I have read a little more on the Christian concept of suffering as a gift and I have softened my feelings slightly towards it.

Feel free to correct me or let me know if you agree with this. From what I understand the idea is that suffering is seen as a gift because it is an individuals suffering that allows that individual to understand the suffering of others. I think really this is referring to empathy. I think the Christian way of explaining this could be better. I think it would be better explained by saying empathy is the gift and ones own empathy grows through personal experience of suffering. I still think to suggest suffering is the gift is a bad idea because it is open to abuse where some people think that experiencing suffering is a good think. Also I do feel that the from my Atheist stand point that the false hope of an afterlife reduces the significance of human suffering in this life because of the idea you will be compensated in the next.

I guess you are correct I have a naturalistic world view. I am yet to see a good argument for any objective morality that Christianity purports to offer. I see morality as dealing purely with well being and/or suffering of sentient minds rather than the strange personal preferences of the Christian god. Maybe objective versus subjective morality isn’t the debate to be placing in this particular thread though. I would just say though that for me my empathy for my fellow humans (which is very strong) but I can only see that it in part comes through something that is innate in humans (i.e. though evolutionary means) and also through teaching and the human ability to reason.

Best Wishes,

Paul

I certainly didn’t take a lot of time to expound on why the suffering is a gift. I spent more time on how my worldview (or theology here) prepared me to suffer ‘well.’ If you look back at the last section, it does express that suffering is a gift because it is through this trial that my trust in God is strengthened. I could have spent more time explaining that, however, given that it was the title of my post so you make a good point there.

While I’m not surprised to hear someone refer to the concept of ‘suffering as a gift’ as wholly immoral, I’m surprised to hear it from an atheist. I’m not sure what moral standard you would bring to the table to judge it as wholly immoral. It partly depends on what you mean by “atheist,” of course, since you may be using it to refer to disbelief in the Christian God or disbelief in all god-ness whatsoever. If you are discounting all god-ness and advocating a materialistic naturalism (you can clarify if it is different from this) then I’m not sure what notion of ‘moral’ is being used or how it is even grounded.

I also don’t want to say that nothing should be done about it. There is no philosophical necessity in my post that leads to that. But I’ll try to clarify that another time.

Thanks for the well-wishes.

Andrew

As an Atheist the concept of suffering as a gift is wholly immoral because it makes suffering acceptable. Teaching that suffering is a gift reduces the moral requirement to do anything about it. Thus it is immoral to take this worldview.

I hope you are doing well in your fight against cancer.