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Tag Archives: the problem of suffering
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
Charles Hood’s photo essay on how places, when we travel, are “supposed” to look (as opposed to how they actually do look) put me in mind of the following Christina Rossetti poem meditating upon the inharmonies of existence. It appears to be addressed to … Continue reading
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Tagged chaos, Christina Rossetti, cosmos, harmony, order, photography, poems, poetry, the problem of suffering
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Is Love, Beauty, and Ecstatic Vision Just a Higher Form of Pain?
The swoon, obsession, and agony of the heart after a visionary epiphany in Badfinger’s “Day After Day” (1971). And notice the role of memory in the haunting and heightening of longing for what is not, in fact, present:
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Tagged 1971, agony, badfinger, beauty, crucifixion, epiphany, life, love, pain, suffering, the problem of suffering
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Historical perspective on this morning’s magnitude 8.8 quake in central Chile
In the same area a magnitude 9.5 earthquake struck (May 22, 1960): And in 1939 was another large quake:
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Tagged chile, chile earthquake, concepcion, earthquake, the problem of suffering, tragedy
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An 8.8 quake hit Chile early this morning (February 27, 2010). Will the damage and loss of life be similar to May 22, 1960 when the largest earthquake ever recorded (9.5 magnitude) hit the same area?
AP early this morning: A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake capable of tremendous damage struck central Chile early Saturday, shaking the capital for a minute and half and setting off a tsunami. . . . The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the … Continue reading
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Tagged chile, earthquake, evil, Pat Robertson, quake, suffering, the problem of suffering, theodicy, tsunami
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The Haitian Earthquake: The Pagan Wheel of Fortune or God’s Will and Grace?
In a recent New York Times essay, literary critic James Wood made the following observation on President Barack Obama’s selection of the language of Christian theodicy over that of the pagan Wheel of Fortune (in response to the Haitian earthquake): [T]heological language has … Continue reading
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Tagged atheist, Christianity, death, earthquakes, God, haiti, Jesus, Job, Judaism, life, religion, the problem of suffering
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Evolutionary Biologist Francisco Ayala on Stephen Meyer’s “Signature in the Cell”
Evolutionary biologist, Francisco Ayala of UC Irvine, read Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell (2009), and raises some interesting issues and asks some rather telling questions: The human genome includes about twenty-five thousand genes and lots of other (mostly short) … Continue reading
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Tagged atheist, biology, creationism, evolution, extinction, Genesis, God, life, science, suffering, the problem of suffering, waste
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Some Perpective on the New Year: A Bit of Pessimistic Buddha-Wisdom from Arthur Schopenhauer (and Monty Python)
A little something to keep life and the New Year in perspective. Arthur Schopenhauer, from Book 1, Section 16 of The World as Will and Representation (1818, translated from the German by E.F. Payne): For whenever a man in any … Continue reading
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Tagged arthur schopenhauer, Buddha, Buddhism, Job, life, monty python, pessimism, philosophy, stoicism, suffering, the problem of suffering, yoga
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An Atheist Writes a Poem: Thomas Hardy’s “God’s Education”
I love this poem, not just for its power as language, but also for its Job-like evocation of the problem of suffering. Hardy recounts the death of a loved one, and his subsequent argument with God over her death. In content and world-weary tone, Hardy’s poem … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, evil, God, irony, Job, suffering, the book of Job, the problem of suffering, thomas hardy
5 Comments
Charles Darwin on the Problem of Suffering
In a letter to Asa Gray (22 May, 1860): With respect to the theological view of the question; this is always painful to me.– I am bewildered.– I had no intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, Charles Darwin, evolution, God, Hamlet, Jesus, life, nature, nature red in tooth and claw, suffering, the problem of suffering, theodicy
3 Comments
Wilfred Owen’s “Futility”
One of Wilfred Owen’s great poems is titled “Futility” (1918). It begins with a commander of men at war directing a couple of his soldiers to move into the sun the body of a recently dead comrade: Move him into … Continue reading
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Tagged Albert Camus, atheism, atheist, death, existentialism, futility, God, Job, philosophy, the book of Job, the problem of suffering, Wilfred Owen
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Unweaving Richard Dawkins’s Promissory Atheist Rainbow
In the preface to Richard Dawkins’s book, Unweaving the Rainbow (1998, xi), he writes: I believe that an orderly universe, one indifferent to human preoccupations, in which everything has an explanation even if we still have a long way to go before … Continue reading
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Tagged agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, atheist, creation, evolution, God, philosophy, religion, science, the problem of suffering
4 Comments
Read Albert Camus’s “The Plague” Ahead of Swine Flu (H1N1) Season?
Documentary filmmaker, John Pilger, recommends Albert Camus’s The Plague as a good read ahead of our upcoming pandemic swine flu (H1N1) season: A novel which tells the tale of the devastating plague visited on the Algerian town of Oran, it … Continue reading
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Tagged Albert Camus, death, H1N1, Job, life, pandemic, solidarity, suffering, swine flu, the book of Job, The Plague, the problem of suffering
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Mental Health Break
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Tagged apologetics, Bible, Book of Job, debate, God, Job, the problem of suffering
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Hipster Condensation of the Book of Job
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Tagged apologetics, art, Book of Job, existence, hippies, hipster, Job, life, literature, suffering, the problem of suffering, urban
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For Those Who Have Just Arrived: A Little Something for Keeping the Future in Perspective
A quick primer to life’s prospects:
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Tagged comedy, life, philosophy, psychology, suffering, the problem of evil, the problem of suffering, woody allen
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Was God to Blame for the 2008 Chinese Earthquake that KILLED 80,000 People?
According to AlterNet today, maybe not: Last year, one of the most deadly earthquakes on record devastated China, killing over 80,000 people and rendering millions homeless. Yet last month, reports surfaced stating that the 8.0 magnitude Great Sichuan Earthquake could … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, China, earthquake, God, Jesus, philosophy, Politics, religion, the problem of suffering, theodicy
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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Woman in an American Field Hospital in Czechoslavakia, May 1945
Name: Roszi Frank Age: 24 She was born in Hungary, and was deported to Auschwitz, where, after being moved again, she ended up at a subcamp of Gross Rosen. As the allies closed in on various camps (toward the end … Continue reading
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Tagged 24, Auschwitz, genocide, God, humanity, hungary, life, people, roszi frank, the book of Job, the Holocaust, the problem of suffering
23 Comments
Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Women at Auschwitz-Birkenau, with Heads Shaved, Selected for Forced Labor, May, 1944
Source: U.S. Holocaust Museum photo archives
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Tagged genocide, Holocaust, inhumanity, Jesus, philosophy, psychology, religion, slavery, the Holocaust, the problem of suffering, women
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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Image of a Prisoner at Auschwitz, Apparently Shot Attempting to Climb a Barbed Wire Fence, and Left to Hang There
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Tagged Auschwitz, auschwitz-birkenau, God, Hegel, hegelianism, Job, philosophy, the Holocaust, the problem of suffering
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