Why We Suffer is the amazing story of what mainstream psychology has failed to teach the world. The author, Peter Michaelson, is a former journalist and science writer who has been in private practice as a psychotherapist for more than 25 years. This book reveals how we hide from our awareness--through resistance, denial, and psychological defenses--the existence of a hidden flaw in our psyche. This unconscious, mental-emotional processing dysfunction is a grave danger to each of us personally and to all of us collectively. Through our defense system, we cover up awareness of this inner dysfunction.This flaw in human nature produces irrationality, self-defeat, and negative emotions. It gets the best of us only when we fail to become conscious of it. When we expose it, we begin to remedy the problem. When this flaw no longer contaminates our inner life, we feel, just for starters, our goodness and our value more fully, and we're more respectful of the goodness and value of others.Most of us have problems or challenges we would like to resolve. Collectively, we also have challenging national and worldwide problems that need to be corrected. We may not be up to these challenges if we're not conscious enough of our inner dynamics. Handicapped by a lack of self-knowledge, how can we trust ourselves to avoid conflict and self-defeat? We will fail repeatedly to learn from history.A lot of good ideas are in circulation for making ourselves and the world a better place. But good ideas aren't enough in themselves. This hidden flaw can keep good ideas from being acted on because it compels us, at best, to be indecisive, confused, and prone to dissension. At worst, it produces self-defeat and self-destruction. This negative effect consistently trumps our good ideas and best intentions.This book reveals essential knowledge that humankind has been reluctant to accept. This knowledge involves our hidden, unconscious collusion in producing self-defeating emotions and behaviors. The key to taking charge of our life involves seeing more clearly than ever how our emotional nature is processed within us.

Addressing difficult questions in a readable, pastoral style, Father Harrington helps you draw meaningful and personal connections between Scripture and your own experience. Why Do We Suffer? helps you understand the concepts and context of suffering in the Bible.

Suffering! Is anything more commonly man’s lot? Is anything harder to bear? Is there not, even for the most perfect men, one form or another in the range of suffering which would be found a trial? Who then among us but needs consolation? Who but needs at least to be forearmed? In the following fifteen reasons why God permits suffering, we trust the earnest reader will find light and consolation, which under God’s grace will disarm suffering of some of its bitterness, and make a blessing of what is often enough a stumbling block. First Reason: Sharing the Consequences of Original Sin Second Reason: Expiation of Public and National Sins Third Reason: Natural Results of Indiscretions Fourth Reason: Natural Results of Sins Against the Ten Commandments Fifth Reason: Temporal Punishment of Your Sins Sixth Reason: A Substitute for Purgatory Seventh Reason: The Body’s Share in Making Atonement Eighth Reason: Your Need of Conversion Ninth Reason: Your Need of Perfect Conversion Tenth Reason: Forestalling the Danger of Eternal Perdition Eleventh Reason: Making Atonement for the Sins of Others Twelfth Reason: Promoting the Welfare of the Church Thirteenth Reason: Procuring the Conversion of Sinners Fourteenth Reason: Acquiring Conformity with Jesus Christ Fifteenth Reason: Predestination to an Exalted Degree of Glory in Heaven

You are not alone if you struggle to understand why unwanted, unexplainable, and inconceivable bad things happen to innocent people! Never before have there been so many questions like: How could a loving God permit good people to suffer bad things and often make it appear as though the guilty are rewarded or go scot free? Why are there so many things in the world that seem unfair or unjust? Why does God seemingly hide his face from much of the horrific evil, pain and destruction? Does God really care? Is it fair for humans to be angry with God about their misfortune or suffering? Why are there so many good people accused falsely for their suffering? What defence mechanisms can I put in place to minimize evil, suffering, pain, misfortune, and the devil’s influence in my own life? What purpose does suffering, and pain serve in human life? These are some of the most thought-provoking, spiritually intuitive, deeply agitating, and most frequent questions asked by countless individuals, especially by those who believe that there is a God.

New York Post Best Book of 2016 We often think of our capacity to experience the suffering of others as the ultimate source of goodness. Many of our wisest policy-makers, activists, scientists, and philosophers agree that the only problem with empathy is that we don’t have enough of it. Nothing could be farther from the truth, argues Yale researcher Paul Bloom. In AGAINST EMPATHY, Bloom reveals empathy to be one of the leading motivators of inequality and immorality in society. Far from helping us to improve the lives of others, empathy is a capricious and irrational emotion that appeals to our narrow prejudices. It muddles our judgment and, ironically, often leads to cruelty. We are at our best when we are smart enough not to rely on it, but to draw instead upon a more distanced compassion. Basing his argument on groundbreaking scientific findings, Bloom makes the case that some of the worst decisions made by individuals and nations—who to give money to, when to go to war, how to respond to climate change, and who to imprison—are too often motivated by honest, yet misplaced, emotions. With precision and wit, he demonstrates how empathy distorts our judgment in every aspect of our lives, from philanthropy and charity to the justice system; from medical care and education to parenting and marriage. Without empathy, Bloom insists, our decisions would be clearer, fairer, and—yes—ultimately more moral. Brilliantly argued, urgent and humane, AGAINST EMPATHY shows us that, when it comes to both major policy decisions and the choices we make in our everyday lives, limiting our impulse toward empathy is often the most compassionate choice we can make.

One Bible, Many Answers In God's Problem, the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus challenges the contradictory biblical explanations for why an all-powerful God allows us to suffer.

An insightful look at the mystery of suffering and how to find meaning and joy in the midst of it.