We all experience suffering in one form or another.

https://bible.org/article/why-christians-suffer

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/lifechallenges/emotional-health/living-with-chronic-pain-and-illness/when-we-suffer-a-biblical-perspective-on-chronic-pain-and-illness

because he loves you so much. He only demands you worship him completely without fail above all others, forever, no matter what bad shit happens to you. At least that's what I got from it. Sounds a little S&M'ish to me.

ETA: You might want to ask this in the religion forum. GD might not be the best venue.

Yin yang twins, or whatever

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The first couple chapters of the Bible explain it pretty well.

What does it matter?

I don't believe in a personal God, so I'm not troubled by such questions.

It is the answer to the ultimate question, after all.

Duh, it's because this life doesn't matter and we're supposed to be concerned about the next one. It's not like we believe this one is a gift or something. 

Or something. 

Gotta lay up all them heavenly treasures that we're supposed to give to the poor down here. 

1) Let us not forget that Christ suffered more than any of us, and unlike us, He did not deserve it.  He did so willingly so that all who accept Him shall have eternal life.

2) Most suffering is brought about by our free will choices to disobey the Creator and His Word.  The wages of sin is death.

3) Other suffering is brought about by Satan via spiritual warfare.  The Bible says that he comes to "kill, steal, and destroy" and goes around like a lion looking for whom he can devour.  

4) As for God "allowing" it, I think it is the Book of Isaiah says that says His thoughts are not like our thoughts, and His ways are not like ours.  The good news is that eventually, He is going to put an end to it.

Because there is no magical cloud person in the sky...

Hebrews 12:6 says, “For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives” (KJV). Another word for “chasten” is “discipline.” The passage goes on to quote Proverbs 3:11-12, which says, “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” Proper discipline is a proof of love.

Throughout Scripture, God portrays Himself as a Father. Those who have received Jesus as Savior are His children (John 1:12; Galatians 3:26). He uses the analogy of father/son because we understand it. He compares Himself to a loving father who not only blesses but disciplines His beloved children for their own good. Hebrews 12 goes on to show that those who do not receive God’s discipline are not legitimate children (verse 8). A loving father carefully watches his son, and when that son defies his orders and heads for danger, the father disciplines him to keep him safe. God does that with us. When a born-again child of God heads for sin or refuses to resist temptation, our Heavenly Father brings chastening into his life to direct him back to holiness.

Chastening can come in the form of guilty feelings, unpleasant circumstances, loss of peace, relationship fractures, or any number of negative consequences for choosing sin. Sometimes, the chastening of the Lord can be physical illness or even death (1 Corinthians 11:30).

Read the rest here.

He's either a sadist or an asshole.

But in the meantime, those kids born with harlequin icthyosis can just deal with it. 

Because they're loved so hard. 

Why do people allow it?

Where has God ever promised a life free from all suffering?

The book of Matthew says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  It is only through Christ that we can possibly have freedom here on earth.  

As a simple thought experiment, put a Bible, which contains God's laws, on the table.  On another table, put all of man's laws.  Let's make it easier and restrict it to only today (in other not all of the other laws passed in history) and only to those laws written in your language and only those in your political jurisdiction.  Federal, state, city, county, OSHA, FDA, EPA, ATF, IRS, etc....  How many rooms houses would that fill?  

Now tell me: who is the "god of S&M"?

Because he doesn't exist.

Because most people want a Santa Claus, not a God that demands responsibility from them.

Well Adam and Eve had it pretty good. But they fucked that up for everyone else.

There is no god...

Time out.

I'm sure crucifixion is a horrible way to die but I'm pretty goddamned certain that others since then have experienced far more excruciating deaths.

My wife was the most loving, caring,beautiful person one could ever meet and the Lord still took her way to soon.

All I know is hemorrhoids are a design flaw and whether it's nature or Gods fault is up for debate.

We are in this world. We are not of it.

I'm sorry you lost her.

Was she a born again believer in Christ?

Yeah, dying from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) has to be pretty bad.  Trapped inside your body with your mind intact, yet slowly being increasingly paralyzed where you can't swallow, and eventually can't even breathe.  And that process can take much longer than crucifixion.  And that is only one of many ways that people can suffer to death... cancer can't be good either, not even with the most modern medicines.

Unbelievably profound and novel question.

Too bad all the morons who built those beautiful cathedrals over centuries never thought of it. Wasted their time because they were not enlightened to ARFCOM's advanced thought.

Suffering, pain and affliction exist in this reality, because they are your interpretations of such events. 

Character development.

I'd rather be without it.  

1) He died. Everyone else dies, too. Some in pretty horrific ways. Some having lived a life completely devoid of joy. Maybe his life had suffering, but plenty of folks had it worse than him.

2) Plenty of bad shit happens to people who don't do anything wrong. Don't you fucking dare to tell me that every one of my children died as infants because of some immoral choice that I made.

3) If Satan brings suffering, and God is more powerful than Satan, why doesn't he stop it? Why doesn't he give us a way to stop it? If he's all-powerful, and he allows it to happen, then he is exactly as culpable as Satan for every suffering on earth.

4) So he allows suffering because he's an alien? Then why would I worship him if he thinks that suffering is so great? And at that point, what makes him different from Satan, if he likes us to suffer so much?

most people will try to go through life and claim they did it by themselves. people who are truly afflicted with ailments will freely telll you they had nothing in the tank but Gods strength got them through it.

an Ethiopian runs a 26 mile marathon big woop - a man with no legs runs one, his book is the one I want to read.

we chuck cell phone batteries into the landfill everyday but we will be pissed off at God when our water table is contaminated.

If Paul couldn't get God to answer why he was tormented with an ailment I know it's a question that isn't getting answered down here.

This

This...... Fuck him and his big pitcher or plan or whatever you want to call it.  

Everyone assumes a certain definition of God that may not be accurate.  Atheists tend to assume a "simpler" Santa Claus style god.  Strangely, some Christians might agree with the atheists about their particular god not existing.  St. Augustine for example wrote of a God as the platonic "One."  Atheists who were introduced to "the idea" might not be so dismissive.  The problem is convincing them why they should care.

Why would matter?

The suffering we endure on this earth prepares us to appreciate an afterlife of eternal bliss.

loljk, Adam & Eve already ruined heaven too.

1) The Book of Isaiah says that He was beaten worse than any man.  Unlike anyone else who died, He could have stopped his suffering at any point, but He choose not to so that we might have eternal life if we believe.  Also, quite a few of those who also suffered immensely were early Christians.  Why would they choose to follow Christ, and die horrible deaths as a result, if it was all a myth?

2) I'm sorry for the loss of your children.  Death is a condition of humanity, resulting from what happened in the Garden of Eden.  As the Bible says: it is appointed unto man once to die.  Something to consider: look at the high infant mortality rate, and even death of the mother during birth, some 200 years ago when our nation was founded.  Yet most of those men and women didn't blame God and were Christians.  

3 and 4) There was a time when I questioned God also.  And I still don't have the answers to many questions.  At some point, I had learned and studied enough to see that the Bible was correct in so many instances, that I should go ahead and accept the rest of it as truth.

I chuckled.

Here's why it matters:

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can this be?”

Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, but you do not know these things? Truly, truly I say to you, We speak of what We know and bear witness of what We have seen, but you do not receive Our testimony.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended to heaven except He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man who is in heaven.  Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the verdict, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that it may be revealed that his deeds have been done in God.”

Link

Because there is no biblical God or other man- created God.

Perhaps there is a super advanced entity somewhere in some Universe or another dimension that knows of us or seeded us, but for now we have to plan according to what we know, not what we wish for.

It did not start out this way. Free will is what brought the pain and suffering to mankind.
We can lay the blame at the first man's feet not God.

That kid must have forgot the sabbath day, forgot to keep it holy. Or coveted his neighbor's bowl of cassava.

James 1: 2-5

If you don't, he'll burn you alive for all eternity, and force you to be aware of every moment of it, out of love.

Freewill/ self determination is what makes the simulation entertaining.  Pain/ suffering is the primary vehicle to ensure mass participation in the simulation.  It makes perfect sense.

No god to care.   OP=