Is suffering compatible with the goodness of God? I think…
Is suffering compatible with the goodness of God?
I think this brings up a good question, how is an omnibenevolent being, all good?
omnibenevelence would be Characterized by Perfect love, and Perfect Justice.
Which these two together would bring out the most good that a being could have.
Now addressing free will, if a being has these two qualities that I previously mentioned, then the being would allow free agents to make decisions that could possibly do evil to other free agents.
So striping away one agents free choice to do so, would be against the qualities I previously mentioned.
Also If the being would do so to one, the being would have to do it to all, because justice is not partial, and certainly not perfect justice.
Now addressing suffering in this life, for those that can’t find justice in this life will find it in the next, eternal justice.
This is what you would expect with the qualities of the being previously mentioned.
How about the hurt and pain in this life, how could a omnibenevolent being make up for that?
By bringing wholeness, or a complete healing of the person, and fulfilling the meaning of their existence.
This fulfillment never stops and continuously goes on, bringing perpetual Joy, and satisfaction.
Ok so why does this being still not stop people from suffering?
the more we suffer, the more drawn out we become from the epistemic tools that only serve the fleshly, material realm of the natural world (primarily sense perception and reason). It invokes an epistemic condition that transcends the confinement of our corporeal condition
Suffering is essential for rebirths, resurrections, and the actualization of metacognitive process of knowledge accrued by a new-found trust invested in a hope yet to be experienced.
This is all so that the maximum number of people would be saved.
All of this taken into account, suffering is compatible with an omnibenevolent being, in fact it is necessary with free will