Nascent Thinker | Contemplations Along The Way

Happiness is not just a feeling

I won­der, if we viewed “hap­pi­ness” as the ancients did, would the “prob­lem” of evil and suf­fer­ing be such a prob­lem? In fact, I think I agree with Peter Kreeft when he says — or per­haps repeats — that suf­fer­ing isn’t a prob­lem, it’s a mys­tery (Mak­ing Sense of Suf­fer­ing). It is a mys­tery because we encroach on our own data–we com­mit evil even while study­ing it. By study­ing evil, we are in some ways study­ing our­selves. And yet in see­ing evil so clearly in the world, we refuse to see it in our­selves. We are “black and white”; more “good” than “evil,” and so that makes us good. Or we are more “evil” than “good,” and that makes us a vic­tim. We blame God for the evil men do, and we exalt men for their crit­i­cisms of God (“Not I,” says the Chris­t­ian). We haven’t learned Job’s … (Read more)