Comments on: Bart Ehrman, Questioning Religion on Why We Suffer (NPR)

By: J. Faulkner

J. Faulkner — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:03:58 +0000

It is childish to assume that there is a reason behind suffering. First of all, suffering is a subjective experience. One man’s suffering may be another man’s delight. It is open to interpretation. Secondly, to assume that there is a “reason” for our suffering is to assume “agency”, or the existence of a conscious entity whose intention it is to inflict suffering on us. This “agency” assumption is actually a function of the brains of children up to the age of seven. It is difficult to explain to a four-year-old, for example, that he felt a shock because he inserted a fork into an electric outlet, and not because the invisible and malevolent wall pixies intended to do him harm.
Stone age peoples lived at this early childhood level of intellectual development, thus they assumed “agency” was behind every natural phenomenon. You could not explain to such individuals that the volcano erupted due to shifts in the earth’s gravitational field, or that a child fell ill because he was exposed to microscopic virii looking for a healthy host. No, such individuals would look for a “reason” behind the unhappy event that would fit into their subjective, mystical paradigm: The gods are angry, the child’s parents are being “punished” for bad behavior. Always with the assumption that a conscious agent is responsible. It absurd to look for “reason” behind suffering if you are an enlightened, reasonably educated person. Happenstance can cause accidents. Neglect, weather, lack of preparation, external and impartial laws of physics. Just because the end result of any event is human suffering does not mean that an entity of any kind is behind that event. There is no “why” behind it. There is no benevolent or malevolent agent behind the millions of insults, small and large to which our mortal flesh is heir (to paraphrase Shakespeare). All we can do is to try our best to rise above our suffering and to live meaningfully (according to our own values) and heroically for our own sakes, and the sakes of those we love, and with the intention of pursuing happiness—-here on earth.

By: Johnnie Cochran's Ghost's Mom

Johnnie Cochran's Ghost's Mom — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:48:35 +0000

John—

Thank you for listening to my son. I’m not sure what “resile” means but if you say it sincerely I believe you. Johnnie is busy representing atheists in the hereafter–most of them go with an insanity plea.

By: John Morales

John Morales — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:18:20 +0000

Yeah. Good point Grant.

I had not seen that list before posting this.

Invective is the least lethal part of my armamentorium. It is of no consequence to henceforth entirely avoid epithets.

Not that I resile from anything I’ve posted.

By: Johnnie Cochran's Ghost

Johnnie Cochran's Ghost — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:01:44 +0000

Mr. Morales—

I am representing Grant Dexter and would refer you to Guideline #1 on the list of “how to identify a troll” on the “Reiterating the purposeof the d-C Site”. At the present time you are guilty of infringing that guideline, and would ask that you “cease and desist” before the appropriate legal action is taken.

Thank you. J. Cochran

By: John Morales

John Morales — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:48:58 +0000

Grant is even a pathetic Troll . What a dick.

By: Cthulhu

Cthulhu — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:01:43 +0000

Ubi Dubium,

The sysdamins there finally got rid of the pope dope comments and found a way to stop them.

By: Ubi Dubium

Ubi Dubium — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:00:33 +0000

Cthulhu,

Yes, once that thread at pharyngula got over 1000 entries I just gave up on it, and left it to the spammers. It’s at over 2,300 as I write this. I just hope they don’t find us here. Safe so far.

By: Cthulhu

Cthulhu — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:44:35 +0000

Ubi Dubium,

That got a little ugly at Pharyngula yesterday – for a while I could smell the servers burning

By: Cthulhu

Cthulhu — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:42:24 +0000

Ubi Dubium,

It just gets old seeing the same things over and over – and it is starting to descend into a name calling contest.

By: Ubi Dubium

Ubi Dubium — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:40:45 +0000

Cthulhu -
Hey, at least he’s not spamming us with papal encyclicals. He’s trying to carry on a conversation instead of just preaching. Maybe some of the discussions he has here will linger somewhere in the back of his mind, and be helpful to him later in life. Not that I actually know how old he is.

Hey Grant – how old are you? What part of the world do you hail from?