Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Suffering
I was listening to the John Patrick CD some more and he said that one of the important issues is, what value could there be in suffering?
Dennis Prager said recently in his debate with the American Atheists that the believer has to explain the existence of unjust suffering, and that is a real problem. The atheist has to explain the existence of everything else.
Peter Kreeft has written a wonderful book on this subject that I read for John's Augustine College course for physicians. The link is to Amazon used books; looks like it may be out of print. You could try a used Christian bookstore also. If you can manage it I HIGHLY recommend spending a week up in Ottawa with them--it's like the fun part of College without the angst.
A quote came across my Email today that also may be pertinent:
God is more concerned about our character than our comfort. His goal is not to pamper us physically but to perfect us spiritually. Paul Powell.
If we are citizens of Heaven and visitors on Earth, we need to recognize that suffering has physical, emotional, AND spiritual components. As physicians, we should consider relief of suffering to be important but not paramount. God may be using that suffering for the good of the patient or for someone who is watching the patient and we must be wise. After all, to be incredibly insensitive and blunt, stopping suffering is incredibly easy: just euthanize the patient...
Dennis Prager said recently in his debate with the American Atheists that the believer has to explain the existence of unjust suffering, and that is a real problem. The atheist has to explain the existence of everything else.
Peter Kreeft has written a wonderful book on this subject that I read for John's Augustine College course for physicians. The link is to Amazon used books; looks like it may be out of print. You could try a used Christian bookstore also. If you can manage it I HIGHLY recommend spending a week up in Ottawa with them--it's like the fun part of College without the angst.
A quote came across my Email today that also may be pertinent:
God is more concerned about our character than our comfort. His goal is not to pamper us physically but to perfect us spiritually. Paul Powell.
If we are citizens of Heaven and visitors on Earth, we need to recognize that suffering has physical, emotional, AND spiritual components. As physicians, we should consider relief of suffering to be important but not paramount. God may be using that suffering for the good of the patient or for someone who is watching the patient and we must be wise. After all, to be incredibly insensitive and blunt, stopping suffering is incredibly easy: just euthanize the patient...
