Why does God permit suffering? Don't let others answer this question for you

by sabastious 35 Replies latest jw friends

  • bobld
    bobld

    The GOV'T of Haiti is like the GB of the WBTS.They want to keep the people/members poor an uneduated.

    B

  • tec
    tec

    Because its our world. (doesn't necessarily mean that we own it, but rather that we are the tenants of it) Either way, God gave it to us to live on, and to rule over. So the responsibility for doing good or bad lies on us, as do the consequences of the choices we have made, and continue to make. As a side note, most of us want to do it our way. Those who want to do it God's way, well, already trust Him that His will WILL be done; their sole duty is just to listen to and follow His Son.

    Tammy

  • Robdar
    Robdar

    I like what you had to say Sabatious and am in agreement.

    Instead of crying and whining about sky daddy not taking care of us, we should all get off our lazy asses and take responsibility for what happens on this planet. Afterall, we're the ones who screwed it up. God aint got nothing to do with it.

  • AiAi
    AiAi

    because you touch yourself

  • Curtains
    Curtains

    to me a world without suffering would be a world without love - If one is a believer in God then God encapsulates love and suffering. But if he occupies a narrow world of divine reason then imo this would exclude not only suffering but also love. So I would argue that for a believer God is not narrow. This works for an atheist too in that love occupies a zone beyond justice and reason and includes what seems to be unjust. However I agree that we need to try to alleviate as much suffering as we can.

  • ProdigalSon
    ProdigalSon

    I look at it this way.... If there was an attack on your home land, and people were suffering, would you fight the attackers? Would you join a militia even though you might have to suffer, be seriously injured, or even killed? I think that when we die, and we are once again on the other side, and we can SEE the real problems in the world without all the disinformation, and how the world can use our help just by existing and being a loving and good person to help it evolve back towards the Oneness, it makes us eager to come back and incarnate again. In my example, the attackers are selfish and greedy, and the way to defeat them is with love and forgiveness. It's like going into Love Combat. That's the true meaning of "Satan". Like "God" doesn't exist as a separate, sentient being in the sky as we were told, neither does Satan. He is the Adversary, the egos we all have within. Free will is integral to this whole process of evolution. Evil must be allowed! We know that we always have a lifeline to our higher self and we are not worried about death. It's only once we incarnate with no memory that it becomes difficult, because FEAR and the illusion of separateness is the biggest obstacle to accomplishment and being able to give love freely and unconditionally. But I believe that Indigo Children http://www.indigochild.com/ are a clear indicator that in future generations people will be born with more of their DNA activated and this results in more past life memory and a much stronger intuitive knowledge of one's purpose for being here. We are the Indigo Children of the future. This isn't our first life and it definitely will not be our last.

  • Mad Sweeney
    Mad Sweeney

    A better question, and one I've been trying to answer for myself since escaping the Borg, is:

    "Why DO I permit suffering?"

    And the answer I came to is that only a total dick would have the power to help and protect people but wouldn't out of selfish or insecurity reasons or to teach people a lesson or whatever other dumbass reason people come up with to excuse god. There is actually NO GOOD reason to not help our fellow beings whenever we can.

    The conclusion regarding god, then, is one of these three: he isn't real, he is a total dick, or he is us and we are god.

  • onemore
    onemore

    Where does the notion that people deserve to live in security, safety, dignity and honor comes from? As Terry pointed out, if we are the result of Darwinian evolution, we should expect the world to operate in the way that’s operating right now. Natural selection depends on the death of the weakest so that the stronger survives. But yet, for some reason, we feel and understand that the world should not be this way…that people should not die of starvation, of preventable diseases, nor be killed or enslaved by a more powerful nation… deep inside of us we feel that something is fundamentally wrong with Humanity…that it’s not suppose to be this way. But why? Why do we think that people in Haiti should enjoy the same label of freedom, security and quality of living that we enjoy in first world countries? When we ask, why is there so much evil and suffering in world… Are we not summing that there is a transcendent or supernatural standards by which human dignity should me measured against?

    I feel that the problem of suffering presents a bigger challenge to the nonbelievers than to the believer. The believer understands that the fundamental problem with humanity is its sinful nature… and that a great deal of the suffering that we see comes as result of greed, violence and self centeredness, etc. all of these actions directly attributable (I’ll say it again) to men’s (sinful) nature. And that God allows evil to continue for reasons that are can’t fully understand (just yet).

    Abandoning the believe in God because of all the suffering does not make the problem of evil easier to handle, nor will make it disappear, nor provides a HOPE that one day it will end forever.

  • poppers
    poppers

    They want to keep the people/members poor an uneduated.

    LOL! Now that's funny!

  • Terry
    Terry

    Because its our world. (doesn't necessarily mean that we own it, but rather that we are the tenants of it) Either way, God gave it to us to live on, and to rule over. So the responsibility for doing good or bad lies on us, as do the consequences of the choices we have made, and continue to make. As a side note, most of us want to do it our way. Those who want to do it God's way, well, already trust Him that His will WILL be done; their sole duty is just to listen to and follow His Son.

    Tammy

    I like to make a "model" of a problem in my head to better understand it. Here is a model of this problem for Tammy to look at and evaluate (in view of the above comment.)

    A mom puts her kids in a Playroom and they start off playing nicely.

    Mom tells them to STAY IN THE PLAYROOM.

    Shortly after, they stray out of the Playroom and start getting into Mom's things.

    Mom warns them not to and threatens punishment. They pay no attention.

    They then begin roughing each other up AND playing dangerously.

    Mom warns them not to cautions them to exercise self-control.

    A child gets killed.

    Who is responsible?

    Did Mom do ALL she could do to prevent the tragedy?

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