Reconciling human suffering is only an issue if you attach meaning and value to this life beyond the agnostic physical world.
Right?
So here is my list of 3 things to do if you are actually interested in these issues:
- Think through this simple exercise on adversity.
- Understand the implications of “evil” even existing in the first place.
- Realize that subtracting suffering out – changes everything.
Ok, one more.
Longer Bonus: Read Why Suffering and Man’s Search For Meaning.
But remember that we are talking about two different things here.
The mind can philosophically understand a question, but that does not mean in the midst of suffering a heart can easily accept it.
The difference in pastoral care and metaphysics is wide.
The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word ‘love’, and look on things as if man were the centre of them. Man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake.
-C.S. Lewis, The Problem Of Pain (Amazon)
