us to suffer a wound that He could not heal. I believe this is the purpose of resurrection, the purification of not only our souls but our physical realm.
"Being Almighty and infinitely creative I'm sure god could
Have come up with a better way to teach His children
Rather than let them be raped and abused and tortured mentally
Everyday reality for many, with no hope but death, no comfort but oblivion"
human suffering is miserable now, but what will the perspective of our suffering be when we look back on it from the afterlife? in a million years? in a trillion years? will it seem as unjust then? i used to hate my father spanking me (almost daily) when i was a child, but now that i'm an adult it's not something that i think about.
maybe God has done things differently in a different world...but in our world we have to suffer.
i think it's perfectly healthy to question the process, or even to be angry at God; but ultimately we have to accept that these decisions were made for us.
in this world you have to die to be resurrected...
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The original poster brings up the most important question of "justice" because bottom line, that is the most important issue. Justice is absolutely everything here. Every other attribute of God that seems to conflict with suffering is secondary. Love, mercy, graciousness, etc. All of these things have to fall in line after justice, because these other attributes are impossible to examine without it.
So what is justice in this instance? In an evil twisted world filled with nearly infinite suffering, how can we define justice?
I guess the way I answer that question for myself is that "justice" is a return to balance. In this instance, where we live in a world that does not belong to God, but to Sammael (the blind archon, or devil), then not only our souls have to be resurrected through Christ, but also the physical world. The crooked will have to be made "straight," so to speak. If this restorative type of balance is returned to our world at some point than suffering is then "justified."
Maybe this isn't a great answer, but it's the best one I have.
