Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

In the above video, philosopher Stephen Law, around minute 6 of the video, puts all the evidence for goodness of God in our world to oppose and resolve all the evidence for His evil. In other words: is the glass half full and half empty?

This powerful metaphor drove me to an article, I wrote more than a decade ago, to refute Richard Dawkins, who saw photosynthesis as wasteful and worthy of our criticism and ridicule. As we are not acutely aware of any suffering of the plants and trees, I was easily able to demonstrate the miracle of photosynthesis. With this analogy from the plant world, which one could apply to the animal world, with a little poetic license and see if atheists are stuck in the glass half empty syndrome and denial of the Afterlife, which is the second phase of our lives to fix the injustices and sufferings in this world?

We have a lot of collection of articles on the theme of Afterlife, as well.

Around minute 17 Kuhn begins to interview Anthony AC Grayling and he is an atheist and supposed to be the heavy hitter on the question of suffering. His interview plays only three minutes or so. He is asked to comment on the compensatory role of Afterlife, you will obviously hear his response, but to me his response is inadequate and merely driven by his atheistic theology. In short, he says no amount of posthumous reward can compensate for the intensity of suffering in the moment, it is happening. I think, it is merely an emotional response, to appeal to the suffering of the person in the moment and a total disregard of what the person may have enjoyed during the rest of his or her life and eternal promise in the Afterlife.

Robert Kuhn concludes that without an Afterlife the problem of evil cannot be solved and I agree. If God exists and an Afterlife also, as claimed in the Bible and the Quran, then the mystery of suffering is resolved and in my understanding even solved. Is it possible that many an atheists or even agnostics, never seriously consider the possibility of Afterlife, so the question of suffering never reaches resolution in their thinking?

With the above in mind, I link the article about photosynthesis and a few others in this post:

Photosynthesis: deserving of our awe or ridicule?

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times After centuries of research, technology has created solar panels. The plant kingdom has been converting solar energy into […]

A Slight Twist Makes David Attenborough a Great Teacher for God of the Abrahamic Faiths

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times Sir David Frederick Attenborough is an agnostic, for he focuses on the question of suffering.  If that question […]

Commentary of Surah Rehman with one picture and in just one paragraph

Quran
Quran commentary

Could the intense Palestinian suffering have a creative power over decades: A metaphor from biological evolution?

Promoted post: The Best Muslim, Jewish and Christian Voices for Bringing Peace in Israel and Palestine Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times The question […]

A Holocaust Movie: God on Trial. What meaning it has today for the innocent Jews, Muslim civilians and others?

Why Did Muhammad Fly to Jerusalem? How can we build the Third Temple together? I am a Jew, a Catholic, a Christian and a Muslim; I am Zia H Shah […]

Video: Dr. Jeffrey Lang – From Atheism To Islam

Promoted posts: We are all living in the Womb of God-the-Mother, 13.8 billion Years Pregnancy and After Monotheism, the Two Most Seminal Verses of the Quran By Ammar Bakkar Dr. Jeffrey Lang […]

John MacArthur: Why Does God Allow So Much Suffering and Evil?

Additional reading If the Atheists and the Christians Debate, Islam Wins! A Slight Twist Makes David Attenborough a Great Teacher for God of the Abrahamic Faiths We have the best […]

Interview with A. Helwa: Islamic Spirituality of Divine Love

I recently came across Ms. A. Helwa’s book, “Secrets of Divine Love”. The beauty, holiness, and deep wisdom of the book touched me greatly. Her words, “Allah or God is […]

A Muslim Woman Inspirational Speaker: We all are Perfectly Imperfect

Epigraph: Then which of your Lord’s favors will you ˹humans and jinn˺ both deny? (Al Quran 55:13) The Muslim Times has the best collection of articles about human psychology and […]

Does Truth Prevail: Enjoy the Netflix Series, Bonfire of Destiny, Based on a True Story?

Epigraph: Blessed are the merciful,for they will be shown mercy.Blessed are the pure in heart,for they will see God.Blessed are the peacemakers,for they will be called children of God. (Matthew […]

Quote of the Day: Rumi’s Guest House

This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain […]

Is the coronavirus an act of God? Faith leaders debate tough questions amid pandemic

Source: USA Today By Lindsay Schnell Omar Ricci knew the title of his khutbah, or sermon, at the Islamic Center of Southern California would catch some people off guard. “Thank God for the coronavirus,” […]

The Problem of Suffering and the Goodness of God – Ravi Zacharias at Johns Hopkins

Suggested Reading The Ever Present Question of Suffering The Best Collection to Introduce Islam to the Fellow Christians Joel Osteen: Enlarging the Circle of Love The Question of Suffering tackled by Dr. Charles Stanley […]

Debate: Bart Ehrman vs. Michael Brown on Suffering

We all suffer, regardless of our faith and this is an area most befitting for interfaith tolerance among the followers of the Abrahamic faiths.  Afterlife is a common theme in […]

Kirk Cameron: Hurricanes Are Sent By God For ‘Humility, Awe And Repentance’

Source: Huffington Post By Ed Mazza “When he puts his power on display, it’s never without reason.” Kirk Cameron has some interesting views on weather. The former child actor and current […]

A Debate on the Question of Suffering: Bart Ehrman and Desouza

A Slight Twist Makes David Attenborough a Great Teacher for God of the Abrahamic Faiths Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times Sir David Frederick […]

Aside

Around minute 20 of the above video we also learn that the traditional Christian view about the question of suffering was attributing not only human causes of suffering but also the natural causes of suffering to the fall of Adam. Modern biology has now shown us that Adam as the first man, did not even exist: Video About Historical Adam: Is it a Landmine for the Christian Dogma? and Has the Top Christian Apologist, William Lane Craig Stepped on a Landmine by Searching Historical Adam.

This also draws our attention to the founding President of Cornell University, Andrew Dickson White and his historic book: The ‘Fall of Man’ and Anthropology and A History of Warfare of Science with theology in Christendom.

Around minute 6 of this video the animal suffering is examined and the interviewee describes the creative role of suffering in the evolutionary process.

This reminds me of the book On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. Let me quote here the concluding paragraph, in the later editions of the legendary book, which can make one quickly conceptualize the role of suffering in the grand scheme of things:

From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been breathed, by the Creator, into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.