What to Do About the Suffering in the World

Why is there Suffering in the World?  And what do religions say to do about it?  Since blog space is limited, let’s talk about just one of the many kinds of suffering — suffering from disease.  

A number of the world’s religions have nonsensical ideas about suffering, including suffering from disease. Judaism and Christianity say this suffering results from “Original Sin,” i.e., from Adam & Eve’s disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden by eating from the “Tree of Knowledge.”

In Christianity, people will be freed from the pain and suffering of disease… provided they are true-and-declared followers of Jesus, and even then, only after their deaths. So, what about the suffering endured by animals; even “innocent” ones like rabbits and deer? What was their original sin?

Buddhists “trace suffering to ‘ignorant craving’ … suffering arises from wanting something other than what is.”** Oh, really? Have any of these Buddhists sat at the bedside of a loved one dying from untreated cancer? 

How about Participants in the Practice of Continuing Creation? 

In contrast to Christianity, the Practice of Continuing Creation has little problem accounting for suffering. The Processes of Continuing Creation include biologic evolution, which makes and releases countless species onto the “playing field” of the biosphere.  Many of the tiny species of bacteria and viruses set up shop in human and animal bodies, where they attack our defenses and eat our tissues.

Followers of Continuing Creation do not meditate six hours a day, do not hope that Joining Nirvana will allow them to ignore their pain. No, Followers of Continuing Creation TAKE ACTION. In organized groups, we study biology and medicine; we develop drugs, radiation treatments, and surgeries to relieve and even eliminate the bacteria and viruses that cause most diseases. The Path of Continuing Creation says that “Eating Learning from the Tree of Knowledge” is a good thing!   

** Stephen Prothero, God Is Not One: The Eight Religions that Run the World, 2010, Harper One, p.179.