sealchan
Well-Known Member
Hey there. You look troubled as if the weight of the world is upon your shoulders. Friend, do not be disheartened and know that when the chips are down and everyone abandons you, Jesus still loves you. He will carry the burden of your sins. For those who are oppressed Christ will ease your suffering. Do not be afraid or perturbed.
Many of us are familiar with such a narrative in Christianity where suffering has meaning and a remedy is offered to alleviate misery. How that kind of narrative resonates is the topic of this OP.
We all experience loss, pain and inevitably our own mortality. We all know first hand suffering exists. So if there really is a God, does that God truly care and what is God’s purpose in allowing suffering?
Do religions other than Christianity provide similar narrative or is the a substantial difference in perspective?
If there is no God, is there harm in finding comfort in stories like those in the Bible? What should be our best response as we inevitably face adversity?
Most religions I have examined offer some sort of liberation. In the west the liberation is from sin or wrong action...in the east liberation is from ignorance or karma. Sin and ignorance seem to be two sides of the same coin.
In order to be moral we need some sort of tool, instrument or rules to use to orient not just ourselves but each other. If we all use the same then we can all see each other as moral agents and feel assured that we live in a just society.
But circumstance or experience or even self-knowledge can leave us personally in quite a deficit of character...we need some way to see out of that deep despair of inadequacy.
It seems that in the world's mystic traditions we know that strength is weakness and weakness strength, wisdom, folly and the fool is king. With such somersaults of perspective religion allows everyone the opportunity for deliverance.
The atheist and the theist experience life in the same way...good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. The Universe and/or God obviously has set things up this way.
In a systemic reality no one being or factor is fully responsible for outcomes. The matter of the system exhibits a creative ability to transcend all intention. God does not have omnipotence or omniscience. God or an agent acts/causes and the system responds. It is as if a creator crafted the Universe out of a chaos/clay that He found available but did not know of its nature or origins before He began to work it.
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