To help us endure this world and its “veil of tears” we had
to invent gods and an afterlife to find some sort of meaning. The presence of a
god is to comfort those who suffer; for example, when something bad happens
most people pray to a god, even though, at the very least, this god was passive
when the bad thing happened; the desperate need to find meaning in suffering
outweighs logic and reason.
The presence of Parkinson’s in my life and the suffering it
causes is senseless. There is no reason
for the fact I was thrown into the world with a susceptibility to Parkinson’s.
I’m not to blame, nobody is to blame, no god is to blame, no thing is to blame;
it just is. Looking for
meaning when there is none makes suffering meaningless. Engaging with the search and setting up a reason
that simply isn’t there leads you nowhere. It is immensely comforting to
imagine a benevolent all powerful god or to blame the sufferer for their own
suffering in original sin (and thus giving an illusionary sense of control).
Yet these things are entirely illogical: god is seemingly without the
benevolence or power to stop my suffering and how can you be guilty of original
sin when you didn’t ask to be thrown into the world? This is breathing in bad
air and coughing uncontrollably.
We all have the freedom and choice to disengage from a
meaningless search and look for ways to be alongside our suffering. We also
need to learn to live with not knowing the reasons why when there are none;
instead focus on the how of suffering and what you can do about it.
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