WHY SUFFERING? – PHILOSOPHICAL & CHRISTIAN REFLECTIONS Since: 1^st May 2003 Last Update On: 2 June 2003

“He will settle disputes among great nations. They will hammer their swords into plough and their spears into pruning-knives. Nations will never again go to war, never prepare for battle again.” – Isaiah 2:4

MAN CANNOT END SUFFERING The sculpture you see on the left is known as “Let us Beat Swords Into Plowshares”. It was built in 1959 by the USSR (United Socialist Republic of Russia; the pre-break up union of today’s Russia) as a donation to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. It was the brainchild of a famous Soviet sculptor Evgeniy Vuchetich. The bronze statue symbolizes man’s desire to put an end to war and hence the man is hammering the sword, a weapon for war, to convert it to a useful tool, the plough for farming. In 1961, the United States of America and the Soviet Union signed the ‘Joint Statement of Agreed Principles for Disarmament Negotiations’ which among other terms, states that “disarmament is general and complete and war is no longer an instrument for settling international problems” Well, as the saying goes; the rest is history. Many wars have been fought since, including the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the complicity of the US forces in the Panama, Nicaragua and other Central America nations. Despite the pursuance of lofty ideas, war, pestilence, torture, violence, hate, terrorism continue. No material progress, no education or enlightenment can end suffering. Neither science nor religions. Neither philosophy nor human agency. The best man can do is to offer each other fleeting relief, uneasy truce or cautious suspicion. The causes of pain and suffering are too widespread and too deeply rooted to yield to the efforts of human endeavor. A world free from anguish would seem to be an impossible dream. Come with me and let us reason together. (Isaiah 1:18) [Isaiah is the 23^rd Book of the Old Testament of the Bible] Chen Boon Tai, B. Eng (Hon); M. Min; Doctor of Ministry Candidate. Senior Reader of Asia Pacific Seminary, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.