Francis Berger
  • Blog
  • My Work

Human Suffering: We Must Make Metaphysical Sense of It . . . Now

6/6/2022

10 Comments

 
A recent and engaging comment exchange with a regular reader on the subject of suffering really brought home the imperative to sort out, make sense of, contend with, and make peace with suffering at the level of metaphysical assumptions. 

Human suffering, in its seemingly infinite forms, is unavoidable and everyone is forced to grapple with it throughout their mortal lives -- some, on a daily basis. The unwelcome physical and mental challenges suffering inflicts are undeniable. Equally undeniable are the spiritual challenges suffering presents -- challenges that can overwhelm even the most ardent of believers. 

For leftists, suffering is ultimate evil. On the one hand, they strive to avoid it and eliminate it at all costs. On the other hand, leftists have used suffering as a battering ram against all sorts of injustices -- real or otherwise -- and as a veritable nuclear bomb against religious thinking. I can think of few things that have damaged Christianity as much as the leftist hijacking of suffering as a rallying cry for social justice and transformation (inversion). 

Fyodor Dostoevsky was acutely aware of this hijacking of suffering. In The Brothers Karamazov, he offers an incisive examination of the thinking fueling the outrage via Ivan Karamazov who implicates God as the cause of all suffering and declares that the enormity and needlessness of some suffering -- exemplified by tortured and abused innocent children -- grossly exceeds any metaphysical justification for suffering, thus rendering the "necessity" of suffering unacceptable and irredeemable. Consequently, Ivan declares that although he accepts the reality of God, he cannot, in good conscience, agree to the "higher harmony" of God's plan and, therefore, opts to "return his ticket" for salvation. 

Dostoevsky's prescience concerning the evolution of the leftist rebellion against the Christian understanding of suffering is still visible in the likes of vapid celebrities and scholars who vehemently boast about their virtue of not believing in a god that would create various parasites or fatal childhood diseases. Although this sorts of virtue-signalling strikes the average mindless drone modern as noble-minded, it does nothing to address the problem of suffering. The rejection of God as the cause of suffering does not eliminate the suffering itself. All the rejection does is render the suffering meaningless. 

Leftists only ascribe meaning to suffering when it facilitates and propels their various Ahrimanic control and surveillance schemes or destructive anti-God and anti-Creation agenda issues. And of course, leftists always present themselves as the only means through which suffering may be alleviated or eliminated. Otherwise, leftists consider suffering to be a meaningless evil that must be avoided at all costs. 

It's one thing for leftists to view suffering as either a rallying cry for social justice or a meaningless evil; it's quite another for Christians to espouse the same or similar views. Suffering cannot be meaningless to Christians. Nor can it merely be an impetus that fosters world improvement. Suffering has to mean something to Christians, and this meaning has to extend down all the way to the level of metaphysical assumptions -- to the big questions, questions for which most conventional and traditional theologies and metaphysics provide unsatisfactory answers.

I won't delve into my beliefs about suffering here. I believe the meaning of suffering is something all individual Christians -- with the help of God -- need to work out for themselves. Moreover, they must take full personal responsibility for the answers they discover and decide upon. "Must" because a misguided or ill-formed understanding can present serious metaphysical obstacles for Christians -- obstacles that could drive a Christian to fear, despair or, ultimately, rejecting salvation and God altogether.

I mention all of this now because I feel we will see a rapid acceleration of human suffering in the next year or two. The suffering the 2020 global coup has unleashed is but the tip of the iceberg. The big, yet-unseen part is fast-approaching.

The unprecedented nature of these times makes the scale of suffering difficult to predict or determine. Suffice to say it will be "unprecedented". 

​I believe some will experience far more suffering than others. Nevertheless, no one will be left unscathed. It will touch us all in one way or another. However, even if we, as individuals, do not experience terrible suffering firsthand, we will certainly be witness to its manifestation in the greater world, which is why sorting out and making sense of human suffering at the level of metaphysical assumptions is imperative . . . now! 
10 Comments
johnson j
6/7/2022 00:44:56

Leftist who fancy themselves as christians can view suffering as meaningless via the "logic" that since Jesus suffered for me I should never suffer again but i do so God broke his word and now i must become God and fix the world. Same with jews, i.e. God broke his promise to secure Israel against its enemies and give it super peace, so i must become God and fix the world (tikkun olam). I think this type of view makes most sense with monotheism because pagan gods aren't almight and can't be expected to usher in world peace or whatever.

Reply
Francis Berger
6/7/2022 11:27:28

@ johnson - It's interesting to note that Jesus never explicitly states -- at least not in the Fourth Gospel -- that his mission included fixing the world. Also interesting is that Christianity is viewed and "believed in" as a monotheistic religion when it is clearly anything but. It took me a long time to understand that Christianity is actually pluralistic in nature.

Reply
El Cid
6/7/2022 06:36:17

Very providential post. I've been pondering suffering for awhile now and while I can't offer any insights into why some people suffer so much more than others I do understand that we live in a fallen world and suffering is inherent in the human condition. We've all got to suffer in this life.

I prayed to God that He reveal to me what I must do to become a saint and in His providence He led me to begin reading about Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque and and the intense suffering she endured for His glory. It really shamed me.

Here I am, a man leading a (fairly) comfortable existence and yet unable (or rather, unwilling) to endure the agony of nicotine withdrawal for more than a few days and incapable of fasting for an extended period of time. This has inspired me to really commit to suffering and to offer it up to God in reparation for my sins. I'll certainly have the chance to do so when my insulin runs out due to supply chain issues.


Yeah, in the modern west we've become so soft and averse to suffering that when things really start to get bad the paint and agony in the collective psychic atmosphere is going to be almost palpable. Dark times approaching it seems.

I was praying that God had mercy on me that before I die I don't suffer too much but I'm starting to think it could be an opportunity to use that pain as reparation for my own and others sins.

God bless you!

Reply
Francis Berger
6/7/2022 11:53:57

@ El Cid - Thanks for the comment. I am not familiar with Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque. I'll have to look her up.

Although suffering is an unavoidable and inevitable part of our mortal lives, I don't believe God wants us to seek out suffering purposefully or to commit to suffering with the understanding that such action ennobles.

What I mean is, I don't think God approves of self-flagellation. Moreover, I do not believe self-flagellation serves any real higher purpose. We may indeed suffer because of our sins, but repentance should also mark the beginning of the end of that suffering, at least ideally.

In this sense, I don't think we should actively seek out suffering. This strikes me as a negative action. If we seek out something positive and that something positive comes at the price of discomfort or suffering, that's acceptable. But I don't see anything positive in committing to suffering. The only way to overcome suffering is to commit to something greater than suffering.

Ending things like nicotine addiction or engaging in fasting are more about building inner discipline and spiritual freedom than they are about suffering.

If the motivation to quit nicotine is inspired by something internal that seeks to end the dependence to gain greater freedom or demonstrate self-discipline (freedom, properly understood, is always intertwined with self-discipline), then great. However, if the desire to quit nicotine is motivated by external factors like mass-media campaigns, social pressure, or the modern fixation with "healthism", then it probably best to stick with the dependence. After all, smoking -- though perhaps bad for health -- is not a sin. As with everything, the source of the motivation behind discipline is key.

When we choose to expand our spiritual freedom or fortify our discipline, we should ensure that positive motivation is stronger than negative motivation (our reason to be free"for" should be stronger than our reason to be free "from", otherwise we'll just burden ourselves with needless suffering.

Most importantly, I believe we need to re-examine our understanding of suffering at the metaphysical level now. We need to revisit the big questions like "Why does God permit the existence of evil and suffering in the world?", "Is God responsible for suffering?", and "Why didn't God create a world free of suffering?" We need to sort these things out now to avoid "being caught by surprise" or, worse, taking a stance similar to Ivan Karamazov's.



Reply
bruce charlton
6/7/2022 10:47:09

I agree both that the times of trial seems to be gathering (later than I expected, I acknowledge); and therefore Christians do need to sort out this business of suffering in advance of what will be experienced as 'trials' - although *our own* experiences will often be intended as 'learning experiences' for us, and these are the vital ones.

Why some suffer more than others is not *in principle* difficult for me to understand, because I believe that we arrive in this mortal life after a pre-mortal experience and with large soul-differences in character and needs. But I think this is difficult/ impossible for those who assume that all Men's souls are incarnated identically.

Another problem is that old chestnut - but a true criticism IMO, about the impossibility of an omnipotent/ omniscient And wholly-good-motivated God allowing extremes of suffering - but then I regard the omnipotence of God as alien to Jesus's teaching (Jesus's God is wholly loving and good, but Not abstractly omnipotent nor omniscient). No wonder, therefore, that this Omni dogma has caused so much trouble for nearly 2000 years!

This makes it nigh impossible to know why some *other* person (or group of people) has apparently suffered very greatly - but that is their business, not anyone else's - and this is why it always sounds so glib when people try to explain the suffering of others.

(It is particularly foolish for a Christian to try and explain suffering to atheist non-Christians, for whom there is no reason for anything in a purposeless and meaningless universe. And the meaning differs according to different religions. We can only speak with authority from our deepest assumptions regarding the nature of reality - those who reject these assumptions are bound to find such explanations unsatisfactory.)

But we can know *enough* of the reasons for our particular own life experiences, if we seek them diligently and honestly. That is one of the roles of the Holy Ghost.

Reply
Francis Berger
6/7/2022 12:03:08

@ Bruce - I agree. I'm not sure if you checked the comment exchange, but Omnigod did pop up in the conservation.

I wrote this post because I have a bad feeling that many traditional/conventional Christians -- with their assumptions about Omnigod -- are setting themselves up for some mind-numbing surprises and major disappointments if and when world conditions continue to deteriorate. Put simply, I see many potential Ivan Karamazovs on the horizon, which, suffice to say, is not good.

At the same time, the surprises and disappointments may lead to a re-examination of key assumptions that may finally crack the chestnut -- at least for some people.

Reply
Sue
6/8/2022 02:14:39

I appreciate your latest posts about suffering. I am one of those people who has a lot of suffering in this life. I finally got over a long and horrid chronic illness, and was feeling great; but now have been diagnosed with cancer. I admit I was already having a hard time with suffering and pain ,even after I became a Christian. I Just lately, after this new diagnosis , have I seen a breakthrough in my outlook. I have started letting go and not worrying about things I cannot control. Letting go of worldly things a bit. It's like it takes this much suffering to get me to let go and just trust God for all my needs.
I'm sure I will still struggle with this , but it's a start.
Sue

Reply
Francis Berger
6/8/2022 11:30:28

Thank you, Sue. God be with you.

Reply
NLR
6/8/2022 03:48:17

"Although this sorts of virtue-signalling strikes the average mindless drone modern as noble-minded, it does nothing to address the problem of suffering. The rejection of God as the cause of suffering does not eliminate the suffering itself. All the rejection does is render the suffering meaningless."

This is a good point. Whatever anyone says or doesn't say, suffering is still there and people still have to deal with it. But leftism doesn't actually do anything to help. It claims religion is an unsatisfactory answer and then replaces it with ... nothing.

Reply
Francis Berger
6/8/2022 11:32:18

@ NLR - Yes, it struck me quite vividly as well. The rejection of God sounds very logical, moral, and pragmatic, but it doesn't actually accomplish anything in terms of reducing suffering. In fact, I think it just makes things worse.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Blog and Comments

    Blog posts tend to be spontaneous, unpolished, first draft entries ranging from the insightful and periodically profound to the poorly-argued and occasionally disparaging.
     

    Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments are never published (please use your name or a pseudonym). 

    Emails welcome:

    f er en c ber g er (at) h otm   ail (dot) co m
    Blogs/Sites I Read
    Bruce Charlton's Notions
    Meeting the Masters
    From The Narrow Desert
    Synlogos ✞ Aggregator
    New World Island  
    New World Island YouTube
    ​Steeple Tea
    Berdyaev.com
    Adam Piggott
    Fourth Gospel Blog
    The Orthosphere
    Junior Ganymede

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Picture
    A free PDF is also available in My Work. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.