Research Paper on:
The Human Condition of Suffering

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
the religious tradition or the ideological assumptions of a culture, the fact remains that throughout human history, people have understood that suffering is a significant component of life. Grief,  illness, loss, despair and much more cause individuals to wonder what the point is in living. Pain and grief itself is part of the point of living or as  the quote says: "Suffering is not an exception to the human condition, it is the human condition." Virtually every person has wondered if God or some other universal force  has taken the opportunity to point out to the devil, as God did with Job, that they should have an extra measure of "testing," or as God reportedly says in  Job: "Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life" (Job 2: 6). How many times has that same person wondered whether or not death would not just  be the easiest, even the most sensible, option. Despite the many expectations for human life, many of which are proclaimed and defined by religion and are then idealized in the  human heart, the human condition is in reality characterized by suffering, war, oppression, poverty, vain striving, and disappointment. For example, the very starting point of Buddhism, the first of the  Four Noble Truths, is that all life is full of trouble and suffering. All religions recognize the validitiy of such a statement, at least in its most broad sense, that  the human condition both contradicts and overpowers any individuals true purpose as ordained by God or established by the principles associated with divinity. Another example is the Christian understanding of  humanitys deep-rooted tendency to do evil and turn away from God is found in the doctrine of Original Sin. The Nature of Suffering In the introduction to his book,