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Why do bad things happen to good people
What is Jewish Theology of Suffering
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Why do bad things happen to good people?
There is one question that everyone asks but to which no one knows the answer: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" The misfortunes of good people raise problems not only for those who suffer, but also for everyone who wants to believe in a just and livable world and in a fair and compassionate God. Rabbi Kushner, author of "Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People", attempts to bring light to this difficult question. In doing so he evaluates past attempts to explain suffering, offers his own approach to the justification of suffering in today's society, and makes suggestions for how one can deal with suffering and continue his or her journey into the future. This essay will examine these rationales and will conclude with an analysis on how Kushner handles the four foundational sources for understanding the will of God through scripture, tradition, history, and modern context.
Kushner evaluates past attempts to explain suffering and discusses why they are not satisfactory. One way in which people attempt to make sense of suffering is to assume that they deserve what they get, and that somehow their misfortunes come as punishment for their sins. This idea portrays God as a righteous judge who is all loving, all-powerful, in total control, and gives people exactly what they deserve. However, Kushner sees major limitations in this idea because it teaches people to blame themselves for their suffering and creates unnecessary guilt. In addition, he argues that it may even turn people away from God and cause them to hate themselves. Victims of misfortune also try to console themselves by believing that God has his reasons for making them suffer, reasons that they are in no position to...
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...the scriptures in the Bible. Moreover, Kushner negates the traditional beliefs of scripture by using modern ideas of evolution to undermine the creation story, "In a description of Creation which is astonishingly similar to the evolutionary process as scientists have come to unravel it." (pg 72). This statement undermines God's supremacy and promotes Kushners idea of randomness and lack of control. Lastly, Kushner goes against tradition and historical practices of prayer when he insists that asking God for help and asking God to change things is wrong. Instead he suggests that people should change their understanding of what is means to pray and what it means to have one's prayers answered. Nevertheless, Kushner attempts to address the issues of suffering with deep insight and relies heavily on modern context to help people understand the painful events of this life.
is part of the human suffering due to his cherished relational nature with humans. However,
As I continued to chat with my pastor that day, I really sensed the hurt in his eyes – the anger that comes from an unsolvable injustice, the tiredness of a problem. “What’s wrong?” I finally asked, “Having a bad day?” Sensing that I was truly concerned, he let the truth be told. “I talked with a woman today whose baby died suddenly of unknown causes. As we worked through her grief, she talked about how numerous friends and family, even a religious leader had patted her on the back, shook their heads and said, ‘It was God’s will.’ I find few things worse to say to a grieving parent. Saying nothing at all would be of more help.” It was obvious from our conversation that he had an understanding greater than I about God’s will, and his insight created in me a curiosity and desire to learn more.
After reviewing the work of David Hume, the idea of a God existing in a world filled with so much pain and suffering is not so hard to understand. Humes’ work highlights some interesting points which allowed me to reach the conclusion that suffering is perhaps a part of God’s divine plan for humans. Our morals and values allow us to operate and live our daily lives in conjunction with a set of standards that help us to better understand our world around us and essentially allows us to better prepare for the potential life after life. For each and every day we get closer to our impending deaths and possibly closer to meeting the grand orchestrator of our universe.
The question of suffering comes up much when talking about, or practicing any religion. Many ask why people suffer, and what causes suffering? The various religions try to answer these questions in their own way. Pico Iyer’s editorial, “The Value of Suffering” addresses the questions of suffering and how it is handled. This article could be compared to the Bhagavad-Gita which also addresses and explains suffering through different stories of the interactions of humans and different Gods. One can specifically look at “The Second Teaching” in the Bhagavad-Gita, which explains the interaction between a man named Arjuna and the god Krishna. In it Arjuna is suffering because he does not want to fight in a war and with people whom he should be worshiping. Krishna says to fight because the souls of the people will forever live on, and because he needs to fulfill his Dharma. With what is known about the Bhagavad-Gita and how Iyer thinks about the subject, Iyer would agree with how the Bhagavad-Gita address suffering.
It is easy to place the blame on fate or God when one is encumbered by suffering. It is much harder to find meaning in that pain, and harvest it into motivation to move forward and grow from the grief. It is imperative for one to understand one’s suffering as a gateway to new wisdom and development; for without suffering, people cannot find true value in happiness nor can they find actual meaning to their lives. In both Antigone and The Holy Bible there are a plethora of instances that give light to the quintessential role suffering plays in defining life across cultures. The Holy Bible and Sophocles’ Antigone both mirror the dichotomous reality in which society is situated, underlining the necessity of both joy and suffering in the world.
When responding to Demea’s comment he states that this is just conjecture and superstition or witchery. There is no visible evidence to show us things are happening and these these can never be tested for there truth in their argument. He then continues to Philo’s argument were he mentions God’s altruism or perfect benevolence. This meaning he is selfless nature, but one would then have to deny the argument. Meaning ridding of the despair. Why are we concerned about what we cannot judge when we in turn cannot even judge ourselves? He is trying to say hear that how could you do something you have not even experienced. You had no prior knowledge to do such things or know such things. He then formulates an argument: Saying if one would focus not only misery you would view then good. Saying that there is not only misery in the world it seems we as people only focus on the bad. But if we take a chance to look at happy thoughts it wouldn’t be a miserable world. Then stating there is more good in the world, then we would not focus on the bad things but the good things as well. Like a scale if you were the measure the good and misery in the world. Goodness severely outranks the bad. Concluding, we feel both misery and good as a whole in being a human being. Meaning we are not one without the other. Like ying and yang. You must have the good part of a human as well as one the can experience the bad things or it is no human at
These arguments made by Berish and Job boil down to the question the theodicy, “why do good people suffer? Where is God in all this? Where is justice” (Fox 173). Elie Wiesel provides an answer that parallels once again with the book of Job. Embodied in the character of Sam, who claims that suffering is, “all because of our sins” (Wiesel 134). Similarly Jobs friends give a similar answer to the theodicy question by saying, “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same” (Job 4:7). The answer to the theodicy question in t The Trial of God is that suffering occurs because of the sins committed by individuals.
According to Lisa Arthur, big data is as powerful as a tsunami, but it’s a deluge that can be controlled. In a positive way it provides business insights and value. Big data is data that exceeds the processing capacity of conventional database systems. It is a collection of data from traditional and digital sources inside and outside a company that represents a source of ongoing discovery and analysis. The data is too big, moves to fast, or doesn’t fit the structures of the database architecture. Daily, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. In the last couple years we have created 90% of data we have in the world. This data comes from many places like climate information, social media sites, pictures or videos, purchase transaction records, cell phone GPS signals, and many more places. From the beginning of recorded time through 2003 users created 5 billion gigabytes of data. 2011, the same amount was created every couple days. 2013, we created that same amount every ten minutes. Some users prefer to constrain big data into digital inputs like web behavior and social network interactions. The data doesn’t exclude traditional data that is from product transaction information, financial records and interaction channels.
Sleep is “the resting state in which the body is not active and the mind is unconscious”. (English) A person who sleeps well will awake more refreshed and alert. A good night’s sleep has a major impact on how a person looks, feels, and their ability to function normally on a daily basis. (What) Everyone must sleep because sleep is essential in sustaining normal levels of cognitive speech, memory, and critical thinking. The brain’s development is directly affected by the amount of sleep the body receives. (BBC)
To sleep an individual usually requires relaxed skeletal muscles in their posture (sleep. 2014). Also according to the many research done by United States, United Kingdom and Australia (sleep. 2014) a person usually needs to sleep for a certain amount of time depending on if it is a weekday or weeknight. Adults are supposed to sleep between ‘6 to 9 hours per night’ (sleep. 2014). However, according to sleep polls that had been undertaken by United States in 2009 and in 1998, 6 hours per night sleeping had increased from ‘12 percent in 1998 to 20 percent in 2009’(sleep. 20149. REM decreases after a night of sleep for ‘100 minute’ every night (MARZANO et al, 2010). On the other hand, there had been a decrease during the same period when the poll was created to see the average of individuals sleep for 8 hours’ (sleep.2014). For 8 hours there had decrease from ‘35 percent of people to 28 percent (sleep. 2014). In the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, adults have an average less than 7 hours of sleep per night during weekdays, which is not enough due to the amount of work they have during the day and can lead to disorders.
Bad things happen to all of us. It is an unavoidable feature of humanity. When we are born, we are born to suffer. So what if we had never been born? What if we had never been introduced into this world of inevitable hardship? Would we be better off? Such thoughts are entertained by David Benatar in his essay ‘Why it is Better Never to Come into Existence’ (Benatar, 1997)- who, rather unsettlingly for his readers, argues that it is rational to think that it is not better to exist than to have never come into existence.
According to Brooks (2014), people seek happiness but indirectly obtain several tests that affects their emotions in many ways. Indeed, when people are is questioned about their past, memories coming back to her mind are often the most important positively as negatively. A positive event can be the birth of a child, success. In contrast, a negative event is often links to death, failure, a dismissal, and so on. Suffering or pain also gives us an outside perspective. Without a doubt, suffering makes us human we like it or not. For example, when a friend tells that she has failed an exam and we realize that we could get it easily, it is hard to understand exactly her emotion because we have never been in the situation. But when the same situation arises and you become the concerned, you understand the effect that this failure may have on you emotionally. In this sense, we understand that suffering makes people human because it helps them to be connected to a situation already happened before or which could happen in the future.
Sleep is an important part of life; one cannot live or function properly without it. The healthy amount of sleep for an adult is 7 to 9 hours a night. Getting less than 7 hours of sleep can cause one to wake up feeling tired and irritated making every day activities hard to accomplish. The main reason for a sleepless night is sleep disturbances. They affect at least 40 million Americans a year and are becoming an epidemic. There are many disorders that can cause a troubled sleep; but, nightmares, night terrors, insomnia and hypersomnia are three of the most common.
...n the stock broker is in full control they are trust worthy enough to make the right decisions to increase your profits from your investment. By giving the broker all your information with no type of legal limits, they can do whatever they feel like. The broker can give you improper investment advice, make unsuitable decisions, commission churning, hide prices, and not diversities your portfolio. At the end all these occurrences can affect your profit to increase the stock broker’s profit. When you are dealing with investors (stock brokers) you should do a great amount of research. The research will pay off at the end because you will know the surface of the stock market and its ways. You should always get a copy of an original copy. When signing documents you should always sign in black pen. The stock market can either make or break you; it is just how you play it.
The years between the middle of the 1700’s to the early 1800’s was a time of immense value according to many music enthusiasts today. In this era the music was considered controlled and reserved. Many Sonatas, Symphonies, and Quartets could be heard in the homes of Vienna during the Classical Era. This era, like every other, had a unique style that has fascinated throngs of people through the ages. John Cage once said, “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” The Classical Period at its beginnings was looked upon as unique from the Baroque Period.