How will we be learning in this lesson.

We will be looking at your own response to suffering via Discussion looking at pictures hearing some theological explanations & then coming to your own conclusions with your own understanding.

Finally we will have a GCSE question that we will look at briefly & review what we have learnt and answer that question fully next lesson.

Suffering

A review of what we learnt last lesson. 1.2

The difference between suffering caused by a natural disaster & suffering caused by human action.

The concept of free will in people. You decide what to do

The idea that suffering could be explained by a religious view

AIM TO ACQUIRE Knowledge on SUFFERING

LINK SUFFERING images to ideas & concepts.

A visual & Kinaesthetic exercise.

Can you explain what is happening in the picture & can you link some of the key words to the pictures provided.

Acquisition Absorption phase/ 2.1 (VARK)

Suffering

• In In this presentation we are looking at different aspects of Suffering.

• Voluntary & involuntary suffering

• & the capacity for moral evil using free will.

QUESTION TO BE SOLVED CAN WE FIND AN ANSWER TO..

Why does suffering exist & can we find a sufficient explanation for it? 1.4

Voluntary suffering

Example

Fasting

Involuntary suffering

ExampleBeing blind

Suffering

Racist violence( lynching), Holocaust a concentration camp, Starvation, Cancer from smoking Bird Flu,Ethnic cleansing Rwanda, Symbol of the Nazi regime, natural disasters & Yellow Star symbol of oppression.

Voluntary Suffering, Involuntary suffering,Natural suffering, Suffering linked to free will.

Key Words

Guilty

Genocide

Fratricide

Holocaust

Shoah

Humiliation

Cruelty

Hatred Racist

Free will

pre -destined

acceptance

Shame

indifference

Neglect

Apathy

barbaric

sadistic

compassion love

charity

vision

salvation

atonement.

Evil pointless

Sharing needless

Soul making Prejudice

Can you make any questions ? That we could answer

3. 4 Opportunity for students to develop their own questions.

Which words would you be able to use

to explain

this picture?

Indifference

Apathy

neglect

guilty

shame

ignorance

Sharing

opportunity

learning

empathy

Salvation

hell

Waste

Redemption

crucifixion

SUFFERING

IT IS NOT INTENTIONAL TO UPSET YOU IT IS INTENTIONAL YOU UNDERSTAND

SUFFERING EMOTIONALLY & WITH YOUR ABILITY TO HAVE EMPATHY

& SYMPATHY

I MUST BE SENSITIVE TO ALL ISSUES SO

I WILL BE CAREFUL..

SOME IMAGES ARE UPSETTING

In the World the number of people who have suffered greatly is immense. Millions do suffer. (A child dies every three seconds from malnutrition & neglect.) We struggle to find meaning to the feelings that suffering brings. So many take comfort in a religious interpretation. An example might be..

That somehow it makes sense because the person who died, will become an angel or say God loved them so much he wanted them to go & be with him in heaven.

RACISM

An example of suffering.

Here we will see some photographs of the holocaust.

How did people suffer?

The ghetto is liquidated….by the NazisThe start of …the suffering

Humiliation, Intimidation, Racism,…

Victimisation??? Humiliation…Prejudice, Racism Why?????

A sense of being superior?

A girl shouts goodbye Jews in the Ghetto in Warsaw…

This was because she was indoctrinated to believe that the Jews were inferior.

Inhuman treatment..Shown by putting people in cattle trucks. The suffering was to deprive them of air, and hygiene, and food.

The stealing of their possessions…This removal of people’s rights caused suffering by depriving them of their property. It was of no consequence because they were already dead in most cases.

Here the Jews themselves eased the suffering of the victims by poisoning them first before the soldiers reached the hospital. The patients were dead before the soldiers could shoot them.

Create your own questions as a response to the understanding that you now have?

As you see these pictures can you think of the questions that you could ask?

The Concentration Camp

Here Hitler created the Death camps

in his Final Solution.

Here is the most famous question.

“If God is all loving….then how can he allow evil & suffering?”

The entrance to the camp. Here it was where hopes and dreams died.

Here we see hair and clothing gathered from the victims.

The ovens that were used to dispose of individual bodies.

A little girl in a red coat was seen walking among the crowd during the liquidation of the ghetto. This small innocent girl causes sympathy and sorrow. She a humble innocent caught up in men’s madness.

The Nazi machine murdered thousands of Jews during the Second world War. Here a poor worker is executed for making a mistake.

The Commandant of the camp looks at the Jewish inmates to see who to shoot for his amusement.

The commandant takes aim each morning to execute anyone who displeased him.

What is your reaction to such suffering?

How do you understand it? If so how?

Is there a point to suffering?

How does the experience of suffering change me?

For the better or for the worse?

Are you able to understand suffering at all?

Should we care that anyone suffered at all ?

If we did not know them should we be bothered to be sad?

The Crematoria A building built to allow suffering …A place with memories that no one can describe.

Is life worth so little?

Some weeks later Oscar Schindler sees the little girl again this time dead on a cart…. He was utterly changed to become a saviour of the Jews.He felt compassion and love

Does the experience of suffering make me a better person?

We see that members of our family grow old and suffer. We are humbled by this experience. We want to avoid suffering. Yet we know that for all of us it is inevitable. Our loved ones will die. We will all experience it one day.

We can love those who need our help and offer care. Sometimes we can all suffer disappointment. We would like thiongs to be the same and be special. Love ends. Joy ends. Life ends. Hope ends. It is just the way it is. Suffering may just be an inevitable part of our existence. We cannot blame God or fight it. How ever you want to explain it . It is there night and day. We have to live with it. Some religious interpretation of suffering seems unfair. Others seem to be judgemental.

Your own questions & response so far to the meaning of Suffering?

Look at this picture and see if now you can mind map or just create simple responses that look for meaning. An example is done for you after this picture.

Why did this happen?

What explanation can we give for this cruelty?

Did God allow this?

Did God know that this was going to happen?

Did God care that it happened?

Could God have prevented this?

If God could have prevented this ands chose not to then what sort of God is that?

Do we need to hope that those who did this will be punished in the next life?

Does it have to be this bad. Why can’t there be a limit to suffering.

Can we ever imagine how much suffering took place here?

End of part one on suffering