Neutraligon wrote:Internationalist Bastard wrote:Seems like the best answer I’ve gotten from a Christian
The problem is with the outcomes of that statement. If suffering is beneficial then we must of course cause people to suffer. And the old testament in itself somewhat contradicts this. Suffering is intended to punish, that is to show people they have done wrong. As an example we have god causing plagues or sending that wurm to eat Jonahs plant. If instead there was no need to punish then of what benefit is suffering?
Heaven is also still a problem. If in heaven people do not suffer, and heaven is supposedly a perfect realm, then what benefit is suffering? Why does god not make earth like heaven?
We are not to cause suffering to others because Christ has told us not to cause suffering in the commandment summed up as "love one another as yourself." This particular explanation of evil says that God knows what He is doing when He allows these things to happen. God knows what is good in it, but we often do not, and it would be foolhardy to try to do things we don't understand.
As Christians profess, Earth
was Heaven until humanity rejected God. If we cleve to God, He saves us from our abundant inequities.