The question of the week from ecoTrain is very timely: Why is there suffering in this world if there is a God? Well just by seeing the effects of the pandemic worldwide, we know many have already suffered. Also if we look at natural calamity news and including those caused by man, we can become sad for our fellowmen. And then we look at our lives, there are many things that cause personal suffering. Why is it happening if there is a God?
Yesterday I got frustrated with trying to get rid of the computer virus from a misleading Facebook/Meta sponsored ad of Contra Returns. I have many files in my computer which have accumulated in the two years since I started using it. No I don't have any back up at all and I won't reformat until I get a new Hard Drive or even SSD.
Guess who doesn't have the money for those huh? I got so angry yesterday trying to troubleshoot and remove the virus that I haven't been able to finish decluttering all my stuff (because I can't use my computer online).
In short, to fix this technological problem would require money I don't have yet. Of course I've contemplated along the lines of "Why should I suffer and pay for something hackers did?" The answer came to me sometime after I posted an online rant.
Not accepting the world is what causes our suffering, God doesn't have much to do with that. I have mostly been accepting of people I meet and interact with but the entire world is a different matter. Only when I realized I have been rejecting how the world is did I finally understand why there's so much suffering in the world.
We suffer because of each and everyone of us. We all do something that makes other people suffer.
Why ask God, why not ask ourselves why we are suffering?
I can imagine God shaking His head at the things we humans do. We ask why He allows suffering? Well, why do we do the things we do? He already gave us the 10 commandments in order to live better lives. Do we even follow any of it?
Yes we're human and imperfect and cannot follow all of the 10 commandments everyday, does that mean God allows us to suffer? Really, we ask God instead of humanity? Aside from those ten, there are other sage advice from ancient philosophers, what have we done with them?
For example, The Golden Rule can be abused and turn you into a retaliatory person instead. I know because I used to be like that when I was growing up with the rule as a life motto. Notice those who keep saying and practicing the Golden Rule, they can be the most retaliatory person in the world.
Does God tell other people to hurt each other? It is the opposite and yet what do we humans do? And we ask why does God let suffering happen?
Oh what about human illnesses like cancer and diabetes, etc. Hello, food abuse? Oh wait, it is in the genes! Yes let's blame our parents and our imperfect bodies for having degenerative diseases! Why did God let us have unhealthy bodies?! Why does He allow other people to be born without complete or perfect bodies? Well what do you think?
Pollution can be one cause, stress and food the parents eat/ate can be another. Who knows what are in our bodies and surroundings that causes certain mutations to happen? Just like a virus, our bodies adapt to the environment we live in. What we put in is the output we get. And yet if we can't blame ourselves then why not blame God, right? Why not indeed.
Suffering is a mindset of the victims.
So we are experiencing hardships, what can we do to get out of it and have better lives? Do you think we should make other people suffer too because we are miserable? Yes we can cry out and tell the world about our woes, that is normal, and then what? Why don't we take action to change things?
Again I remember my frustration about the computer virus. It was caused by me being misled into clicking something very interesting. That one time I let myself feel excited about something new and didn't even check if it was from a verified source. Boom! Now I have a problem I can't afford to fix. It is like reading fake news and believing it is true when we don't double check all of the facts. Yes I am at fault but I am not alone in this situation. Someone also caused this to happen.
Making a computer virus/worm just to steal personal information is bad right? However, stealing personal information online is a lucrative thing for others. Why steal just to have money? Why make a virus so you can access other people's online accounts to create the same Facebook virus ad and make the page owner pay for it without their authorization? If you're like me who don't have the money to pay for the fraud charges then of course you will get angry at the world. "Oh how unfair!" bla bla bla.
Usually a thief will take what is not theirs because of lack of money. Some do it out of greed. We humans do bad things to each other, why ask God on why he allows it? Why not ask each other, why do people do bad things? Why do people steal? Why do we get duped into doing something the sinister people have set up?
Another real life example would be Poblacion girl who got back from the US before Christmas and unapologetically brought the Omicron virus to the Philippines. Why, even her father fetched her (or allowed her "escape") from the quarantine hotel not less than 24 hrs from arrival just so she can enjoy herself at a party in Poblacion, Makati City. Hah, can you guess what happened?
She spread Omicron to other guests who unknowingly have spread it to other areas of the country before they even knew it. Oh hello, welcome to Alert Level 3 quarantine in the Philippines since January 3. We are back to this again. How selfish does one need to be in order to cause an almost nationwide lockdown? Again we should ask, "why do we do bad things without thinking of its effect on other people?"
The answer will always be because we are all self-centered.
We always think about ourselves first before other people. Humans steal because we are lazy and/or don't have money. People watch pirated movies and TV shows because it saves us money that could be spent on food. (Oh I admit I am guilty of that too.) Those who have money due to hard work gets stolen from because they have what others don't. People do what they want to do because they don't really care about others.
What about communism then? Well what about capitalism? Would any of that matter if we all cared for each other? I'm not even talking about caring for the environment here. That's another thing we all abuse and then we ask why the world climate is getting harsher? We dare ask why we are getting various illnesses because of the pollution and overharvesting of natural resources that we have caused?
Oh let's also not start with donations to the poor and needy. Have you ever heard of money laundering? The big shot criminals steal millions and then give back thousands of money to the people FOR FREE. Hey people love free money even if it's dirty. Regardless if we know it came from criminal activity or not, money is still money.
Let's take the stealing topic as another example. Have you ever heard of the Marcos dictatorship and the billions they stole from the Filipino people? What about the Marcos supporter government official who lost 1 million+ worth of jewelry several days ago because her maid stole everything? That supporter would endorse and elect the son of national plunderers but would cry foul over her stolen jewelry. I could only laugh at the burn comments from the Facebook posted news report.
Screenshot of post and comments from Philippine Star Facebook news post
She reported the theft to the police and yet she outright supports a family that stole from all of the Filipinos. That family instigated so many national loans but who is paying all of that now while they ran away and continue to live in luxury with the billions of money supposedly meant for the Filipino people?
All Filipinos, even those who haven't even been born at the time and those who are still not born are already paying all that debt. And then we have the gall to ask why did God let that happen? The question should be, why did we Filipinos let that happen? The supporter did not let her maid go unpunished (maid is now in jail for another theft case), why don't the Filipino people do the same to the plunderers? Why do you think they still even have supporters despite what they did?
The better question is, why did God allow people to be tortured, jailed and even salvaged just because they opposed the dictatorship and the wrongdoings happening all over the country back then? Anything said against them was almost equivalent to a death sentence.
People who never experienced such wrongdoings are lucky and would mock those who have suffered, even up to this day. They don't know and have not experienced how the government goons would run amok all over the country doing illegal and bad things to people including expats and their families. Why did God let that happen you ask? Well the better question is, why did the people who did those things do the terrible deeds? Why do we do atrocious things to others in exchange for money? Why even ask God when we can always blame the devil? 😂
Then again, everyone always has a choice to either do good or bad.
Why blame the devil, drugs and other stuff when it is always our choice to do those things? We always choose from good and evil everyday. Even if you say "you don't have a choice," there is always a choice. As they say, it depends which wolf inside of you are you feeding, is it the good or the bad?
Again let us ask ourselves, who is at fault when we suffer? Why do we look to God and ask why He lets bad things happen when the answer is because we ourselves do bad things to each other? Why don't we ask ourselves why we do the things that make other people suffer?
The simple act of playing fun but loud music can make your neighbors suffer. "Hey we are enjoying our loud party music and they suddenly complain? How dare they?" Oh but what about your neighbor who is enjoying peace and quiet because he/she was tired after a long day and then you interrupt the peace with your loud music. How dare you play loud music? You made each other suffer and now it is God's fault He both let you live the life you want to live?
Tell me, why do we suffer? Doesn't it all come down to our differences and lack of respect? If we don't respect each other then we can make others suffer. Oh but respect is earned, they say. Well what happened to common courtesy?
Again here comes the "Golden Rule". You can very easily say, "If someone doesn't respect me why would I respect them?" instead of "I will respect others so they will also respect me." That is how we abuse such a good saying.
Let's not even go into the topic of cheating in a relationship. People do that because we all don't like to do one thing forever. We thrive on change even if we hate it. Nothing stays the same forever. We all change, we grow old, we die. Why does change make us suffer then?
Do you already know the answer now? I have highlighted it way above.
Ever heard about acceptance and responsibility or accountability? No? Why do we have to ask God why He let us suffer from other people's actions?
As for the topic of stealing, well let me ask you something. How can we stop someone from doing that and other crimes? Why do we ask God why He makes such things happen? Why don't you ask the people you know who supports people who are criminals because they benefit from their wrongdoings? Why don't we ask those who have stolen things from others? Why don't you ask your friend or loved one why he/she kills people or steals from people for a living? Can we even ask ourselves what bad things we have done or even stole from others?
Thus I have given up on ever fixing my virus infected computer because I will not pay for something caused by someone else. Albeit I downloaded the virus unknowingly because I thought it was the real game file, it is not entirely my fault why the computer and my Facebook account got compromised. It always takes two to tango.
Hah I am not even including "love is the answer" because how can you spread and share love for others if you are broken and in pain? It is only those who have transcended pain and suffering who can love others despite what any of us have done. I cannot even comprehend how and why God lets us live even if we sin and hurt each other everyday. Can you imagine how many of us pray to God for selfish things but cannot even think of other people?
Now do you know why people suffer and even think of asking God about it? Why do we ask God and not each other? The question should be, "What should we do to reduce or eradicate suffering in this world? How can we stop ourselves from making other people suffer? How can we transcend pain and suffering so we can stop the cycle of hurting each other and propagate love instead?"
Something this big and universal cannot be eradicated by one person alone. Remember that. We cannot change other people, we can only change ourselves. If we all do not change to become better people then let's not expect suffering to end soon. Action beats words all the time.
XOXO,
@artgirl
All images except the screenshots from Facebook are from Pixabay.
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