Pain and suffering.
There are no easy ways through this. And loads of different perspectives.
The Buddhist position is that it relates to the Three Poisons: Greed, Hatred, Ignorance. How we respond in this life affects the next.
Modern Zen Buddhists also relate to the Three Poisons as being the cause of suffering. It is the now that matters. Being at peace with creation. There is no afterlife of the soul.
Christian perspectives are different again.
The key verse is 2Cor12.7. ‘My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness’. We are encouraged to put out total trust in God. He will give us the resources to deal with it. Easier said than done.
The Christian apologist CS Lewis sees this as a fight between goodness and evil, with the efficacy of the cross bound to win, in this end time between the death and resurrection of Our Lord and His Second Coming.
Pain and suffering can rock your faith. Let us look at two examples. Both are from post Resurrection scholars who examine the period before the New Testament was written down.
Pondering on pain and suffering, Bert D Erhman lost his faith. He now devotes his time to humanitarian causes. Elaine Pagels, expert on the Gnostic Gospels, so in favour with The New Age followers today, retained hers. Even though it was rocked to the ground by the death of her daughter. Any parent who has lost a child shares that pain.
The Buddhist position is that it relates to the Three Poisons: Greed, Hatred, Ignorance. How we respond in this life affects the next.
Modern Zen Buddhists also relate to the Three Poisons as being the cause of suffering. It is the now that matters. Being at peace with creation. There is no afterlife of the soul.
Christian perspectives are different again.
The key verse is 2Cor12.7. ‘My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness’. We are encouraged to put out total trust in God. He will give us the resources to deal with it. Easier said than done.
The Christian apologist CS Lewis sees this as a fight between goodness and evil, with the efficacy of the cross bound to win, in this end time between the death and resurrection of Our Lord and His Second Coming.
Pain and suffering can rock your faith. Let us look at two examples. Both are from post Resurrection scholars who examine the period before the New Testament was written down.
Pondering on pain and suffering, Bert D Erhman lost his faith. He now devotes his time to humanitarian causes. Elaine Pagels, expert on the Gnostic Gospels, so in favour with The New Age followers today, retained hers. Even though it was rocked to the ground by the death of her daughter. Any parent who has lost a child shares that pain.
