With reference to other aspects of human experience, explore the view that suffering is necessary for human development and freedom to be enjoyed.

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With reference to other aspects of human experience, explore the view that suffering is necessary for human development and freedom to be enjoyed. (15)

Starting with freedom, many theologians, such as CS Lewis, would agree that humans need suffering in order to be truly free. In order to eradicate moral evil humans would have to be programmed to never do wrong, which is not true freedom. In The Problem of Pain Lewis writes, “Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself.” He argued that God does not mean for us to be happy all of the time, and that suffering is a natural part of life. He even argues that certain pain can be pleasurable, for example muscle ache after exercise gives is a sense of accomplishment.
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Moving on to development, suffering can be the catalyst for human progress. When we suffer we develop traits such as empathy and altruism. If we didn’t suffer we could become narrow-minded and self-entitled. For example, the enormous suffering of the first and second world wars spurred many advances such as penicillin and the first computer. These things have gone on to benefit humanity immensely. The Bible supports this in Isaiah; King Hezekiah suffered greatly but was able to say, “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish.”

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