If God exists why do we suffer?

Answer 1

Because they haven't accepted Objective Reality, God springs forth from the primitive limbic system of your brain, the last remnants of your reptillion past. The area where our raw emotions reside, including the irrational belief systems.

The 'religious' experience is triggered by deep depression, starvation, near death, or other highly charged situations. The 'born-again' christian phenomena has a scientific basis....yes, your limbic system. Why has man evolved this mechanism you might ask? Simple...it was a survival mechanism of our cave man ancestors to cope with a hostile and unknown universe.

The cerebral cortex is a more recent development. Here is where our rational and logical thought processes take place. It is here that the atheists have found their basis in reality.

In reality, there is no sentient, omnipresent, omnipotent supernatural being, supernatural entity or force....therefore all the inequities and misery of the world will always persist, some will have good things happen to them and some not, some will blame the invisible entity but objective reality wins all the time....no matter how hard some try to get that limbic brain of theirs to work...sorry

Answer 2

What a great collection of answers! This is a common question for believers and non-believers alike. I think it really boils down to this:

Simple cause and effect: If our choice could not affect the results, how could it really be a choice? There must be consequences. We would be living in a vacuum if nothing could ever "go wrong".

Try some of these provable truths that most of us can agree upon:
"What goes up, must come down."
"What goes around, comes around."
"As Ye sow, so shall Ye reap."

Compare all the good in the world to all the "bad". It appears to me that most of the bad, including suffering, is man made. Yet there are so many good things that seem self-existing. Perhaps this "God" did not create suffering, but merely allowed it. It is rather unfortunate that children (and great, great grandchildren) suffer for the choices of their parents (ancestors). Could it work any other way?

Man was created with a universal need to be loved. Is this "in His image" as He, too, wants to be loved by us? We could not really love Him if we were forced to do so. In order to be true love, the choice must be completely by our free will. Maybe this teaches us the consequences of our choices. There are different outcomes for our choice to believe (love God) or not believe.

If there really is a God, we better make the best choice!

Answer 3

Your question references two assumptions at once. First, it assumes that if there is a God, this God wishes our happiness. Secondly, it assumes that we all suffer.

Let's deal with your first assumption. Let's say there is a God since we can see so much intelligence as well as chaos in the universe. However, let us not assume to know the nature of this God. We must first study the creations of this God in order to surmise his nature. Careful study will reveal the nature of this God or the Gods.

Now to speak to the second portion of your question. Do we ALL suffer? What does it mean to suffer? Careful study will reveal that we do not all see our life's transitions as suffering. Some see what others would call suffering as lessons or classes. In this regard, we should understand that suffering is based on the perspective of individual.

Answer 4

What is suffering? God doesn't make us suffer. We choose to suffer.

If your mother gets cancer, suffering is certainly to be expected and normal. But that doesn't mean that God created the suffering.

Human suffering is part of our existence. It is a process by which we learn and grow. Often times when we're in the midst of it, the suffering seems pointless, but very few that have suffered greatly will tell you after the fact that it had no meaning to them.

Answer 5

Butterflies cannot survive without struggling to get out of their cocoons, But as humans we create our own suffering mostly because all we care about is ourselves and what others can do for us. Consequently as all people both great and mediocre are struggling for supremacy no matter who they step on along the way it is no big surprise that there is suffering. God gave us Scripture, Commandments, Prayer, a plan, a brain, and FREE WILL. So ask your self, who have you helped lately with nothing to gain, when was the last time you prayed for a stranger, when is the last time you forgave an enemy, when is the last time you thanked God for a life that others would kill for. ( Ask the residents in a 3rd world country if you snicker at this thought)

God is my Heavenly Father and just like my father lets me stumble and fall for my own good, so does God. But If I need help from either one of them all I have to do is ask.

Answer 6

If God exists.... He is not always the one to give us suffering. At times we create suffering for ourselves by making all the wrong choices. However, whenever life unexpectedly hands you sadness and grief and suffering, it is to make you stronger. When God wants us to be wiser, He hands us problems where one choice is right while the other is tempting yet wrong. When God wants us to be stronger, He hands us grief and suffering. He wants us to be stronger.....

Answer 7

It's not a matter of blaming God for our suffering, it's just a part of growing up, maturing, knowing yourself, it's something that makes us grow as better as a person. Who ever said God did it? Maybe suffering is the thing that makes us who we are, ya know? maybe we shouldn't always look at it like as bad thing..

Answer 8

God loves us and gave us free will and free choice. The choices we make often causes our suffering. Sometimes the choices others make causes our suffering. It is not God's doing but our own.

Answer 9

If God does exist (and that's a big if), then God is apathetic to our pain or sadistic and like to see us suffer. No loving and all-powerful God would subject us to suffering. If God does exist, then God isn't as smart or powerful as we hope.

Answer 10

In my opinion even if he does exist, we do many bad things and his choices to make some people suffer are based on our actions.