Hardship shapes people, it changes them drastically. It’s as if they go through metamorphosis, they are completely different; things like their religion can easily be affected by this. When human beings are stripped of what makes them human, they have little left. They are a dying tree that is hanging on to its last leaf, their free-will. Some viewed their time in a labor camp as a test of their faith. They believed if they stuck with God through such suffering, that they were truly dedicated to the Jewish religion. The book, Night, is a great testament to this. Elie Wiesel’s time in the camp may have weakened his faith, but a number of his fellow Jews were strengthened by the whole experience. The idea of God punishing the Jewish …show more content…
One could think of hardship not only as a test, but as the idea that God cannot intervene when it comes to a person’s free will, no matter how horrific the situation might be. This is true, especially when it comes to Christian teaching. The Christian God cannot interfere with the freedom He has given His people. Those who are followers of Him can only worry about themselves and leave the judgement up to the Almighty. They are responsible for themselves and only themselves. The whole psychology of it, the strengthening of religion in hardship isn’t totally absurd. It would seem through all the loss involved in situations like the Holocaust or 9/11, that some aspects aren’t completely lost. Perhaps putting all one’s faith in a God could supply help to make it through extremely difficult times. It could help keep people alive as they wait for some sort of redemption or subtle sign that their God is there with them. Jews viewed their destitution as trials, Christians viewed theirs as God being unable to interfere with the natural world. Even in places like Auschwitz and Birkenau, the burning Twin Towers, places with where there is so much destruction and disaster, there is always hope within them. Religion can rally individuals and masses, so hardship can