How do you explain that a loving God would allow so much suffering?

Question

I am looking for the best way to tell this to a person...

Answer 1

Good luck! The Western variation of God makes no sense to me..lol..

Answer 2

A loving God would allow so much suffering because come to think of it, with all those calamities and problems, people learn how to help and love each other. With these, people improve themselves and change for the better. Besides, God would not give us problems that we cannot handle.
Well, if people die because of those sufferings, maybe that's God's plan for them. After all, they will be with him in peace.
Well, that's what I learned in school. :P

Answer 3

God told Adam & Eve what will happen if they sin, They were given a choice, So since the curse, suffering has been going on, that is part of the curse, But God did not start it, man & woman did, But one day this curse will be lifted according to Revelations.

Answer 4

a series of books titled " Conversations with God " explains alot of what goes on here on earth and why.. the main word is Experience... God experiences things like joy pain love and hate through us as souls.. a good amount of the suffering that goes on helps you grow as a spiritual being.. you "live and learn" .. some of the suffering turns into an ends to a good means somehwere down the road.. and some doesnt... its all in the path you choose to take...

for example the first part of my life was pretty much just one downfall after the next.. i just recently had a whole 360 degree turn in my life and i dont think now looking back in my past i would of changed it for anything.. it made me into what i am now as a person.. a strong willed individual.. and i now know all the mistakes i made in my life that i would never make again to make sure i stay in the good place i am now... there are also cancer victims who are in recovery that say theyre a differnet person now... for the better... the suffering they endured through the disease and now the recovery opened them up to things they would of normally not of "experienced".. they see the world in a much different light " the small things" in life are much bigger and brighter.. because of the 2nd chance to "Experience" them... theres also suffering that might seem totally devasting to the person but somewhere down the line in life sooner or later that "Experience" brought about some much needed change to maybe not that person but another soul/ individual here on earth because we are all connected .. and everything that happens will effect another human being in the invisble chain that connects us all ... alot of suffering on a mass scale is God showing us what we're doing wrong in life.. and ALWAYS giving us a chance to correct it by helping others or ourselves ( one in the same)... acts of selflessness.. what is what we're really all down here for.. Love...

and remember the world consists of ying and yang.. there cant be joy without suffering.. love without pain..

Answer 5

God too feels bad on seeing his loved children in pain & suffering , but if a child commits a sin he has to be punished which is actually a testing time from God's side to see whether his child still obeys Him & follow His path of truth or not.

Answer 6

According to Christians, we're the ones who screwed the world up, not God. Somehow simply eating a fruit was enough to drive God mad with rage and curse not just Adam and Eve but all of their descendants. Somehow the taint of this single act of disobedience was so bad that all of humanity suffers from it...a taint that God himself put into us in the first place (according to scripture).

So basically, because of Adam and Eve's adolescent screw-up, your friend gets to suffer horribly and it's somehow all their own fault.

From my own perspective, it's just the way the world is. It's not "broken" or "cursed". It's just life. And it can really suck sometimes.

Answer 7

Suffering is in the eyes of the beholder. People are here to learn things and that is why there is what there is. See page explains it.

http://www.phifoundation.org/happiness.html

Answer 8

There are some paragraphs from the book "Qalander Concious" (visit: www.azeemiaroohanilibrary.com)

"BODY AND SOUL
When we analyze life, we see that every man or woman wants to live a happy life. But the materialistic approach towards life causes hindrance and dismay at every step of their life as every moment of our life is perishable, mortal and variable. Moreover, we also do not know, indeed materialistically, what real happiness is and how it can be achieved. It is necessary that we should search for our Real Base in order to know this Real Happiness.

When we were "nothing", we must have been something, because not to be anything negates our being. Our material life commences from the womb of the mother. When after inception and passing through a certain process, this matter reaches its climax a living picture comes into being from nothingness. Circumstances and surrounding of this ‘picture’ provides it with such a training that it remains ignorant of the meanings of Real Happiness, what to say of the method of its acquisition.

To embrace the Real Happiness, first of all one should have the knowledge that life is not based upon the body only but it is based upon that Reality which has adopted this material body as a robe for itself. After birth, the second phase encountered by us is that in which every moment of our life dies after giving birth to another one. The moment, which is our childhood at one time and boyhood at another changes into old age from the youth-fullness.(Top)

The Living Picture
Our access to this Reality is possible only when we know that this Living Picture is not a ‘body’ but a Conscious. We are not at liberty to call it conscious only because the conscious is that medium of our identification, which is holding the whole edifice of our life together. It is in our knowledge that the extinction of body uts an end to the material density and pollution and we are also aware of the fact that the extinction of body does not cause annihilation of the consciousness, but on the contrary it is transferred to some other world.

One thing mentioned in all the sacred books unanimously and reiteratively is that man is not merely a material body but a consciousness. When we discuss the life span --- birth to death period, we come to know that the consciousness, the foundation of which was laid in the mother's womb, decreases on one hand and increases on the other. The more the decrease in the conscious the more is man carried towards the past; the advancement of the consciousness results in moving towards the future. The age factor is determined because of the increase and decrease in the consciousness. One state of the consciousness is called the childhood, the other is termed as the Youth and the third one is given the name of old age. In short, the consciousness which is maintaining this material life and upon which this body is takes the evolutionary steps, itself remains intact and constant. (Top)

Study of the Self
When we study ourselves, we conclude that we have a perishable and a limited body, which is our identification. The tangible body, which we see, is composed of density, dirt, putrefaction and effluvia. Basis of this putrefaction is that every man in this world has been given to understand that he is matter; an offspring of the material world. This limited thought confine everybody in one place and every one finds himself incarcerated in the cobweb of restricted ideas. And thus results a confined and limited thinking. Every body living on this planet has categorized himself as a Muslim, a Hindu, a Parsi or a Christian though the soul cannot be denominated by any name. Because a light is only light, irrespective of its belonging to any part of the world whether it is in Arab, Europe or Asia.

The system of God is established in such a way that all His Messages which have ever come to this world are incorporated and prevalent in their own typical words. The words of Bible are the religion of the Christians, Quran is the foundation stone of the Muslim religion, Hindus worship using the words of the Bhagavad-Gita. All these books are the voices of the holy servants of God, which have spread all over the world, just like light.

When we contemplate about the creation of the universe, we eventually come to the conclusion that our universe itself is the Voice of God. When God said, in His Voice ‘Be!’ the whole universe came into being. God introduces Himself as a Friend of the creatures. Just as a father does not forget his son, similarly God, too, is never forgetful of His creatures. Allah or God, who is our lord Cherisher and who provides us with every kind of resources and make us undergo novel experiences at various stages of our life is, indeed, our Friend."

I don't know if these paragraphs satisfy your question. Well... I think that the happiness in the material world is not the measure to God's love for us. You see that most of the people who are not 'good' are in a very good condition in this world (ie, wealth etc), and some people who are 'good' are enduring sufferings in this world. The thing is that the friends of Allah (God) don't give the material world and its happiness of suffering so much importance. The closeness and love of God is something more joyfull, and precious than every material happiness. We are not close to God, we haven't recognize him. We are living in a material world (i.e, we don't know our soul), so we feel the sufferings of the world painful.
If we recognize our Creator and obtain his friendship and closeness, we can do anything.

Answer 9

GOD made a contract with us.
We let in all of the suffering (satan who kills, steals and destroys) (Adam did it).
GOD put us in a Garden of Eden.
Adam let in Hell.
GOD don't break contracts.
GOD (Jesus) can't come back full force untill contract is up (contract was for 6000 years).
Also, Adam kicked GOD outta here (spiritually). Otherwise, this Earth would look like Planet Heaven by now.
Ditto..............

Answer 10

its [suffering is not from god
think guns dont kill people doing evil with guns kill ,if there wasnt a gun they [evil] would use knives /poisen/hands/ push them off a building etc
we have freewill
you must have learned this at least in living
you know you chose
we all chose to do that we did ,sure we didnt chose every thing and thus for that cant be blamed
but evil people just love to do evil thus even they know they chose it
as hannah [2 de reply ] says its to sort the sheep from the goats , the wheat from the tares ,its so evil knows it dosnt want to be in eternity with the ''do gooders'' and the ''good'' know evil cant come into heaven
we are being tested in our brief lives , allowed to find that we love and hate , those that love to hate cant get into heaven,
they also know it was thier free choice
heaven is full og good loving people , all there paid a price by doing good , wanting to dio good , or at least seeing that evil is really vile
its not from words in a book but lived
as we are now living
we live for ever in the next life [weyther we chose to live in heaven or dwell in hell]
we are living the ultimate realistic ''game ''if you like here
we have no idea what eternal suffering is like
we have the means to aliviate suffering [drugs /meditations ,etc] but the thing is its like a bandaid
we need to remove the bandaid [we know its going to hurt [for only a little while ,so put up with the pain briefly] so is it with this short life time
all the pain of this life is nothing compared to the perfect [much better life to come]
what is a life time of pain but like a band aid compared to eternity ,to whom much is given much is expected ,to whom nothing is given nothing is expected
we all of us minute to minute have the choice to feel the pain or the hope of the future or not [its not gods choice ] god gasve us the gift of life to live its up to us what we chose top do with eternity
if your friend is not in pain they are just bleeding you dry ,if they are suffering go askl for help
enough of the poor me /poor you
we won [have in living the chance for an eternity of love and joy and contentment] to help others of our freewil with no proof [for no other reason than to love better helping than hurting we get eternity in heaven [or by our own freewill hell
its up to us to do that we enjoy to do now
not god
you see how people go into shock [many that appear to be suffering the most are allready being protected from feeling the pain [so perhaps even it is just to test us ,god is most fair ,you believe it or not] but saying evil about good is deceitfull if not a mortal danger
god is love .light life full of grace ,and wills no one to ''suffer''
but we have to chose [as you apparently are ]to chose try to help others [or not]