Category Archives: Suffering

Sir Edward Downes and assisted suicide

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Distinguished conductor Sir Edward Downes and his wife Joan died last Friday at the Swiss right-to-die centre, Dignitas.  She was suffering from terminal cancer.  He was not dying, but was losing his sight and hearing.

I have admired Sir Edward’s work from a distance, acquainted only with a number of his recordings.  He had a special interest in Russian music, and I have particularly relished his championship of the cheerfully and unprogressively tuneful Rheinhold Gliere.

I don’t have anything particularly profound to say about this latest instance of assisted suicide, but I do think it’s both sad and alarming.…

Imagine a world without suffering

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Readers of this blog will not expect to find much here by, or about, John Hick.  However, his writings on the philosophy of religion are not without interest or value.

Hick has thought deeply about the problem of suffering.  He asks us to imagine what the world would be like if there were no possibility of pain or suffering.  I have always been struck by what he says about this:-

Suppose…that this world were a paradise from which all possibility of pain and suffering were excluded. …

Suffering and the existence of a God of love

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John Blanchard discusses this in his book Does God Believe in Atheists?  The argument against the existence of an all-loving, all-powerful God may be summarised as follows:-

1. Evil and suffering exist
2. If God were all-loving, he would wish to prevent evil and suffering
3. If God were omnipotent, he would be able to prevent evil and suffering
4. Evil and suffering are not prevented. Therefore, there is no such thing as an all-loving, all-powerful God

It is not incumbent on the apologist to demonstrate why or how such a God allows evil and suffering to exist.…

Thinking about natural disasters

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In April 2007, Vinoth Ramachandra gave an interesting lecture on ‘The Science and Theology of Natural Disasters’.  Dr Ramachandra is a theologian from Sri Lanka, and well placed to discuss events such as the great Asian Tsunami of 2004.  The lecture can be downloaded from the website of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.

What follows here is based on the first part of his talk.

The great tsunami of 26th December 2004 claimed 1/4 million lives, and led many to question the credibility of faith in a god. …