Question

Briefly describe a situation (real or imagined) in which you experienced physical, mental, or spiritual suffering (approximately 75 words).
Describe how you would view that suffering, based on either a fatalistic, deterministic, or humanistic perspective (approximately 100 words).
Describe how you would view that suffering based on a biblical perspective on suffering (approximately 100 words).

Answer 1

Catholic school homework assignment?

Answer 2

Man is born into enduring suffering. Most of us suffer at the hands of betrayal. Be thankful it is nothing more serious like the suffering endured by the victims of the Holocaust. The victims are dead and the survivors feel a life long guilt for not being among them. Betrayal is much easier to take, but it is very painful because trust and innocence are usually what is challenged.

Fatalism would say we suffer because we are on a path that would lead to where we are. The main characteristic is that there is no choice. We would meet that event no matter what we try to do. So for betrayal, it is absolutely inevitable. We cannot be protected from it.

Determinism is compared to free will. If we believe in free will then at every junction, we can do something that will avoid the suffering. Determinism like Fatalism would say this is incorrect. The difference is the determinism is much more rigid. Fatalism sometimes gives an escape hatch. Not often, but it does happen.

Humanism is more the study of why the suffering occurred usually it has nothing do with external blame. We do not say we suffer because our best friend told our secrets to everyone. We ask. instead, why we found it necessary to share those secrets in the first place. If we loose trust, we do not blame others for what is no longer ours. We ask ourselves why we mourn what we gave away.

The Bible. This one is the hard one. There are two examples that you should be familiar with. One is Christ. The other is Job. One has to do for the payment of sin, and the other has to do with the desires of a truly evil entity (Satan). Since I am not that qualified to comment on either, I find I can offer more questions than answers. Satan wanted to prove to God that man was an imperfect being susceptible to temptation. Man could always be "had." It is a book of endurance -- how many can overcome adversity.

Our suffering would be much more severe without Christ's sacrifice. He gave his life so that ours would be much better.

Answer 3

I agree with all that you said, but "Our suffering would be much more severe without Christ's sacrifice. He gave his life so that ours would be much better." Is excluded. If Jesus is God the Author of life itself the one true malevolent God. How did he die? Is that not a contradiction in and of itself in terms of God's oneness. Are Christians claiming God conquered death by dying? How can you embrace such a faulty paradox. The ancient Israelites at the time of Jesus believed that when a human dies and the body decays it is the worst kind of agony. Some even said it was worse than death itself. They actually believed a human's sins were in the flesh (hence the decaying). They thought when the skin was gone, and all that was left was bone. Was a person truly free of sin. (Which again is a clear contradiction towards the crucifixion). They also believed that God needed the bones in a ritual called "The Gathering Of the Bones" to be able to resurrect the human being (which is faulty as well because that means God is limited). But Jesus vanished they couldn't find his body after his death. So, how he resurrected? Also, how is the trinity still three if one of the three died?

Answer 4

\(\color{#0cbb34}{\text{Originally Posted by}}\) @Floo
I agree with all that you said, but "Our suffering would be much more severe without Christ's sacrifice. He gave his life so that ours would be much better." Is excluded. If Jesus is God the Author of life itself the one true malevolent God. How did he die? Is that not a contradiction in and of itself in terms of God's oneness. Are Christians claiming God conquered death by dying? How can you embrace such a faulty paradox. The ancient Israelites at the time of Jesus believed that when a human dies and the body decays it is the worst kind of agony. Some even said it was worse than death itself. They actually believed a human's sins were in the flesh (hence the decaying). They thought when the skin was gone, and all that was left was bone. Was a person truly free of sin. (Which again is a clear contradiction towards the crucifixion). They also believed that God needed the bones in a ritual called "The Gathering Of the Bones" to be able to resurrect the human being (which is faulty as well because that means God is limited). But Jesus vanished they couldn't find his body after his death. So, how he resurrected? Also, how is the trinity still three if one of the three died?
\(\color{#008}{\text{End of Quote}}\)
wu going on

Answer 5

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