Many religions and spiritual traditions explain the existence of suffering through belief in some sort of higher power with a mysterious, divine plan that requires the suffering of certain individuals.
Although there are centuries of theological and philosophical arguments explaining why a benign, all-powerful intelligence would choose to create a world full of suffering, I’ve recently been struggling to accept these mental gymnastics.
It seems to me that reality can be explained much more simply using only evolution, without requiring the acceptance of an ineffable plan imposed on us by a higher power.
Tonight I’ll share my personal understanding of existence that does not require belief in any supernatural or divine intelligence.