Outside of the interpretations of suffering and evil from a religious perspective, sociologist Max Weber presents theories that use the social realm of humanity to provide insight to this issue. The notion that class systems act as a mechanism that denies the upward mobility for the lower class, maintains a social order where personal suffering is to be expected. In contrast, the “socially and economically privileged strata will scarcely feel the need of salvation” (Weber 62). The upper classes are in the position where they are unaffected by suffering; unlike their lower class counter parts do. The idea that salvation comes from a life long struggle with suffering is the key to salvation is not of pertinent concern. What the upper class is
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The feeling of having a predetermined outcome of life poses the issue of why should a person lives a life of piety if they know they are damned? Anything they try to achieve in this life will be undermined by their own predisposal. This also establishes a weaker connection with God as, “his place has been taken by a transcendental being, beyond the reach of human understanding, who with His quite incomprehensible decrees has decided the fate of every individual and regulated the tiniest details of the cosmos from eternity” (60*). This is to mean that humanity will never be able to truly be able to understand the ethics of God, and will give society feelings of “unprecedented inner loneliness of the single individual” (60*). The idea that we have a predestined path allows us to accept that God chooses who must suffer and experience the evils of Earth, and also realize that this way of thinking renders any establishment of an intimate relationship between humanity and …show more content…
“Religion implies the farthest reach of man 's self-externalization, of his infusion of reality with his own meanings. Religion implies that human order is projected into the totality of being” (Berger 28). Essentially, our own “reality” is a by-product of social construction. This idea that challenges our own reality that there could be something much greater and more expansive than ourselves puts us in a luminal state between reality and the realm of mysticism. Weber describes the sacred cosmos, which could be personified as God, that this ultimate transcendence of humanity “provides man 's ultimate shield against the terror of anomy” (27). The ability to create or construct a higher being than one’s self acts, as a coping mechanism to deal with the anxieties of what is beyond this life is a man made product. Therefore, the experience of evil and suffering is constructed based upon one’s construction of their own reality.
Another theory that Berger suggests that when humans experience suffering, humanity seeks out interpersonal connections with other humans instead of turning to God. “For society to exist, the self must be surrender to the its demands. This calls for some form of meaning to life in which suffering has a full part” (Pickering & Rosati 170). Humanity gives in to the feelings of suffering because one must accept
The feeling of having a predetermined outcome of life poses the issue of why should a person lives a life of piety if they know they are damned? Anything they try to achieve in this life will be undermined by their own predisposal. This also establishes a weaker connection with God as, “his place has been taken by a transcendental being, beyond the reach of human understanding, who with His quite incomprehensible decrees has decided the fate of every individual and regulated the tiniest details of the cosmos from eternity” (60*). This is to mean that humanity will never be able to truly be able to understand the ethics of God, and will give society feelings of “unprecedented inner loneliness of the single individual” (60*). The idea that we have a predestined path allows us to accept that God chooses who must suffer and experience the evils of Earth, and also realize that this way of thinking renders any establishment of an intimate relationship between humanity and …show more content…
“Religion implies the farthest reach of man 's self-externalization, of his infusion of reality with his own meanings. Religion implies that human order is projected into the totality of being” (Berger 28). Essentially, our own “reality” is a by-product of social construction. This idea that challenges our own reality that there could be something much greater and more expansive than ourselves puts us in a luminal state between reality and the realm of mysticism. Weber describes the sacred cosmos, which could be personified as God, that this ultimate transcendence of humanity “provides man 's ultimate shield against the terror of anomy” (27). The ability to create or construct a higher being than one’s self acts, as a coping mechanism to deal with the anxieties of what is beyond this life is a man made product. Therefore, the experience of evil and suffering is constructed based upon one’s construction of their own reality.
Another theory that Berger suggests that when humans experience suffering, humanity seeks out interpersonal connections with other humans instead of turning to God. “For society to exist, the self must be surrender to the its demands. This calls for some form of meaning to life in which suffering has a full part” (Pickering & Rosati 170). Humanity gives in to the feelings of suffering because one must accept