With help from Nick Cave, C.S.Lewis and Yoda, Rob leads us in exploring some of the many ways in which suffering may be understood. Rob outlines a variety of approaches, with relatable examples that allow us to consider how we might begin to reconcile some of life's hardest questions.
Rob begins by sharing a personal story of the reality of suffering.
The musician Nick Cave reads some stories from The Red Hand Files: a collection of letters sent by fans asking some of life's biggest questions.
Different belief systems offer diverse ways of understanding suffering. Rob sets out some answers that Atheism and Buddhism might offer to Billy and Alison's letters to The Red Hand Files.
Yoda offers his understanding of suffering to Anakin Skywalker in this clip from Star Wars.
Rob explains how Yoda's perspective sounds a lot like Buddhism.
How involved is God in our lives? In this song, Nick Cave engages with the idea of a god that intervenes in our lives.
If God is loving, why does he allow evil and suffering? Rob takes us on a tour through the different ways Christians answer this question.
Nick Cave reads his reply to the letter we heard earlier from Billy.
Can suffering be understood intellectually or is it something that must be experienced in order to draw helpful, authentic conclusions? Rob refers to two books that C.S.Lewis wrote about suffering and why they were vastly different.
At Q we'd rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned and this topic of suffering is no exception. We may not have definitive conclusions about why we suffer but we continue our quest to find healing, hope and life in it all.
"When we need to recover, we need to lean on each other."
What's your perspective on this question of suffering and evil?
We'd love to hear your thoughts.
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