05. Why is there pain, suffering, and death?
The questions are the title of the above painting by Paul Gauguin, explained in Wikipedia as follows:
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (French: D’où venons-nous ? Que sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ?) is an 1897–98 painting by French artist Paul Gauguin. The painting was created in Tahiti and is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Viewed as a masterpiece by Gauguin, the painting is considered “a philosophical work comparable to the themes of the Gospels”.
Wiki explains that Gauguin attended a Catholic boarding school with a strong religious focus, and although he became anticlerical, these questions stayed with him.
The Fall into Sin
(4) Why did he do so?
(a) the man, and
(b) the woman,
respond when questioned about breaking God's command?
(a) What kind of power does mankind want for himself?
(b) How this affects our relation to God, our own nature, and the world around us?
(c) The general tendency in behaviour of each successive generation of mankind?
(d) The condition of man compared to God's original creation?
Although I would like to have a pop-up form which allows you to keep your personal answers here, I haven't found how to do that within budget. So, I plan to prepare downloadable pdf files with fillable spaces for your answers - yet to be done.
