The Issue of Suffering

THE ISSUE OF SUFFERING One of the arguments often raised to question the existence of God is known as the problem of evil or the problem of suffering. This objection stems from an erroneous view that evil in human life is God-made, which is untrue. While suffering in the human world is man-made, this misunderstanding leads to misattributing the suffering in human life to God. The actual reason for this misunderstanding is that when people observe human suffering, they seek an explanation regarding the concerned individual. When, in many cases, this explanation is not immediately observable within the person, people start alleging that either no God is controlling this world or that if there is a God, He is unjust. However, this attribution is incorrect. Suffering in the human world is man-made. This suffering in a person’s life is sometimes caused by themselves, their parents, the society in which they live, and the broader social system they are a part of. Sometimes, suffering has an immediate cause, and sometimes, the cause of suffering can be traced back over several generations. The reason for these misapprehensions is that people study situations from the wrong angle. They look at a phenomenon as if it is related to God rather than to man. This goes entirely against scientific facts. Scientific studies show a clear difference between the human world and the rest of the universe. That is, while the eternal