February 2003                                                                        

RS Christianity Coursework

Christian Ethics and Suffering

AO1)        Hunger and disease are generally caused by poverty and they tend to result in suffering. Christians teach about different causes for suffering, including the beliefs that it is mankind’s fault that suffering exists and that it’s God testing our faith with suffering, such as in the story of Job where these different causes for suffering are explained in three categories: suffering is a test to see if Job would lose his faith through suffering, suffering is part of God’s plan which is beyond human understanding or that suffering is a punishment for sin.

        The teaching that suffering is due to our sins can be backed up by the creation story in Genesis 3 when God said: “Because of what you have done (eating the forbidden fruit), the ground will be under a curse..”. The problem with blaming God for his punishment is that his punishing mankind goes against the Judeo-Christian idea of an omni benevolent God, which is why Christian teachings tend to teach that suffering is humanity’s fault and this theory is much better supported by the Bible, as there are many teachings about how the humble are the ones to be lifted high and generosity is always important: “but since you have plenty at this time, it is only fair that you should help those who are in need” (Paul: 2 Corinthians). As well as giving, the notion of sharing is important and Christian teachings, as well as statistics, suggest that hunger, in the absolute sense of the word, wouldn’t exist if greed was abolished. In the Bible, the feeding of the 5000 states that “everyone ate and had enough” (Matthew) and statistics tell us that the USA only contains 6% of the World’s population but manages to consume 35% of the World’s resources, which is nearly 6 times more than it needs, and the Bible teaches that “since you have plenty at this time, it is only fair that you should help those who are in need.”(Paul: 2 Corinthians). Unfortunately, God made man with freedom and since we are imperfect beings, as Augustine stated in his theodicy, “the exercise of free will leads to sin and its consequences- evil and suffering.” And Christians believe that this is a plausible explanation for suffering since it takes the blame away from God and it is biblically based since it conserves the beliefs of creation and the fall.

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        So, God isn’t to be blamed for hunger and disease since, generally, disease is either caused by hunger and the weakening of the human body or, with STIs and cancer, it can be caused by the irresponsible use of freedom yet again. For example, someone who smokes and is aware of its cancerous consequences only has himself to blame for the illness. “He gives generously to the needy: his kindness lasts forever” (Paul: 2 Corinthians) so it isn’t God who doesn’t provide us with the resources to survive, it’s man’s greediness and selfish nature that cause 20,000,000 people to die ...

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