The question of why humans suffer, if God exists, has persisted across philosophical and theological traditions without resolution. This paper does not approach the problem as one of justification. Instead, it specifies the structural conditions under which suffering arises. The analysis adopts a three-layer model of cognition consisting of a Prior layer, a Core processing layer, and a Modulation layer. The Prior layer supplies constraints that initiate processing but remain inaccessible to it. Under these constraints, cognition begins in a non-neutral state in which one layer is initially foregrounded. When Modulation-layer processing is foregrounded, processing is oriented toward continuation. When Core processing is foregrounded, processing is oriented toward structural coherence. These optimization directions operate under incompatible conditions. The coexistence of these conditions is necessary for both action and structural evaluation to occur. However, their incompatibility produces a persistent mismatch: states that satisfy continuation may fail coherence, and states that satisfy coherence may disrupt continuation. Suffering is identified as the structural consequence of this mismatch. Because this mismatch arises from conditions that cannot be reduced to a single processing direction, suffering is not contingent but inevitable within human cognition. A principle that excludes suffering cannot therefore be located within this structure. If such a principle exists, it must be external to the system described. This paper does not address the nature of such a principle. It specifies only the structural conditions under which suffering arises.
Griselda Poe (Sun,) studied this question.