Why are so many religions obsessed with suffering?

Question

Especially Christianity and Islam. But I don't understand this obsession with suffering, and the whole idea that being happy and indulging in pleasure is evil.

If God created people, why would he then want to torture them? If he truly loved people as religion teaches, wouldn't he want them to not feel pain?

Answer 1

Why Do We Suffer?

Lets see what the bible has to say about suffering starting in the beginning. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. (Genesis 1:31) So, God created everything and saw everything was good. This means in the beginning there was no suffering at all.

If there was no suffering in the beginning how did suffering come to the world? When Adam sinned he brought death and suffering into the world. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12) Here is Gods curse to us because of Adam: To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3: 17-19)
As you can see man brought suffering on himself. Sin is the cause of suffering. Without sin there is no suffering. Without the law there is no sin. So anything God says not to do is sin. Sin is lawlessness. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) Sin is simply rebelling against God. The effect of our rebelling against God is death and suffering. Sin was the biggest cancer that was brought on to the earth. Sin separates us from God. When we are separated from God we are cursed. Through the curse of our separation there is suffering.

When people say why do bad things happen to good people? The answer is no one is good. Jesus said, “No one is good—except God alone.” (Luke 18:19) The question should be why does God allow good things to happen to bad people. No one goes to God first. God has to come to us first. No one seeks God. So the answer to the question about suffering is simply we suffer because of our rebellion against God. Sin is the reason of suffering and death.

Answer 2

Most ancient religions were obsessed with suffering, because the lives of primitive people are full of suffering. It's just that in the last hundred years advances in the standard of living have made suffering less prominent in our mental universe. Consider: poor people tend to have large families because many of the kids don't survive to adulthood. Today in the First World loosing a child is almost unimaginable to most parents. Parents in the ancient world often had to deal with that loss multiple times in their lives, it was normal.

Partially, it's this very conflation of suffering and virtue that made Christianity so appealing. It was a faith that appealed to the poor and downtrodden. "Blessed are the meek, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". If you believe something like that, you don't feel so bad about suffering.

Partially also it's to do with the concept of original sin. Christianity has a concept that people are inherently flawed and need to be redeemed. The way to make people accept this idea of themselves is to give to expect them to live an aescetic life that virtually nobody could actually do, and telling them to feel guilty for failing to live up to that, and then telling them the only way to avoid that guilt is repentance.

Also, I think the sociopolitical world of the Middle Ages had a lot to do with encouraging this streak of Christianity. In the Middle Ages Europe was a backward and poor part of the planet, and the Orient was where it was at. People don't like feeling backward and poor, and often one of the ways nationalists try to make people feel better about it is to redefine poverty as a mark of superior virtue. The virtuous poverty of Europe was contrasted with the decadent wealth of the Orient. Just like radical Islamists now decrying the decadence and sinfulness of the "Great Satan". This influence is still felt in Christianity.

Answer 3

Did you know that most of the new testiment from the bible has mistakes and aren't really "God's Words". A lot of them and passages were placed in during when kings of England ruled.

You may like the book "Misquoting Jesus".


But religions mostly believe in giving up the self and the pleasures in life. I was a Christian for 18 years, and then I stopped. I don't believe in it anymore because of the hypocrites and mistakes all throughout the bible. I think life should be enjoyed... not restricted.

Answer 4

Religion answers THREE questions- 1. Where am I going? 2. Where did I come from? and 3. Am I truely a good person. Suffering is a tradeoff for feeling good about being a good person- It is silly, but ALL cultures on earth, have needed answers to these 3 questions.

Answer 5

As a mother feels pain to bring her child into the world so the child also feel pain upon entering the world unknown to it. so we also must know that our parents want us to be good so we have to feel a little pain on our tushies once in a while to understand what it means to be happy just being with our family. It is not hard to do something to get a little spanking on the butt, Better a spanking on the butt than to burn your hand on the stove and receive a permenant mark on your skin from no one holding you back from touching it in the first place. Pain on a softer more padded surface is better and less offensive than one on a more sensitive area and your hand or foot or face. Granted the word "pain" is associated with Jesus dying for us on the cross but maybe HE didn't have to die and HE could have lived a better life here on this earth had he just obeyed his parents and stayed with them he was human too. He was born, just like us, died just like any of us could die, if not worse , and he arose triumphantly still with his sores on his hands and feet. If would not appreciate sores on my hands and feet except if I knew that it would get me into heaven to be with my creating Father any day. That is why we all suffer a little so as to teach us a little lesson in humility. It would be just a little humiliating to be hung on the cross in front of just a few of my family and friends let alone a whole crowd of people!!!!!! wouldn't you say????

Answer 6

Well, I can't speak about what others feel, but I'm not obsessed with suffering, I'm obsessed with figuring out a way to help ease mine and other's suffering. Surely there's a way we can all use our talents to help one another be more enriched.

Peace, Love, and Blessings
Greenwood

Answer 7

it would seem which you're seeing in basic terms what you prefer to work out. As an atheist for the final fifty 4 years, i'm not greater prepared approximately any god than i'm approximately cheesecake. for the period of widespread existence, the issue of religion comes up basically very hardly ever. i'm able to pass all week without faith bobbing up in my each and every day conversations and that issue repeats it self for here week and repeated as quickly as greater advert infinitum. even regardless of the undeniable fact that, that's a communicate board dedicated to discussing and debating in basic terms those matters which you point out (different than GWB) so what might you somewhat we communicate approximately, the fee of fish? i'm no longer indignant. i'm no longer hateful. you in basic terms examine it that way. i do no longer blame Bush for each thing - a average exaggeration there. i do no longer blame faith for each thing the two. I subbed my toe final week. Who did I blame? Me for being clumsy. you're making those products up. i do no longer develop faith in any verbal substitute concentrated on different themes - in basic terms here while a query is asked. Nowhere else. looks which you have very own character themes which may be addressed. lack of self belief? Anger administration? you in basic terms could be by myself in noticing something that patently isn't there.

Answer 8

He loves His Son, and He had to suffer.

And since we are his children, we will share his treasures
for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. (Ro 8:17)

The suffering you do on earth for Christ will be rewarded by His Father at the time of Judgment. - The suffering is a gift from Satan so that we will loose faith in the LORD.

Please read the book of Job to see how cruel Satan's suffering can be and what happen to Job when he held on to his faith and waiting for God to take his suffering away.

God Bless You

Answer 9

There is a time to everything under Heaven but, as long as there IS a time to suffer we might as well embrace it in union with our Lord Jesus who by his crown of thorns was King of suffering.

Answer 10

I think they go on more about it because we as people suffer, we have many challenges in life, and they want us to feel we can connect to something...as a you understand me type thing.