16. Suffering
This is the sixteenth article in the series From Particles to Angels . If you are interested in this article you should read the previous articles in the series in order, beginning with the first ( On Happiness ). In the article On Happiness it was suggested that occurrences of physical death did not pose a serious problem for religion if we accept the premise (part and parcel of religion) that the destruction of the physical body is not the end. However in the same place it was stated that suffering experienced in the course of living did pose a problem. "For instance, how do we correlate the torture and terrorising of children with a loving and merciful God?" In this article, we seek to tackle this difficult issue. At the outset, it should be recognised that human beings very very very very very very very much do not like to suffer. Consequently, no explanation or justification offered is likely to meet with acceptance. So that this article is doomed before it begins.