This is not a religious posting however it does refer to a desparate question.

A long time ago I attended a Schizophrenia fellowship meeting where a reknown Doctor was presenting a seminar on the nature of this illness.

The room was full of parents and siblings all searching for answers for their loved ones condition. The room was very emotional and lot's of pain was obvious.

At the end of the speach by the Doctor questions where asked of the audience.

A man in his 40s jumped up and asked an impossible question.

Why does God allow such misery to exist?

His pain was obvious and he was very upset.

The Doctor was unable to respond and was sympathetic but at a loss as to what to do.

An elderly man in the back row got up and said he had an answer.

He said ( if I remember correctly)
" We have such misery so that we can appreciate our good fortune" and " we have insanity so that we can understand what sanity is and how fortunate we are that we have sanity"

An excersise in relativity yes?

When I heard this I thought, but why such intense misery and is this justifiable. Just for the sake of relativity we have such misery.

Suffering and misery doesn't have a purpose, even in any relative, subjective mold you try to place them in. It simply is a stimulus within the universe. As Schopenhauer said: "life is suffering."We avoid pain because it harms us, yet avoiding any pain leads to degeneracy and death. It seems like a paradox to seek pain to stimulate your growth, because many people can only think in terms of absolutes, but in reality it's something you can't really avoid or "learn from".