Relentless Trials

Life is often one long series of somewhat relentless trials, at least if one is not fortunate.  These trials might not all be a person's fault, though all of them have the power to drain someone of their delight or contentment with existence as a conscious being.  The near-universal experience of suffering combined with the almost as widespread scourge of irrationalism is what makes the alleged philosophical "problem of suffering" so appealing to many.  It is really about lashing out in anger or pain at philosophical truths and possibilities that they do not find comforting, such as the idea that God might not care about their suffering or that their suffering could in some of its forms be deserved or amoral.  Most people are not rationalists and are indeed quite stupid, not even recognizing the extent of the contradictions, errors, and assumptions in their false or unverifiable worldviews.  Sometimes stupidity becomes alluring as a seeming distraction from their pain, but it is a biting truth that someone does not have to understand the depths of the nature of suffering and its relationship with other philosophical matters in order to suffer.  Were this not possible, and the fact that it does not contradict logical axioms is all that makes it possible, there would not be so much distress, for most people are far from rationalism.  This can be understood even as one realizes what does and does not follow from suffering.  No one has to choose between knowing that suffering is painful and, for instance, that suffering does not have to be an evil in itself.

A person might experience the agony of guilty over something they have done that is legitimately wrong, not that guilt is anything more than a subjective emotional reaction that has nothing to do with whether there are moral obligations to violate and nothing to do with knowing that something is good or evil.  Or what of an irrationalistic fool who brings about significant mental health problems like existential depression because they are too stupid and weak to face reality without a worldview of fallacies and assumptions?  Such a person could not deserve to be at peace, for if truth matters, they have disregarded or avoided it as much as they want to, and if truth does not matter, then their feelings do not matter.  Moreover, if there is such a thing as right or wrong, people deserve whatever penalty corresponds to God's moral nature either in this life or the next.  A Biblical example would be that the mental suffering brought about by awaiting execution for kidnapping (Exodus 21:16) is not unjustified suffering, though it is crucial that Biblical justice on Earth (as prescribed to all people by Mosaic Law) and in hell, where the default human fate is eventual annihilation (Ezekiel 18:4), do not involve the cruelty that are culturally misassociated with them.

In all of these cases, though, suffering is either a byproduct of personal irrationality and the selfishness of evil.  There is also suffering brought about by events in nature, such as floods, that are not by necessity the fault of God or any human intention or deed--but since there is no morality without God or if God does not have a moral nature, even if the uncaused cause did directly cause a natural disaster, there would be no wrongdoing.  There could not be wrongdoing in that instance.  Even then, the only reason most people are so drawn to the idiotic philosophical errors of the "problem" of suffering/evil (and evil and suffering are not necessarily identical as it is) is really just because they subjectively do not want to suffer and are willing to reject actual logical proofs and possibilities in order to feel justified in their emotionalism.  The Bible never teaches that God will not allow people to suffer either justly or unjustly, and more foundationally, there is nothing about the basic concept of an uncaused cause from which it would follow that suffering would never be permitted or never capable of occurring.  Christian or not, only a true fool would let the burdens of life interfere with their beliefs about metaphysics and epistemology beyond things like the possibility and direct experience of pain.

All the same, once again, someone does not have to be particularly rational in order to suffer extensively, and this is part of why the so-called "problem" of suffering (suffering cannot be a true philosophical problem for theism because there is no such thing as a contradiction in both suffering and a deity existing) is so popular.  Both the rationalistic and the many irrational people of the world can suffer, and even if some suffering is not personally overwhelming or due to evil, that does not always make it any easier for one to bear.  There is nothing unbiblical about doing whatever one can short of something involving irrationality and other sin to avoid suffering.  Being completely on the right side of reality when it comes to one's worldview is no shield from the trials of life, whether a trial takes the form of loss or disease or mental anguish or abusive treatment.  It helps to be rationalistic, of course, as it does with everything except avoiding the frustrations of living amidst fools, but even the most stupid individual can taste the sting of trials, and lacking a rationalistic worldview already puts them at an inherent disadvantage: they will likely not emerge from this irrationalism to understand or better cope with trials.  The pains of life will only leave them confused or oblivious, though a superior way of navigating suffering is there for them to seek.