Why does God allows suffering
By urbandekay
@urbandekay (18278)
March 4, 2009 1:10am CST
God, it is often said, is all knowing, all powerful and all loving.
If God loves me why does he let me suffer?
If God is omniscient, he knows I suffer
If God is omnipotent then he could have made the world such that I would not suffer
If God is omnibenevolent then he would not want me to suffer
all the best urban
7 people like this
11 responses
Maybe God wants to test us ?
@coolsid2007 (1030)
• India
13 Feb 10
I am sorry, but i am lost with all the answers i read...
What is God? ... I've never seen it, never smelled it, never heard its voice.... is it a living being or is it a Santa Claus?
I know my parents, they help me when i am in trouble,
I know my friends, they advise me when i am stupid
I know my life partner, she is there when i need a shoulder...
you see... the fact is all these stories of Satan and God and their fight (if they exist)... why the hell are we dragged into it....? seems Satan and God has difference of opinion... and for that the one who suffers is us....
Apparently non of these god/s or satan/s can finish each other off once in for all...
Both seem to be fighting for their own ideologies, we on the contrary are nothing but an instrument to toy along? ... is that what we are?
can we not be good to others if we weren't forced to be so?
are we so primitive that wouldn't we help our neighbors in the time of adversity?
I think i am living a good life without all this God stuff... you must've figured by now... i am an atheist.... and i rather concentrate on 10 suggestions with a free will rather than 10 commandments with fake free will.
Cheers!
@urbandekay (18278)
•
13 Feb 10
What is Consciousness? ... I've never seen it, never smelled it, never heard its voice.... is it a real thing or is it a myth?
I know my parents, they help me when i am in trouble,
I know my friends, they advise me when i am stupid
I know my life partner, she is there when i need a shoulder...
you see... the fact is all these stories of all these stories of conscoiusness and phenomenal experience can be reduced to illusion
Yet can you deny that you are conscious?
all the best urban
@urbandekay (18278)
•
14 Feb 10
Saying consciousness is just a state of mind, doesn't help at all. The point is that you were arguing that God doesn't exist because you had never seen him or smelled him etc. But you have never seen consciousness (Or your mind for that matter) and it is quite logically consistent to argue that we have no reason to believe that we are conscious except that we experience it subjectively.
So, if someone experiences God subjectively they have every bit as much reason to believe he exists as you have to believe you are conscious.
all the best urban
@coolsid2007 (1030)
• India
14 Feb 10
Dude! come on...
Consciousness is the state of mind, you can be awake and still be not so conscious about your acts... it depends on your knowledge too.
Consciousness can also be related to facts and fiction.
Do you think God is also just a state of mind?... in that case, well put.
and to be honest.... illusion is also just a state of mind, it does not have any thing to do with consciousness.... you can be conscious about illusion and at the same time illuded about your state of mind....
you see things can get confusing unless we know what we want, and how to get it... as simple as that.
cheers mate!
@cdparazo (5765)
• Philippines
12 Feb 10
I believe that suffering is an OPTION. It's still a choice and i choose not to be a victim and not to suffer. It's a matter of perspective and mind setting. really!...Some people might smirk and say you don't know unless you are in such a situation. Maybe. But growing up in a third world country, in a squatters area, where there was no water, where there was just one privy shared by the entire neighborhood, where health care is just but a dream, where hunger is a given thing in our daily existence, where good education is for the few and privileged and where criminal elements resides in every corner, i think, gave me the proper setting to be a victim and suffer. But my family and I chose not to let ourselves suffer and get ourselves from such existence. I find choosing to suffer so negative and stressful that i have to do everything in my power not to suffer. Instead, I choose to take action because i believe that i am not really meant to suffer. I may not be able to control my environment, but how i deal or respond to them is entirely my own.
@urbandekay (18278)
•
13 Feb 10
This indeed is good sense but what of those that have some dreadful medical condition, which although not life-threatening leaves them in constant intense pain. I can see no way in which they choose to suffer
all the best urban
@cdparazo (5765)
• Philippines
13 Feb 10
Really? My sister is now in constant pain because of her liver. It's already swollen. Her liver already have some lesions and it has some growth which may have to be operated. But I could rarely hear her say that it's painful when i know that it is painful. I only know that she is pain if she asks me for some otc tablets i take whenever i have headaches. She can't afford to suffer since she has a daughter to support, but she just goes on her way working and do her thing. She never lamented or asked why she has to suffer. Still suffering is an option. One could be in pain and one could just allow oneself to succumb to it. Oh! it's just too easy to wallow in pain. But my sister doesn't want to wallow. Again it's a matter of perspective and how one wants to handle it.
@urbandekay (18278)
•
13 Feb 10
Well, as you say you know she is in pain, it seems to me that she does suffer but puts a brave face on it. That she doesn't give in to the suffering or express it and tell others about it, but surly she still suffers?
all the best urban
1 person likes this
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
5 Mar 09
Because sometimes bad things happen to good people. God does not "punish" with bad things. Satan is the deciever and author of lies. He is the destructive force on this earth.
You will come out of all the pain and be a much stronger person. You will say what Job said:
But God knows the way that I take, and when He tested me. I will come out like gold (Job 23:10).
@urbandekay (18278)
•
6 Mar 09
Then why does an all powerful God allow Satan to make us suffer?
all the best urban
2 people like this
@carpenter5 (6782)
• United States
6 Mar 09
It all goes back to the Garden of Eden when Sin entered into the world. Until Christ comes back there will will be sin and suffering. I look at it this way. I wonder what it would be like without God. I tend to think it would be worse, because if you are a believer, Satan has to ask for God's permission to bother us!
He will never put on you what you are unable to stand with HIS help.
@urbandekay (18278)
•
6 Mar 09
"Satan has to ask for God's permission to bother us"
Then why would a compassionate God give his permission?
all the best urban
1 person likes this
@Phillmore (74)
• Denmark
6 Mar 09
Is often said, bus has he ever said or promised it to you..?
i go black&white as you:P
@urbandekay (18278)
•
6 Mar 09
That's a little hard to understand, could you elucidate?
all the best urban
@rlaff94 (20)
• United States
14 Feb 10
God is not fully omnipotent. His omnipotency is constrained by our free will. Unfortunately there are people whose free will causes bad things to happen to us. God can't always help this, and he cannot take sides. However, he will provide support to whoever needs it.
@betsyraeduke (2670)
• United States
28 May 09
Perhaps God allows suffering so that we recognize and better appreciate the good things in our life.......(that is, if you believe in God and/or believe that God is good).........
@gwoman2 (710)
• United States
6 Mar 09
Hi Urbandekay,
I've always believed that "as God suffered on the cross, so must we".
Sometimes when bad things have happened I would find myself saying, "why me?" But then I thought, well if not me than it would be someone else...and I personally never wish bad things on anyone...because I also believe that what goes around, comes around and wishing misfortune on others will only come back at meor my daughters!
Good topic Urban, thanks.
~G~
@bombshell (11256)
• Germany
8 Mar 09
sometimes suffering is the measured if how faith we are to God
.
.
@Archie0 (5636)
•
8 Mar 09
God always gives away whatever they want, ones who are not god's close child or not his favourite ones, because he dont mind them struggle
but god never gives what ever his children wants, because he wants them to struggle..more and more everytime, so that they become capable of getting the things by themselves and never ask anyone anything not even him.
he wants us to suffer so that we can stand strong in our future, he wants us to fall down, and he is there to hold us everytime we do..
its not that he doesnt love us. its only that he loves us deeply but we need to recognise it well on time. :)
@hanah87 (1835)
• Malaysia
7 May 09
God dont make us suffer but God test us by many thing for test how much our strength and love to Him.Will we forget Him?So that's why God test us with little suffer for we remember and pray to God.Today,many people forget to God and make many cruel thing without think God is watching them.....
