If everything has reasons, what is then the purpose of human suffering?

Answer 1

If we do not feel pain, then how would we know to take our hand out of the fire?

When we trip and fall and skid our knee, we feel pain because we tripped. The nerves in our body transmit signals to our brain. Our brain interprets these signals and we feel pain. If there is a purpose here, it is so that we know to look for rocks in the road. That way we don't trip in the future. Therefore, we are better prepared to avoid injury and infection. And we survive.

So if you must have purpose, then suffering is necessary for survival. It is a genetic response to better our chances to exist longer.

But I sense that you want for a greater purpose. Perhaps some grander design? I find it hard to understand why this must be so. We humans feel a need to ascribe meaning to things. Even when there is no meaning.

But let's move on to general suffering. Evolution, genetics, instincts aside, why do we suffer? The answer can vary depending upon who you ask. Some might say we suffer because we desire. If we remove all desire, then we remove suffering. Some might say that suffering is the result of sin or evil (in a spiritual sense). Accept God in your life and you remove all suffering.

I can see the rationale behind the desire/suffering argument. But it is too easy. How selfish one must be to eliminate all else. As for original sin, there is no divinity in suffering. Oh, how cruel such a god would be!

I say, however, that suffering is just suffering. Suffering, like any other experience (happiness, joy, anger), is just a part of life. We are here and we live. So live.

I say these human emotions and experiences can be beautiful, even the painful ones sometimes. The bittersweet memories of a loved grandparent passed away, for example. You can't exactly feel too bad about the loss, because they lived a full life; and if they lived longer then they would be in great pain. But you have such fond memories. This kind of sweet pain is beautiful in its own way.

I'm sorry if I have traveled away from your question. I know you started with the premise that "everything has reasons". But I disagree. I might be wrong, but I think we often get it backwards. It isn't that everything has reasons. It is that we humans have to have reasons for everything. Maybe I'm right; maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we'll never know for sure. In the meantime, I'm just going to live and find pleasure when I can. And I will enjoy every second of it when I find it. That is life.

Answer 2

Everything in this world has a purpose. Its not only for human beings, every other object which exists.

Let me give you an example referring your question,

Drop a stone in a bucket filled with water. The waves will originate from the point of contact of stone with water, moves away and in a point of time will come back to the same position where it had been originated.

What i meant to say was the human sufferings will exits because of his deeds. It might be good or bad. If luck is in his favour some other object will suffer.

Regards,
Balakrishna

Answer 3

Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust Nazi concentration camp survivor asked himself the Question you have just asked. He wrote about it in a book entitled "Man's Search For Meaning" and he developed a school of psychology called *logo-therapy. I urge you and anyone else reading this to read the book. In a nutshell he concluded suffering is meaningless and has no purpose other than the meaning and purpose given to suffering by each individual. Those who realize this are more likely to survive longer and be happier than those who don't realize this.

Recapping: Human suffering has the meaning and purpose we each individually and collectively as a society chose to give it.

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning

added thought: One should differentiate between just and unjust sufferings and appropriately adjust your attribution of meaning to those sufferings.

Answer 4

Human suffering is the cruel and unusual punishment that you receive on death row while waiting to die for your collective responsibility for the murder of Abel.
You have been sentenced to die for murder. You will never escape the execution unless you address Abels death caused by your ancestor Cain.
To do that you must dismiss any religious propaganda and look at it as a purely legal issue.
Jesus was not honest with his slaves. His theology is 99% invisable. Opening your eyes to Christianity will not serve any positive purpose. The bottomline is that you still die. If the theology of Augustus/Jesus were true you would have regained your lost immortality long ago.
There is a legal process to receive clemency. You can die while trying to figure it out or you can ask me.

Answer 5

We, as humans, have to suffer to appreciate the good things that happen in life. If we did not suffer, we would take for granted happiness, good fortune, and friends. But remember, Good follows Bad, and Bad follows Good. It a cycle of life some people don't realize. We are only given what we are able to handle!

Answer 6

I think human suffering is a bi-product of all our other sins. If the world wasn't focused on every man for himself we wouldn't have problems like world hunger and people not being able to get medical attention. Greed rules the world. I don't think that human suffering is what God intended for anyone...the ones we need to point our fingers at is ourselves.

Answer 7

Suffering creates an opportunity for choice. Learn from it or reject the lesson. Learning from it also means that we become a new person inside. Our character changes and the being of who we are inside is all we take with us into the spiritual world.

Answer 8

Who says everything has reasons? I suspect that a great deal of what happens is just random dumb luck - like whether an asteroid slams the earth in five years or a pretty girl smiles at you or me today.

There either is or isn't a design to human existence. If there isn't, then it's all dumb luck. If there is, then it remains beyond our ability to know what the design is, so anyone who thinks they have the answer has instead a delusion that they don't mind sharing with you.

There is so much we don't know or can't know - but try to resist the urge to fill those painful and worrisome vacuums with shite, just to be filling them with something. It's ok to join those of us who don't know, and worry, and just have to live with that.

Answer 9

the purpose is that we arent on one way tickets when we ride this ride of life and death . the suffering you see , feel , and endure as a human feeds the supernatural and when the supernatural starts to unfold in your life and death you will know that it really wasnt all in vain , the suffering .

Answer 10

Artists usually paint a picture by starting with a white canvas and adding various shades of darkness.

Some start with a black velvet and add various shades of light.

The point is, it is the contrast that defines. Suffering is part of what defines life.

Life without suffering is like a car without brakes. You may think it's the accelerator that gets you places. Trust me, you need the brakes.