Re: Suffering

You expound our philosophy with your usual elegance. I am sure that your point of view makes sense within a Christian context, which, however, I am unable to share. I rather agree with what you say about Buddhism. The cool rationalism of Buddhism appeals to me, but is it a rationalism beginning from a faulty premise, the negative value of existence, one that was common to the whole śramaṇa milieu of which Siddhartha Gautama was a part, but which is nonetheless philosophically dubious? "Creation is ravaged by sin and by suffering, but as neither of these things is created by God, and certainly neither can be said to be good, neither can exist in the way that goodness exists." I admit that this is all too metaphysical for me. I prefer the Greek view that Good is good and bad is bad, each distinct from the other, and each equally real. A minor point, but although one can't tot up goods and ills in life "mathematically", nevertheless I find that I can make a judgement about the overall value of my own life. I have had, and continue to have, an immensely privileged and fortunate life. But even my life has had moments of misery and grief. Nevertheless, if someone asked me: would I want to live my life over again, just as it has unfolded, my answer would be an unequivocal yes. (Thus, rather bizarrely, passing Nietzsche's test for qualifying as an Übermensch!) But I can imagine a life so short and wretched that, were the subject able to review that life and make a judgement about it, the answer would, quite reasonably, be no. Of course my judgements about these matters might be a little different from yours, because for me death is "the end of the story". (Although there is the possibility of an afterlife even in a materialist universe - see e.g. Frank Tipler's book The Physics of Immortality - I find that it is all so speculative that it does not actually succeed in inducing in me a belief in, or expectation of, an afterlife.) Anyway, thanks for your very post, and also to Pharmakon for originating this very interesting thread.