The problem of Suffering
B. Lorenzo Buckinchere
Apr 12, 2026
In last week’s article, I’d briefly touched on the topic of Pascal’s wager within the context of christian prudes shying away from sex. In that article, I remember saying that religious zealots squander their lives away abstaining from the wonderful world of sex for a god they can neither see, nor hear.
But what I’d failed to mention is that they also squander their lives away for a god that they can neither see, nor hear, hoping it will solve all their problems. Or at the very least, that it would take enough pity, or favor upon them to make their existence less burdensome than everybody else’s.
What they fail to realize is that if god was a loving, benevolent being, then why is there so much human suffering?
Why is there so much war, and famine, and so many plagues upon the earth? Why do innocent babies get cancer and die when they have never troubled anybody?
Then there’s the existential dread that comes with being responsible for your own sustenance as a grown man in the modern American workforce.
Why commute through rush-hour to go slave for a blasted bunch of sadists just to be able to earn an honest living, yet they will never pay you enough to share their zip-code?
All this needless suffering, yet it still demands worship?!
Why would an all powerful being care about the worship of us flesh and blood mortals?
Yet the average religious zealot will tell you that it’s all a part of god’s plan to help you build character.
To which I’d say that if god was so brilliant, then why does it take pain to motivate us to build character? It could have designed us a little better than that. But instead, it either doesn’t exist, or it wilfully chose to be a sadistic psychopath who gets its rocks off on human torture.
The average religious person is secretly masochistic. And they’re hoping you wouldn’t notice, but that you’d be the same way too. Because there’s no misery that loves company more than the misery of a fool.
Instead of asking the right questions, such as why suffering is necessary to build character, they instead want to make up a bunch of excuses for a thing they can neither see, nor hear, to help it escape accountability.
And these are the same motherfuckers who love to talk about manifestation and universal frequencies. As if to suggest that all your heart’s desire should just magically fall into your lap because you wished it into existence with your thoughts.
Let’s be more practical here.
If their god was even a single ounce worthy of our worship as they say it is, then first of all, it would at least have the decency to reveal itself, instead of being a troll. And secondly, purpose and character would have both been very attainable without sacrifice. Even if there was some sacrifice, it wouldn’t be THIS!
It would’ve been a sacrifice within measurable reason for which we would have been proud.
And by the way, not everyone makes it out alive. For richer or poorer, some people end up dying before they are able to fulfill their life’s work. Or if they don’t die, then they suffer through lifelong disabilities that steals their dreams to be great.
Are you going to tell me that that’s a part of god’s plan, too?!
Perhaps you’d like to believe that that’s their karma. Which is not even a part of christianity. Karma is a hindu concept that westerners seem to have borrowed regardless of their faith.
So if you get what you want, then god answered your prayers. If you don’t get what you want, then it’s all part of character development. And if you happen to witness someone else not get what they want, then serves them right, they’re being punished.
Either way, god escapes accountability, and it’s on us to explain why it didn’t work.
Now don’t get me wrong, you can definitely use suffering to learn and develop character. The human brain is hard-wired through evolution to recognize patterns. Strength through pain is an improvisation that proves human ingenuity.
But it is not a necessity.
If you are neither a sadist, nor a masochist, then the only other possibility is that you are a hedonist. Hedonism is our default setting as humans, yet hedonism often gets a bad rap because it is often wrongfully associated with decadence (https://thebuckincheretranscendence.blog/hedonism-vs-decadence/).
Decadence is but one form of hedonism. True hedonism is indulgence within good measure, which if used correctly, often includes lengthy periods of delayed gratification and sacrifice for the greater good.
But due to religious masochism and a lack of education, most people will shame you for wanting an easier life. They will say that you’re complaining.
They’re coming at you with all this accusatory spirit, yet they fail to consider that hedonism, the drive to eliminate pain at all cost, is our default.
With that in mind, let me conclude by saying, do not let some bible-thumping masochist shame you for wanting to create a life of ease and convenience.
They say that necessity is the mother of all invention. So we literally wouldn’t have technology without hedonism.
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