Most people think that suffering is a random, natural part of life but in actuality suffering is a mechanism used by the gods to either teach humanity a less, or use it for their own selfish needs. Throughout the book of Job God, or Yahweh used suffering to prove to the Accuser that he was loyal to Him, and not only because God had given Job a blessed life. The Roman pagan gods used suffer for their own personal vendetta such as when Odysseus blinded the Cyclops, who was the son of the Roman god Poseidon, and to get back at Odysseus Poseidon created a storm so he could not get home to make him suffer his homesickness further. The Greek pagan gods also used suffering to their own person use, such as when Jupiter raped and transformed a girl into cow to hide what he had done from his wife. Having hope in the god you worship is a very important thing, because if that hope is lacking then when gods cause someone to suffer there is no hope of it getting better and no hope that their god will help. When the hope is there it gives the person a reason to have respect for their god or gods, and a reason to worship the them because when the person suffers they have hope that it will eventually get better and that their suffering is happening for a reason and not just because the gods are mad at them and not because the gods gave into some temptation they had. Although Yahweh and the Greek and Roman gods have different reasons of making humanity suffer, they are the ones who decide who suffers and who does not, whether the reason is of their own personal reasons, or if it is to prove a point.
In the book of “Job”, Job is a wealthy, God fearing man who is blameless, upright, and cautious of evil. Being proud of Job Yahweh boaste...
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...e in their gods, they knew that whatever happened was the work of the gods and there was no changing it or making it better. Whether it’s the Greek gods causing suffering for their own personal agendas, the Roman gods using suffering to get back at humans for something they did wrong, or Yahweh using suffering to prove a point to His lesser gods, no matter the religion or the region the gods use suffering as a mechanism to get what they want.
Works Cited
Homer. The Odyssey. Norton Anthology Western Literature 8th Edition. Ed. Sarah Lawall. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2006.
The Book of Job. Norton Anthology Western Literature 8th Edition. Ed. Sarah Lawall. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2006.
Ovid. Metamorphoses. Norton Anthology Western Literature 8th Edition. Ed. Sarah Lawall. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2006
of suffering is most beneficial. However, answering this question about suffering becomes increasingly more difficult with the
After reviewing the work of David Hume, the idea of a God existing in a world filled with so much pain and suffering is not so hard to understand. Humes’ work highlights some interesting points which allowed me to reach the conclusion that suffering is perhaps a part of God’s divine plan for humans. Our morals and values allow us to operate and live our daily lives in conjunction with a set of standards that help us to better understand our world around us and essentially allows us to better prepare for the potential life after life. For each and every day we get closer to our impending deaths and possibly closer to meeting the grand orchestrator of our universe.
If God loves us, why does He allow us to suffer? The central question in Shadowlands challenges traditional religious and moral conventions. It is a question asked by many, with few satisfactory answers. Before attempting to answer the question, and explore its relationship to Shadowlands, let us first define the question, so its implications may be more clearly understood. At the heart of the question is a doubt in the goodness of God, "If God loves us". From the beginning it is clear that God is being judged and criticized by the question. Then the second phrase follows"Why does He allow us to suffer?". The assumption made in the second phrase is that God has enough control over the world to prevent suffering. If He can prevent suffering, and He really loves us, then why shouldn' t He excercise that control, and prevent needless suffering?
The Book of Job is one of the three books in the Hebrew bible whose genre is described as wisdom literature.1 Certainly the Book of Job satisfies the literary conventions that qualify a biblical book for such status. 2 Yet Job may be associated with wisdom in a much more literal sense. The Book of Job attempts to deal with a problematic question that confronts suffering humanity: why do bad things happen to good people? The variety and vehemence of commentators' contemporary responses to this chapter of the Bible is testament to the continued relevance of the Book of Job's wisdom thousands of years after it was written. Although the commentators examined herein arrive at differing and sometimes conflicting conclusions after reading the story of "the holy Arab"3, none are left indifferent.
The question of suffering comes up much when talking about, or practicing any religion. Many ask why people suffer, and what causes suffering? The various religions try to answer these questions in their own way. Pico Iyer’s editorial, “The Value of Suffering” addresses the questions of suffering and how it is handled. This article could be compared to the Bhagavad-Gita which also addresses and explains suffering through different stories of the interactions of humans and different Gods. One can specifically look at “The Second Teaching” in the Bhagavad-Gita, which explains the interaction between a man named Arjuna and the god Krishna. In it Arjuna is suffering because he does not want to fight in a war and with people whom he should be worshiping. Krishna says to fight because the souls of the people will forever live on, and because he needs to fulfill his Dharma. With what is known about the Bhagavad-Gita and how Iyer thinks about the subject, Iyer would agree with how the Bhagavad-Gita address suffering.
Between a one of god's greatest servants, Job. Before god's treacherous test, Job lives a great life full of blessings. “There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants; so that this man was the greatest of all people of the east” (Job 1: 1-4). “That man was blameless and upright” shows that Job did not harm before being tested, that he was just a simple living human being. “He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels… and very many servants” shows all the blessing that god has given him. We see Job as a great servant to god through the many rewards that he has acquired like his livestock and his sons and daughters. This will soon be challenged by good and evil, God and Satan. The two almighty powers discuss “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side?... Very well, all that he has is in your power”
God is all kind then why is there suffering? Who or what is the cause
These arguments made by Berish and Job boil down to the question the theodicy, “why do good people suffer? Where is God in all this? Where is justice” (Fox 173). Elie Wiesel provides an answer that parallels once again with the book of Job. Embodied in the character of Sam, who claims that suffering is, “all because of our sins” (Wiesel 134). Similarly Jobs friends give a similar answer to the theodicy question by saying, “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same” (Job 4:7). The answer to the theodicy question in t The Trial of God is that suffering occurs because of the sins committed by individuals.
It is part and parcel of the human condition, but suffering can either embitter or ennoble. Our suffering can become a spirituality of transformation when we understand that we have a role in God's transfiguration of the world. If we are truly partners with God, we must learn the eye of God, not just to see the eyes of the head, but to see with the eyes of the heart"(pg. 71). Nelson Mandela, for him, he faced suffering, he was imprisoned for 27 years. As a young boy, he was upset, angry, but he let not embitter suffer to his life. The suffering changed him because he allowed it to ennoble
In any case, acknowledging that Job did not curse him in all of his misfortune, God once again returned to the status of Job's protector, and Job once again became God's favorite servant. God blessed the later part of Job's life with double the fortune he had before and another ten children. Job lived a full life.
Suffering plays a key role in many religions, but it is especially prevalent in Christianity. Modern-day critics of Christianity are fond of asking something along the lines of “If there is a god, why does he not end suffering?” And they are perfectly justified in asking. It is a large question–absolutely appropriate for a grand level of consideration. Timothy Keller uses three main points in The Reason for God to show how he sees the issue. These three points can be summarized in three simple phrases: justice and injustice, godly suffering, and cleansing fire.
It is easy to place the blame on fate or God when one is encumbered by suffering. It is much harder to find meaning in that pain, and harvest it into motivation to move forward and grow from the grief. It is imperative for one to understand one’s suffering as a gateway to new wisdom and development; for without suffering, people cannot find true value in happiness nor can they find actual meaning to their lives. In both Antigone and The Holy Bible there are a plethora of instances that give light to the quintessential role suffering plays in defining life across cultures. The Holy Bible and Sophocles’ Antigone both mirror the dichotomous reality in which society is situated, underlining the necessity of both joy and suffering in the world.
Suffering is an individual's basic affective experience of pain or distress, often as a result of one’s physical, emotional or spiritual circumstance (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy 2006). Suffering can be classified as physical; for example pain caused by a dislocated knee, emotional; for example one’s grief over the death of a loved one, or spiritual; which is described as the state of being separated from the blissful nature of your divine self (soul). To suffer physically or emotionally is often unavoidable; however it can be argued that spiritual liberation...
As previously, stated God uses difficult situations as a way to improve the relationship we have with Him. Why suffering though? Frederick Sontag wrote in his book that evil or suffering are the best circumstances in which to find a God, unlike times where everything goes well
It was a cold, dark morning when the phone rang. It was boisterously loud and the clock read six o'clock. The deafening noise jolted us again, and there was only one way to make it stop. Chris picked up the phone and in a tired, drowsy voice, answered, "Hello."