Suffering #4 - Suffering - is a punishment from God?

Suffering #4 - Suffering - is a punishment from God? - Some people try to understand why something bad happens to them—events that bring pain, hardship, and emotional distress. They search for explanations to make sense of their suffering, and the reasons they find often depend on their level of education, worldview, and cultural background. Many seek answers in religion, and one of the most common explanations that offers the consolation they need is: “This is how God wanted it.”

In reality, in most cases, suffering is the consequence of actions for which humans are themselves responsible. It often results from decisions made at certain points in time—decisions that were wrong, poorly informed, or influenced by harmful intentions. From a psychological standpoint, attribution theory explains that people tend to attribute events either to internal causes (their own actions) or external forces (fate, God, or other people). This helps them preserve a sense of meaning but can also distort responsibility.

Because many people I know hold God responsible for their suffering—and because I also believe in God—I decided to explore this topic. Even though I believe there is a force in the universe that many call God, I also draw from other philosophical perspectives. Regarding God, I do not believe people interpret the divine correctly. From my point of view, God has made, and continues to make, mistakes. For many, God is indeed seen as the cause of suffering, and from a religious and spiritual perspective, I agree with this statement to a certain extent.

I think suffering is often the payment for our mistakes. To the question addressed to God—“Why, God, do I suffer so much?”—there is usually no answer. But if there were an answer, it might be: “Because you deserve it.” Cognitive-behavioral frameworks suggest that such thinking reflects a form of moral reasoning intertwined with self-blame, which can intensify distress and even lead to maladaptive coping. Since we cannot be truly objective when it comes to ourselves, we often fail to see where and what we did wrong, or to whom. Yet the universe—or the moral structure of reality—“knows” and, in some views, punishes and takes revenge.

In certain cultures, there is a belief in a spiritual world inhabited by malevolent entities—spirits that harm others, sometimes without conscious intent. These beliefs hold that the universe naturally seeks to restore balance; otherwise, chaos would reign. Anthropological studies on animistic and spiritualist traditions reveal that the belief in cosmic or spiritual justice often functions as a moral regulator, encouraging social cohesion by warning against harmful behavior.

Skeptics may reject these ideas, and it is their right to do so. However, there are experiences that are difficult to dismiss entirely. Some people seem surrounded by energies that can be felt—negative energies that affect those nearby. How many times have you sat next to someone and felt instantly disliked, without having done anything to them? Or sensed envy radiating from someone without a single word being spoken? Parapsychology and affective neuroscience have explored these phenomena, noting that subtle nonverbal cues, microexpressions, and even hormonal signals can unconsciously trigger feelings of unease, which some interpret as “energy.”

There are many aspects that could be explored further here, but to do so would mean deviating from the present topic, which focuses on the intersection between suffering, personal responsibility, and the interpretations—religious, philosophical, and cultural—that people construct to explain it.