Final answer:
In 1 Peter, suffering is not portrayed as pointless but rather as something that can lead to personal growth and goodness. Buddhism describes suffering with the Four Noble Truths, advocating a path through the Eightfold Path to overcome it. The problem of suffering is also a key component in theodic debates about the nature of God.
Step-by-step explanation:
In 1 Peter, we learn that suffering is neither senseless nor without purpose. Various theological perspectives approach the concept of suffering in different ways. From a Christian standpoint, as observed in the thoughts of theologians like Irenaeus and modern philosophers like John Hick and Richard Swinburne, suffering is sometimes seen as a necessary part of the human experience that contributes to personal growth and the development of goodness. They argue that the pains and sufferings of the world are meant by God to act as a means of producing a truly good person.
Conversely, in Buddhist teachings, suffering, or dukkha, has multiple dimensions, which encompass ordinary pain (dukkha-dukkha), suffering from change (viparinama-dukkha), and a more subtle type of suffering due to the conditioned states (samkhara-dukkha). The Four Noble Truths in Buddhism acknowledge the existence of suffering, its origin from attachment to desires, its cessation, and the path leading out of suffering, known as the Eightfold Path.
Adversity and challenges are seen to have positive aspects as well; they provide opportunities for learning and growth. This is succinctly captured in the phrase, "Tribulation does not come without its good aspects. The positive and the negative constitute an inseparable pair." Meanwhile, in the discourse on theodicy, or the problem of evil, philosophers like David Hume and proponents of process theology argue about the compatibility of an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving God with the existence of suffering in the world, each providing different answers to this profound question.