Comments on: Suffering is a Gift

By: Heading into a Season of Reflection on Cancer and Life | AndrewRozalowsky.com

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:48:15 +0000

[...] And now I’m heading into a season of anniversaries of a different sort. It was a year ago this week that I went to the ER at the hospital in town for a blood clot in my leg. That was the start of a month and a half long process of un-knowingly heading toward death, which would, by God’s grace, be averted within days to a couple weeks of it happening. I’ve written a little about it here. [...]

By: Following Up ‘Suffering as a Gift’ – The Gifts « a living sacrifice

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 19:11:13 +0000

[...] writing the post, Suffering as a Gift, I realized I hadn’t spent a lot of time talking exactly about how suffering was a gift, [...]

By: rockstarkp

rockstarkp — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 20:26:55 +0000

Put another way, I don’t see my disease as a way to empathize with other people.
My disease shows me how damaging sin is on every level of the universe.
This lecture by John Piper explains it better than I ever could:
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-echo-and-the-insufficiency-of-hell

By: rockstarkp

rockstarkp — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 20:23:28 +0000

Paul,
If I can jump in here.
(I commented also at April 30, 2012 – 9:52 am)
If this life is the only one that I have hope for, then living it with FSH-MD absolutely sucks.
And without hope in God, I would have killed myself back in 9th grade, because the suffering would not have been worth it.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 20:16:48 +0000

Thanks for the reply. I wasn’t sure you would seeing as my thoughts are quite different from the rest of the replies. I do appreciate that. This thread is top of the google search results for “Suffering as a Gift” by the way which is how I found it and I wanted to respond.

I have read a little more on the Christian concept of suffering as a gift and I have softened my feelings slightly towards it.

Feel free to correct me or let me know if you agree with this. From what I understand the idea is that suffering is seen as a gift because it is an individuals suffering that allows that individual to understand the suffering of others. I think really this is referring to empathy. I think the Christian way of explaining this could be better. I think it would be better explained by saying empathy is the gift and ones own empathy grows through personal experience of suffering. I still think to suggest suffering is the gift is a bad idea because it is open to abuse where some people think that experiencing suffering is a good think. Also I do feel that the from my Atheist stand point that the false hope of an afterlife reduces the significance of human suffering in this life because of the idea you will be compensated in the next.

I guess you are correct I have a naturalistic world view. I am yet to see a good argument for any objective morality that Christianity purports to offer. I see morality as dealing purely with well being and/or suffering of sentient minds rather than the strange personal preferences of the Christian god. Maybe objective versus subjective morality isn’t the debate to be placing in this particular thread though. I would just say though that for me my empathy for my fellow humans (which is very strong) but I can only see that it in part comes through something that is innate in humans (i.e. though evolutionary means) and also through teaching and the human ability to reason.

Best Wishes,

Paul