Joyce Weng

December 11, 2008

Religion & Psychology
Final Exam: #4
Dr. Johnson

Your most insightful essay on “Evil and suffering, old age and
death…” Include special references to Buddhism and Elaine
Pagels, as well as to (at least one of each of) these pairs:
Richard Rubenstein and/or Elie Wiesel; Paul Tillich and/or H.
Richard Niebuhr; Cheryl Townsend Gilkes and/or Ann Roiphe.

The dilemma of evil compounded with suffering, the undertaking

of old age, and the inevitability of death are the three utmost concerns
in life, for which religion attempts to provide solace. Buddha said, “I
teach only about suffering, old age, and death.” These concerns apply
to those who believe and those who do not believe in a specific religion
as well as those of either liberal or conservative thinking. Buddhism
understands issues, which are fundamentally disturbing to humanity as
part of a single reality from which people can transcend. Buddha
“vowed to search tirelessly for the origin and causes of these evils –
and for the power to root them up.” (C136) Enlightenment can be
found through following the “Middle Way” that will lead to “nirvana,”
which is “an extinction of evil at its roots.” (C136) Evil must be
dissolved within an individual before it becomes extinguished
throughout the world. Moderation is the lack of deficiency and
excessiveness, both of which are two forms of evil. Therefore, the
“Middle Way” is the most reasonable path to both avoids activities that
have no moderate degrees, like murder, and to find balance within
things that can be taken to either extreme.
Elaine Pagels confronts the origin of evil as something that
springs from the hatred of people from other backgrounds and beliefs.
She wrote the Gnostic Gospels and Adam, Eve, and the Serpent where
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she challenged the canonical gospels and brought forth a more diverse
array of writings concerning the ultimate problem of evil from new
perspectives, particularly views that are not as misogynistic as the
gospels that have been passed down through mainstream Christianity
today. This is important, as it shows that what we are taught to
believe can and has been altered as history develops and unfolds. The
problem of evil and suffering can be reconciled within the individual
though it will never cease to be a plague for humanity.
Paul Tillich talks of the “courage to be” in response to suffering.
He said there are three types of evil. First, there is “physical evil”
pertaining to pain and death. Second, there is “moral evil” that stems
from the existence of free will. Third, there is “existential evil,” which
concerns the feeling of meaninglessness. The only solution to these
evils is “ultimate concern” also known as faith, according to Tillich.
The “essence of faith” is the “courage to be” meaningless and
insignificant. On the same note, H. Richard Niebuhr said, “It surrounds
our life as the great abyss into which all things plunge and as the great
source whence they all come. What it is we do not know save that it is
the supreme reality with which we must reckon.” (C97) Evil and
suffering is unavoidable and there are many ways in which an
individual can come to reconcile this reality. It can be through the
“Middle Way” or faith in a “supreme reality” among others.
Buddhism provides followers with the “Four Noble Truths” to
overcome the inevitable concern of suffering that old age can only
intensify. Niebuhr said, “It is what it is.” Both philosophies imply there
is one reality. On a related note, Pagels says, “Julian might agree with
the gnostic or Buddhist precept that ‘all life is suffering,’ yet he does
not take this as an indictment of human existence, as if ordinary life
were an illusion or the result of a ‘fall,’ or a form of spiritual death.”
(C147) In regards to these three different sources of beliefs, there is
the general consensus that old age may be the key to suffering, while
suffering may be the key to something greater. (Julian was a fourth
century Christian heretic to whom Pagels paid some significant
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attention.) Also Tillich said that suffering and thinking in old age can
surface “all the big questions that are conceived of non-being, a time
of when we were not and when we will not be.” This is the “depth” of
our concerns, which is the essence of religion. According to all four
perspectives, suffering is manageable.
The phenomenon of dying, death and the possibility of an
afterlife evoke strong reactions in people. Pagels said, “So, Julian
explains, although every one of us will die, ‘death is not always an evil;
since, to martyrs, for instance, it is for the sake of glory’… for those
who are on the path to enlightenment, death is not… an enemy to
defeat, but a compassionate friend.” Again, Julian is not very far off
from Buddhist traditional thinking. Tillich further elaborates his
previous point but applies it to the subject of death. He uses the Stoics
as an example because their primary concern was death. They
required the “courage to be” (faith) in the thinking that they were
insignificant and relied on only contributing to one, larger reality.
Religion allows one to be seen as part of the cosmic self. This ties in
with Buddhism as well, in which there is the belief of a “cyclical time,”
one universal self, and one reality. The view is that the seasons come
all year round and return the next year. If human reality is not severed
or stopped, “then what always was always will be.” There are no
separate selves to save. Even though, the ego does not want to die, it
must come to terms with it in order to overcome it. Buddha said, “Why
bother with unanswerable questions?”
All perspectives are in agreement with what Niebuhr sums up in
one quote. “…Certain accommodations in their popular form to the
mythology of death – as in those Christian teachings about heaven and
hell… a new form of survival ethics. Doubtless they must also clothe in
symbols and in legends the conviction that we are surrounded in
history by life and not by death…” It is pivotal that the function of
symbolism is recognized in all forms of coping with the ideas of evil,
suffering, and death. Buddhism, Pagels’ books, Tillich’s theology, and
Niebuhr’s critiques all deal with the evils of the world, including
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suffering, old age, and death in very similar ways. The aim is to
overcome this abrasive reality through means by which we can only
understand symbolically. Whether it is through moderation or faith,
the three jarring dilemmas of evil, suffering, and death are addressed
in all religions and calls for the psyche’s attention; must finally be
accepted as it is only to transcend above it.