I saw in another thread that someone thinks various religious deem suffering a good thng.

What religions deem suffering a good thing? Why would suffering be a good way to get to "heaven"?

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It appears as if Christianity seems to uphold the concept of suffering as a form of righteousness. This may not actually be true for a number of denominations.

Generally, religions try to appeal to others emotionally, and the concept of "things will be better in the next life" justifies why someone is suffering now, giving them a sense of hope.

I think what you are alluding to maybe what was pretty common in the Middle Ages in Europe.. that idea was that the poor would inherit the earth and that suffering would atone for sins committed in this world..so you had the flagellants and you see in India, the Phillipines and in Iran the glorification of injuring oneself to identify with martyrs and so on. Whether be the crucifixion of Jesus or the martyrdom of Imam Husayn at Karbala there are those people who mutililate themselves or cut themselves.

Today I think most religions would say that a living sacrifice is preferable..that is, not placing yourself first..not making a spectacle out of yourself and so on but serving others before yourself.

- Art

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"it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
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the whole suffering part to me is ridiculous.

if 'god' created us in his own image then he knows that we are prone to failure when it comes to passion, temptation, morality, and a grocery list of other sins.

But I am not going to repent for making love to my husband for reasons other than procreation. Nor am I going to hell because I had an extra piece of pie the other night and think my friends husband is gorgeous.

Why in the world would god want us to spend our lives on our knees praying for forgiveness when would just as easily could be out picking up litter, cooking food at a homeless shelter, cleaning pens at the SPCA, holding babies in the ICU, teaching people to read at the library or any of the other infinite possibilities.

But hell there are unicorns in the bible what do I know?

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I think that some religions focus on "Suffering-as-virtue" in an attempt to console people caught in situations that seem particularly unfair.

Personally I'm more comfortable with the "Suffering is part of life" perspective, as long as it isn't "explained" with unverifiable concepts such as past-life karma.

From my limited studies, it seems this is a two-tiered idea if you will.

The first would be,hmm, theological? " There but for the grace of God go I" (or Mr.Bradford ). What stirring of charity ( in the old sense of the word ) could one have if one had not at least some empathetic impulse or memory from which to understand and pity?

Also, the gratitude of pain removed may lead to insights to both the nature of suffering ( hence a better understanding of those that martyr themselves for a belief, or simply, endure ) and a 'testing' of belief. The latter is , I think, a bit of an emotional artifact of our questioning humanness.

The other side is that of Social History. Dickens makes a lovely read in this regard as this idea of "To live is to suffer" shows up in many of his satires on some of the religious approaches of his time. And there is a good reason for this: The lot of the common person was pretty dire. If one wants the factory fodder or simply starving to accept their lot and not become the revolting peasants , it's much easier to assure them that " Yes, Lord Spitsonu is wealthy and healthy, but you'll get yours after your life's toil and HE...will suffer". It seems to me no coincidence that a lot of 'low church' or 'non-conformist' institutions came into being at this time. Indeed, we can still feel the social reverberations to this day where a certain Puritan ethos effects many of our cultural mores long after the mudlarks have disappeared.

Just an opinion.

open

I find no thread examples answering these OP questions except arthra's reference to medieval Europe. My impression of South Asian religions is that suffering is bad, and you have to do better now to escape future suffering, meaning rather that stages of less suffering are required before being released from future hardships.

I would boil down my view to, is there any religion or philosophy other than Christianity that advocates suffering for any imagined ends?

See this thread, post #5. Roger Bacon 1214 - 1294

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Other than Christianity and its obsession with original sin and man's evil nature, most religions I have studied that see suffering as a good thing view it as a purification process by which we become better beings for having gone through.

In Buddhism and Hinduism, suffering is referred to as being caused by attachment. It is a creation of our own faltering by forgetting our true nature as eternal, non-physical and spiritual beings.

In Macro philosophy, suffering is either the result of previous actions and/or decisions that have been for less than ideal motives or the method in which we have chosen to learn some lesson. Macro philosophy also states that suffering is often caused by our self-induced amnesia of our true origin and our tendency to not want to accept responsibility for what we have brought into our world of experience.

I know many "New Agers" of many schools of thought that would say that life is like going to the movies, some people like a good horror movie where others prefer something more tame. Suffering is just part of the experience of this virtual-reality theater we call physicality.

I find that the only times in my life I have "suffered" that I could turn it into a celebration just by changing my perspective a bit. Things that many people would think are terrible in my life, I view as catalysts for the person I have become and wouldn't change any of them, except maybe catch them the first time around and not have to repeat the class again with more dramatic scripting.

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This plane of existence was intended to be an entertainment for the soul.
Only in forgetting this and becoming attached do we become less than happy.

Robert from Spiritgeek.com & the blog

We are ancient spiritual beings having a human experience. But we forget this and get totally immersed in the moment. This is understandable as the voice of our higher self tends to get drowned out by the ego or lower mind which thinks that it runs the show when really it is just minding the store. As a result we go through even more suffering until we wake up from that delusion. Isn't amnesia great!