Free Essay Example on the Problem of Evil and Suffering

Philosophy has been used to attempt the understand of belief in a Supreme Being and the associated experiences of people. Philosophers have focused on the concept, of the problem of evil and suffering that still characterize the lives of believers in spite of their belief in God. This reveals that humans, therefore, strive to reconcile situations with their religious beliefs (Kollontai, 2015). Consequently, the intervention of philosophical thinking on the various aspects of religion has demonstrated sufficient interest in determining why human beings chose to live with evil and suffering while claiming to be in touch with their God.

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Some believers feel that, even though the problem of evil and suffering is originated from God, they must experience witness their related circumstances because it can be used as a way for test for faith (Kollontai, 2015). The situation is not bearable to human beings and therefore God can use them to determine the strength of the belief and whether they can forsake their relationship with the Supreme Being (Kollontai, 2015). Therefore, when they fall in sin or go through a condition, which poses a significant level of suffering to them, they take it normal and use prayer as the weapon, with belief that everything in the situation is meant to test their faith.

Moreover, some feel that the problem of evil and suffering occurs as a result of the philosophical concept of free will; human beings have the freedom to choose their preferred course of action, whose consequences may not be like God's promise to humans (Feldman & Chandrashekar, 2017). According to Kraay (2016), on this note, they tend to believe that other human beings, rather than God, are evil and problematic and their behaviors cause the negatively impacting conditions to others who love God and want to stay within the bounds of Godly directions. It, therefore, follows, according to the argument, that God does not cause evil and suffering, and believers have to adjust and learn how to live in a world where they exist.

However, the problem of evil and suffering can be understood better by introducing other approaches in addition to the religious context. A problem or evil experience may occur as immediate misfortunes resulting from the mistakes people do, and which could have been avoided. This idea is based on societal understanding. This, therefore, deems the universe and life to be ultimately meaningless and purposeless now that all cause/effect is nothing. This is because belief is a supernatural power is not enough to help one eliminate the other side of life.

References

Feldman, G., & Chandrashekar, S. (2017). Laypersons' Beliefs and Intuitions About Free Will and Determinism. Social Psychological And Personality Science, 9(5), 539-549. Doi: 10.1177/1948550617713254

Kollontai, P. (2015). Emotional Intelligence in Higher Education: Using Art in a Philosophical Discussion on God, Evil and Suffering. Research In Education, 93(1), 66-76. Doi: 10.7227/rie.0012

Kraay, K. (2016). God and gratuitous evil (Part II). Philosophy Compass, 11(12), 913-922. Doi: 10.1111/phc3.12385