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What is your response to evil and suffering?

In the face of unbearable, inexplicable or unjustifiable suffering, there are three responses.
The first says: This life is not all there is. There is another world, after death. There is heaven. There is peace and eternal life. All the evil of this world is banished in the world to come.

The second response is to see, as did John Keats, that this world is ‘a vale of soul-making’. We suffer so that we can grow. Others suffer so that we can practise charity or kindness. The bad in our lives is an invitation to the good. For that is how we become morally responsible agents.

The third response is to say: There is evil, therefore there is no God and no ultimate meaning. There is no justice, therefore there is no judge. The world is as it is. Homo hominis lupus est, man is wolf to man. The world is a restless searching for power after power that ceaseth only in death, as Hobbes said.

Matias 8 June 1
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37 comments (26 - 37)

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1

None of them.

0

Another point of view on the question..
The brain itself has no senses..It is encased inside a dark "bone" enclosure. Our existence is defined by the eye's, ear's, olfactory and other nerves that send information to it. The world as each individual knows it is made from electrical and chemical impulses. The brain processes the incoming information from the body and constructs reality based on its own internal wiring. The organ itself is programmed by our genetics, experience's and interaction with others during the first 3 to 5 years of life. Reality itself is by nature.. "Subjective" What we learn during the first few years of our lives often determine which of the responses listed above one might pick.

3

Nature is red of tooth and claw and we are not apart from it but a part of it and all it's rules. We may call something 'evil' but nature knows no evil or good, only evolution and if you try and get in the way of this watch out. We absolutely must stop placing ourselves in the center of things. This is the path to our undoing.

0

There is a problem for any god proposing to be benevolent when bad things happen to good people. It means that either the god is impotent and powerless or that it simply does not care about us in the way described by the religions.

Nardi Level 7 June 2, 2019
0

It's difficult for god to intervene when man does evil things.
Being non-existent, he is oblivious to it.

0

Suffering: God did it! Read the stupid book where he made innocents and then left alone to run around with scissors but when they fell and cut themselves did he heal them? Not on a bet, instead he threw them out into a world of suffering and anguish - what a total asshole.
The truly evil part of this saga is not that there is such a horrible god who has caused this evil but that he was created in the minds of men and deemed worthy of worship.

0

We create evil. In the bible there is a verse that says god creates both good and evil but most of us know there is no god. That concept comes out of our minds. Now I am brought back to "we create evil."

0

I hate it... But it's not 'personal.' Suffering is built into our universe. Stars and galaxies collide, destroying billions of planets. Our earth is the product of extreme violence for billions of years. Sometimes entire species--nearly all--have been wiped out in one fell swoop. Even now, we are pretty much helpless in the face of nature.

As sentient beings, we do have the ability to mitigate some of that suffering, but most people choose to live by their evolutionary makeup and perpetuate violence against "others."

The universe was 'born/borne' to suffer.

0

The only response is to keep living, what are you going to do, take your toys and leave? You should stop thinking after the headline you wrote. All the other stuff you wrote is just words.

0

I have had several discussions with theists about "evil". I submit that it cannot exist as a separate entity. There can be evil acts or even evil people and it can make me angry and have sympathy for those affected by an evil act.
Suffering can be caused by evil acts such as the Buddhists treatment of the Rohingya people in Myanmar or to an individual because of illness and just bad luck.
The response should be again to have sympathy and help if possible.
No need for nay supernatural nonsense.

0

While I personally seek to not cause harm to others and live a life of harmony. I also follow the philosophy that I don't start fights, but I damn sure end them.

Recently in my professional career I've learned that I can't ignore those who are undermining and or sabotaging the well being of others and the company for their own personal gain. That I must enforce discipline and punishment to hold those in line and to show others that there is acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Issuing punishment brings me no joy and yet, I know it must be done to enforce limits and order in a chaotic system.

You can not become strong until you overcome adversity. You can not defeat evil until you acknowledge it exists and you know it's power.

Life eats life
This is necessary

0

Primarily empathy is my response, followed by anger more often than I like to admit.

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