The Christian Conundrum

I was watching the Colbert Report just now, and Stephen was having an interesting conversation with his guest about universal healthcare. She said that universal healthcare is healthcare for everyone. Stephen responded by saying that there already is healthcare for everyone, it's called prayer. This reminded me of a book I say yesterday at the Coventry Street Arts Fair that talked about how the only question never answered in the Bible was: why do we suffer? I'm pretty sure that question has been answered by almost all religions. The fall, or corruption, of man is explained in even the oldest religions. In Christianity, curiosity and the childlike innocence of the ignorant is what is attributed to Eve's decision to pick the apple. Yes, the serpent/Satan did goad her into picking it, but the natural curiosity was there. Because of her ignorance and curiosity, she bit into the fruit, which was most likely not an apple but it is merely a story and is not to be taken as literal. They received knowledge, but with this knowledge came suffering, which helps prove that ignorance is bliss. In Greek mythology, a box was given to a child by the name of Pandora. The gods told Pandora not to open the box, but did not tell her why or what was in it. Driven by curiosity and her innocence and ignorance, she opened the box. From the box came disease, famine, war, and all that caused suffering, but also hope which can also be considered knowledge as knowledge creates hope. It seems that knowledge is the cause of suffering. With knowledge comes all the bad. You take the good, and you take the bad. Those are the facts of life, as the song goes. So the moral of the story? Simple, that the pursuit of knowledge creates not only good, but bad. It's simple to see how true this is. We've created medicine to resist disease, but stronger diseases have been discovered. With technology that helps, comes technology that destroys. I'm sure there are some holes in my theory, but that is what makes it a theory. Unfortunately, even though this is the question that sparked my existential crisis, answering it for myself right now has done little to help.