Pain & Suffering
It's been a while since I've updated my blog. I've been busy with this thing called work and life. They interfere with my blogging time. If anyone has $1 billion to spare, please feel free to give it to me so I can blog more frequently.
Now that's aside, I've been lying awake on my bed for 1 hour now. So here comes another blog.
I've heard Christians say that pain & suffering is required/necessary to grow. I think that's contradictory to the Christian teaching. Before I continue, I would like to clear up that I'm only focusing on pain & suffering that is caused by another human being. Natural disasters (flood, volcanoes, earthquakes) are a different topic. And so I don't have to type too long, I'll shorten them to p&s. Not to be confused with pms but that too is another topic (drum roll!)
P&S that are caused by another human being, are product of evil intentions such as selfishness and greed among others. If p&s is necessary, then evil is necessary because p&s are caused by evil intentions and evil intention are born from lack of goodness. And what do we call lack of goodness? Evil. So shall we say that evil is necessary for us to grow? If we do, that means God requires evil to exist so we can grow. It should be common sense for Christian to believe that God does not require evil to teach and guide humanity. If you need bible quote on why God does not need evil to do his things go to your nearest pastor/priest. If your nearest pastor/priest can't do it, let me know and I'll smack them for you so I can introduce them to some p&s.
So if we don't need p&s to grow, why do they exist? There's this thing that's called "free will". Some people decides to use their free will to succumb to evil and introduce p&s to this world. What we can do is to learn from p&s so we can grow and be a better person. And using our free will, we can also decide to refuse to pass down p&s. Revenge is another carpool lane for p&s. And of course, as with most things, doing this is harder than it sounds. If you need help, please . . . feel free to not come to me cause I'm busy. Didn't you read the first paragraph? I have enough trouble updating my blog.
posted by Fountain of Useless Information at 5:49 AM
8 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
11:09 AM
I believe that survival of the fittest exist in this world. We have almost 7 billion humans living on earth and somehow, we must coexist and ideally, in peace and harmony. However, this is far from reality. Even our mother nature, so-called-earth, helps to manage our population explosion by allowing natural disasters i.e. earthquakes, tsunamis, famine, flood,etc to occur and thus, in effect inserting population control on earth.
On a smaller scale, we individual human beings all have the need & want to survive. And sometimes, unfortunately, indirectly, and sometimes regretfully, we need to survive at the expense of other human beings. And this is where a lot of pain & suffering stem from.
As much as our human officials have to bombard & bullet-spray our dear fellow beings (we call them animals) in the forest to make room for our human population explosion; it is as much as a valid reason for war and killings to also occur & exist amongst humans. What goes around, comes around. We humans have the need to eliminate other beings for survival of the fittest, which may include our very own fellow humans, if necessary. Brain wins over brawn.
I think evil is sometimes a necessary mean to survive. We humans are the newest most short-lived species ever to inhabit this planet earth; but of course, we are greedy & selfish and want to rule this world and kill all the animals that are in our way who have existed here and have called earth home long before we did, to make room for ourselves. We do this just because we are 'smarter' and more 'technologically advanced' than they are.
If we allow animal destruction & their p&s to exist all for our benefits, what makes you think that we will stop here. Look at our history. We love to conquer other human civilizations. We love to go to war.
We love to hear juicy gossips abt blood, those in trouble, etc, That's why Enquirer Reminds are best sellers. News spread most rapidly when there are blood and gorry stories around. In business settings we must sell our products because we need to survive and eat ourselves. We swindle our fellow humans (we call them customers, here) and sweet-talk them into buying our products. Who cares if they actually need them or not! If they are not smart enough to determine if they actually need the product or not, then we will use them to our benefit and swindle them into buying the damn product. Essentially 'our customers' are our food. So we better get our food for ourselves to live. It's our life we are talking abt here! We need to survive. This is indeed survival of the fittest in a much smaller scale and it is where it has been camouflaged since we have lived in a so called 'modern society'
But, who are we kidding?? We are far from angels. We are all evil-doers, for the most part. Some are just more polished in their evil acts and are able to cover them up, so that we look holy and appear as if we are doing holy things like Mother Teresa.
So yes, evil is a necessary mean to survive in this world.So is good (but we are not talking about good). If there is good, there must be evil. It is Yin & Yang. And therefore, p&s must exist. The only thing we can do is to minimize evil and p&s.
11:09 AM
11:59 AM
(banging head against the wall)... can.... not... make.... self....... understand.....
too.... dumb....
(ok, maybe I'd better go to sleep now)
7:12 AM
Ria,
Wow, such a grim look at humanity! :)
You gave examples that evil exist. But existence of evil, doesn't prove that evil is necessary. Just because a banana exists, doesn't mean it's necessary for the world for a banana to exist. (Why do I pick banana as example? Because I just bought a banana and I'm going to eat it :) ) Same thing with evil. Just because evil exist, it doesn't mean it's necessary.
So I agree, there are a lot of p&s in the world that's caused by evil. But, I don't think that makes evil necessary. The two is not cause and effect.
You mentioned that there are times when evil is necessary to survive. I agree. If two people are stranded in an island without anything, then the only way to survive is to kill and then eat the other. But, there are other concepts that human know: love, honor, and dignity to name a few. We can choose to put survival above everything else, or we can choose to be a higher being. So you're right that evil sometimes is necessary for survival. But we see/hear many occasions where love prevails. Is not uncommon for parents, spouse, and friends to give up their lives for the one they love. Again, it's a choice.
In addition, although there are instances where evil is necessary to survive, usually, it's the survival of an individual human. In most cases, working together is better for survival of humanity as a whole. This is especially true in the long run. You know, Mother Theresa didn't work alone. She had a bunch of nuns in her order.
But I think we digres. The topic was whether p&s is necessary for human to grow. And I believe, we don't need p&s to grow :)
11:30 PM
Fugu! Sleep well :)
11:31 PM
Ooops.. did I digress in this entire discussion??!!:D:D:D
I believe that in mother earth there are : yin & yang, evil & good, p/s & happiness/joy. All are part of life. A lot of times, evil vs good is discussed in absolute terms, which I disagree. I think many times the experience of good vs evil is in the eye of the beholder. Whose perception we are coming from plays a significant role and under what circumstances a certain event, evil or good, occurs also matters. What someone perceives as an evil act, may be a life-safer to another person. I do believe that sometimes p&s, which comes from an evil act can, but does not always, acommodate/allow growth and progress in humanity. P&s is not always absolutely necessary. There needs to be a specific case-by-case evaluation to arrive at the conclusion whether or not p&s is necessary for such growth to take place.
I don't believe that all p&s could be avoided completely in the process of human development whether it be for social progress or in individual, personal goal/achievement. I think there will always be p&s in various forms that come from the so-called evil perpetrators. And what's most important is how we deal with it, to make it more bearable and if possible, to minimize the p&s itself. As much as happiness/joy is part of life, so is p&s. Our job is to try to maximize the first and minimize the latter. Focusing on the evil-doers that contributed in the p&s to begin with and dwelling on them is in itself an obstacle to progress and healing. Accepting that it is part of life and dealing with it and moving on is a better choice. My two choices would be either to be stuck at thinking abt which human did wht evil through what means of p&s; or just simply moving on with it. I usually do the latter because my mindset tends to assume and have accepted that these things (evil and p&s) are part of the daily grind of life anyways.
Maybe now I should pause and think and stress out more on these things and break them down to the T : What is the logic & mechanics behind p&s and wht causes them to exist; and how does evil contribute to all of this??<:-D Incidently, i do have a book : EVIL : INSIDE HUMAN VIOLENCE AND CRUELTY by Roy F. Baummeister. It tells you the psychology of evil and what causes it; how humans rationalize/justify evil acts in our minds so that we are comfortable doing them.
Wait.... one more thing, I re-read you response. And you were saying even if evil exists, it is not necessary. Okay I am trying to back it up now.... but it feels unnatural. Evil, just as much as good, has existed already since the dawn of time. It cannot be removed, as a whole. It is, however, unnecessary for this world. Yes, agreed, Mar!:D I think we gotta go beyond that though. It's already here, so isn't it kinda pointless to say whether of not it is necessary, rite?? Or am I missing your point again here??:-P It's sorta like saying to teenagers : Don't have sex because you're gonna get a girl pregnant and you'll be exposed to all kinds of STD's. But we already know they'll have sex anyways. So it's better and more productive to say : Let's have a discussion on how to practice safe sex, so that hopefully they'll know what to do when sex comes up.
1:41 PM
Ria,
I'm the kind of person who is an idealist realist. So I have the ideal as a goal, but try to understand the reality as much as possible too.
To me, if we don't state the ideal, it could be forgotten. Once we know what's the ideal, then we can compromise. Otherwise, we'll keep on compromising without knowing what was being compromised, then the compromise can be mistaken for the ideal.
Let's take the teen sex as an example. The ideal is for teens not to have sex. There's always a chance of pregnancy and std. And being a teenager, they THINK they know what they're doing (I was a teenager once so I've been there too). So again, the ideal is for teen not to have sex until they're adults. The compromise is to practice safe sex. But, if we never mention the ideal, we'll forget and it'll be thought that practicing safe sex is the ideal and the compromise is unsafe sex. How far are we going to move from the ideal?
Last night, I saw the NBC Dateline program where they caught sexual predators who looked for teenager online and convinced them to meet and have sex. Teenagers who were taken advantage of tends to engage in online sex. They think it's harmless. They forgot that the ideal is not to engage in online sex. They think it's alright to engage in online sex. The compromise is to meet the other person and just hangout.
If those teenagers understood truly that the ideal was to not engage in online sex at all, then it's less likely for them to engage in online sex. They knew that they're already compromising when they're engaged in online sex.
So again, I think it's necessary to remember what's the ideal so we know where we started from. But I agree with you that we shouldn't stop at the ideal and we should continue the discussion to apply to the real world :)
10:11 PM
I agree with you that we need to point out the ideals; but also to equally emphasize the reality and how to deal with/handle it when it comes up, especially with teenage sex.
What makes me wary is that often times our authority figures hold on to the ideals so much without thinking any further wht their implications may entail. And we do pass on and operate based on what are taught by the authority figures more than we give them credit for. It's crucial to always remember balance. There must be clear understanding, why not engaging in sex is preferable over having sex at all. Many times these things are just preached over a child without any consideration of any available alternatives if they are to engage in sex. The child then feels these authorities have imposed unreasonable, strict, rigid rules that cannot be compromised and if the child feels that their position should not be questioned, then it becomes dangerous. The child then is left alone to explore other possibilities with no guidance. Effective communication, building trust and rapport aren't easy tasks to accomplish in general, and especially when a child is involved.
So bottom line is, balance is ideal. If that cannot be established and a compromise must be reached; there needs to be true, serious, supervised education in an environment where the teens can voice out their concerns without being or feeling threatened by an authority figure with some punitive measures as consequences to their actions. Hopefully, this way, a true understanding will be reached and the teens will execise a choice that suits them best, free from any coercion. And that their choice is something that is made based on their understanding about what sex is all abt and what reponsibilities must be carried on with the act itself.
It's tough to establish the above if our own authority figures themselves do not know what's considered to be 'ideals', what choices are available out there, and what compromises need to be considered if we aren't able to accomplish the stated ideals. So may be, we should go back and educate our 'authority figures' and then train them on how to express themselves to their audiences in a supportive, nurturing, non-threatening manner.
If this was a perfect world, there would be classes on Authority Figure 101, Parenthood 101, Relationship 101. Meanwhile there are self-help books out there available for all of us to read. But for most of us, we are just too busy going through the motion of life. We will go to school, do our homeworks, graduate, get a high-paying job, get married, have kids and take care of our families, for the rest of our lives. We forget the little decisions that will make a huge difference in our lives. Life goes by just too fast for us to sit down and read a self-improvement book. Academic, school books are way better and worth a lot more of our efforts because we need to graduate and then get a job so we won't starve in life.
So if anyone out there is dying to play hero and wants to start conducting the stated classes above, best of luck to you and God bless your heart!:D
5:41 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home