Suffering

This is a topic that I don't actually know that much about, because I have little experience involving suffering. I have lived a fairly happy and contented life compared to most. Two loving parents, three siblings(not always so loving), great friends, and pretty awesome relatives who all share my belief in the one true God. So not much controversy, not much turmoil, just the average day to day stress. So when I talk about suffering, I don't speak from experience, this is mere speculation, inquiry, and thought.

We had a debate on campus tonight between Dinesh D'sousa(a Christian Theologian I suppose), and Bart Ehrmann(an Agnostic). The topic of this debate was Theodicy, which I believe they defined as the problem of suffering in the world when there is a God who could prevent it, and by our understanding of His nature, should prevent it.

An issue they did not really address is this: Why is suffering considered such a bad thing? I believe they did not feel this was a particularly controversial question, that everyone generally agreed that suffering is not good. However, I do not think I believe this. Keep in mind that I haven't experienced much suffering, so this belief may change as I mature. Anyway, back to my point. As far as mankind goes, I think suffering is necessary. Without suffering we would have no reason to try and better ourselves, to triumph through trials. Suffering, pain, turmoil, evil, these are all words that express the same necessity of man to overcome what puts him down. When we are oppressed, we are given the opportunity to endure, and to grow from the experience. Can we really say that suffering is such a bad thing? I mean, if growing up I had never burned my finger on the stove, or never fallen off my bike, and experienced that pain and suffering, would I have learned that some things in life hurt? When our bodies go through pain, like a burn or a cut, it grows back stronger. I feel that our minds are the same way. When we suffer, it hurts, but we eventually emerge stronger than we were before.

In addition to this, and I feel many would object to this argument, but without natural disasters and the general self-destructive nature of mankind, this world would be densely over-populated. Since humanity is essentially at the top of the food chain, there is not much to keep our population in check. With this in mind, I view hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other such natural disasters to be a kind of population control. This may sound harsh to some, especially with the view of a loving God watching over us, but think about it. Without war, without genocide, without all the evil in the world that results in the deaths of so many people, and without the natural disasters already mentioned, how many people do you think would be on this earth? Personally, I think all the earth's resources would be depleted and we would all be dead or scavenging for an existence. pproximately 9,000,000 Jews were persecuted and killed during WWII, and that's just the Jewish population. Many many more millions were killed throughout the war. WWI had a similar amount casualties. And in the past, war has snuffed billions of live from this earth. Without these events, without this kind of suffering, the world would end.

There are many scientists and researchers that have concluded that humans, unlike the rest of the aniimal kingdom, have no sense of balance when it comes to population. In the animal kingdom, for the most part different parts of the food chain are kept in check by each other. If the wolves eat too much of their natural prey, there is less to go around and they begin to die of hunger, which allows the population of their prey to grow again. As the prey population grows, there is more food for the wolves, and their population grows again, and the cycle starts again. For humans, we don't participate in this cycle. If one source food begins to run low, we switch to another, grow our population, and expand. But I disagree with these scientists. I think that we do have checks and balances, and the main one is our self-destructive nature. We kill each other, through war, murder, and in some cases by accident. And that is what keeps us from over-populating our planet. So without suffering, humanity would cease to exist, in my opinion at least.

So when Bart and Dinesh were debating, it occurred to my friend Leroy Jenkins that they both agreed that suffering was necessarily a bad thing. And from I just talked about, I have to disagree with them. I think God allows suffering in this world because it is necessary. They talked about how in the prophets' books God causes suffering to try and bring His people back to Him. Bart could not comprehend why this would be. Think about it, if we lived perfectly content lives, with no suffering, no pain, and no loss, why would we ever turn to God? When life is going "as it should" for us, why would we need to rely on God for anything? Why serve Him? And why change anything? Life is going great just the way it is, I don't need God. When we suffer, as I said earlier, we grow from the experience. and I personally have grown from the suffering that I have experienced, such as: burning my finger, accidently cutting myself when I got my first pocket knife, or when I fell out of a tree, or got hit by a swing. What did I learn? That's stovetops are hot, that knives are sharp and shouldn't be pointed towards yourself, that the higher you are, the more it hurts when you fall, and that its never a good idea to walk in front of someone on a swing. These are all important pieces of knowledge, and I never would have learned them if I had nevered the suffered the consequences of my actions.

Which brings me to what I will make my last point. Throughout the Bible we see examples of people being judged for the wrongs they have committed. Sin has consequences, and those consequences are not something we will enjoy. The number one consequence is separation from our Creator, which should be enough to convince us to repent. But there are smaller consequences, many of which are dished out by government authority. We have our own laws, many of which are based off of those listed in Deuteronomy.

That's all I really wanted to say, and I hope it has caused you to think about the true nature of suffering, and its purpose in this world. I don't find suffering to be a good thing, by the way, but I don't find it to be a bad thing either, just a necessary thing.