Suffering & Belief Part One

You need to know the difference between Man made suffering & Natural suffering

Make a list of as many natural forms of suffering as possible?

For example drought leading to famine.

Do this before you discover all the possible suggestions in the next slide.

Examples of natural suffering

•Volcano• Hurricane• Earthquake• Disease• Famine•Avalanche•Drought•Flood•Tsunami•Cyclone

Now can you suggest some examples of suffering caused by man, For example shooting someone.

Examples of Suffering that have been caused by man

Murder

War

Violence

Bullying

Neglect

Starvation

Lying

Cheating

You need to know that all Suffering has a cause

All suffering has to be done to someone.It can be unpleasant. It can cause physical & emotional pain.It is caused.

Religious Explanations

of Suffering

The problem of suffering can be shown in this picture.

“If God is supposed to be a God of love then why did he allow such suffering to exist.” Maybe he allows it because he does not care. Yet most religions want to say that God does care. So if he does care why does he allow it?

For Christianity the problem is solved by saying that God gave free will. Free will exists to allow us all choice. We can choose to do good or evil. God has not created robots. He has created creatures that have free will to choose to do good or bad. God has risked a lot to allow people to be free to make their own decisions.

Christians see the suffering of Jesus on the cross as an example to admire & respect. This is important when they suffer themselves. They say that Jesus came down on earth to suffer. He died and cared about us. When we suffer we can learn from our suffering. We can learn to appreciate what we have for example.

Christian views on Suffering.

Jesus died to save Christians from their sins. This is called atonement. Many Christians see this sacrifice of love as a message for us all.

Some might say that suffering is caused by evil. That evil is traditionally seen as the Devil. The Devil came to cause pain in the world.

Free Will

Anthony Walker was murdered by a racist killer.

We all have free will. I do not have to kill and do bad things. Our free will makes us special. I can choose to be good or bad. Misuse of my free will can cause suffering for others.

Suffering caused by people

These are the two boys who killed another boy. This is a tragic example of free will being used badly.

In Christianity it is not enough to say that the suffering was caused by misuse of free will. Christians have to realise that they must also forgive those who cause them to suffer. This is far more difficult to deal with. How could I forgive those who caused me to suffer? I might feel guilty that I cannot forgive and that might cause me to suffer more.

Suffering

Damilola Taylor

Sarah Payne

Anthony Walker Ainlee Walker

all murdered. All of their deaths are as a result of misuse of free will & choice.

God makes people free to choose to be Good. The ability to choose good comes from God.The ability to choose evil is a consequence of having free will.

God created life. God created choice. He created free will. We can decide how to respond to suffering we can ignore it . Or we can embrace it and accept it and transform it by our example of love.

creation

If God exists and allows suffering then why does he allow this. We think that one answer to this is the free will argument.

Far more difficult is that we might ask does God exist?

NOW WE WILL TURN THE DISCUSSION TO THIS ARGUMENT

Arguments For the Existence of God

Science shows that beauty and order exist in the natural world.

The religious view is that creation is complex and must have been designed by somebody.

One suggestion is that we should just..believe In God anyway!

You might as well believe in God

if you believe in God and then find out you were wrong it means you have not lost anything.

This is a very

simplistic view.

Not all Christians

would like this

statement.

Nothing comes from nothing

There has to be a cause for everything. This is true of the universe. Someone or something must have started things going.

This is the theory that God caused the universe to start. One day there was nothing and then God caused it to come into being.

Lots of reactions produced the world that we have today.

The sun produces the light, the air filters it, plants produce oxygen, people breath the air. It all fits together to make a remarkable place.

So this complex world was made from a creator who is the driving force behind existence.

Another argument for the existence of God is to start from the evidence of the creation itself. Look at the beautiful world.

A higher intelligence must have made this.