The Problem of Pain

    One of the most common and accepted arguments against Christianity is this.  If God is loving and all powerful, why does he let us suffer so damn much?  Suffering is one of the states that every human knows, regardless of religion, gender, age, or nationality.  Every religion must incorporate an answer to this problem, and at first glance this problem causes the end of Christianity, because central to Christianity is a God of limitless love.

    There are two possible solutions to this problem.  The first is emotional, and the second is logical.  Because the problem of pain is an emotional one, I will discuss the emotional argument first.  Let us assume that we have no understanding of why suffering exists and the God has given us no reasonable clues.  He has shown us his total empathy.  He became man in the form of Jesus Christ.  He was not a God wearing a man suit, he was an actual man who could and did feel actual pain.  While he was a man, he suffered and died in the most painful and humiliating way possible.  Crucifixion is among the nastiest torture and execution methods that humanity has ever come up with.  Not only that, it was us, his children, who did it to him.  We do not necessarily understand why God will not take the pain from us, but we do know that he has taken the pain upon himself in its entirety.

    The second solution to the problem of pain requires that we step outside of the circumstance of world.  Imagine that there was no pain in the world and that there had never been any.  What reason would there have been for us to leave the jungle?  There would have been none.  Without the pain and struggle of life, there is no cause for us to improve ourselves.  All of our advancement as a race comes from our attempts to overcome pain.  Why would we invent farming if we always had enough to eat?  Why would we love our neighbor if everyone would be happy (including him) if we hated him?  Why would we search for God if no answers were necessary to make us feel fulfilled?  Not only does pain lead directly to the maturity of the human race, it also leads to the maturity of very many individuals.  In fact, it would be hard to imagine someone becoming mature without ever having felt pain.  When I speak of maturity, I am referring to spiritual, intellectual, and physical maturity.  

    God loves us so much, that he lets us hurt so that we may grow into God's form.  This sort of transformation cannot occur without stimuli or if it is forced.  We cannot be forced to be like God, because being free is a fundamental part of what God is.  There is a good analogy for this.  A good mother lets her children move out when they are old enough.  She does this not because they will be safer.  Many children make painful mistakes when they first leave home.  She does this because she knows that if she does not let them grow up they will be a shadow of what they should be.  They must know freedom and difficulty in order to truly become mature.

Questions:

1) Most Problem of Pain arguments use free will, but you do not.  Why is that?

    My arguments actually do depend upon free will, even though it may not be that apparent at first glance.  Without adversity and free will it is not possible to grow.  Adversity is necessary to give a reason to grow, while free will is necessary for the growth to mean something.  I give higher priority to growth and other arguments give higher priority to free will, but you cannot really have one without the other.

2) Your argument seems to work and all, but you seem to have forgotten about the innocents.  Explain to me how this whole pain thing is beneficial when a child, or other innocent, is the one doing the suffering and dying.

    First, how does a child's suffering help humanity to mature? All forms of suffering have causes, and in overcoming these causes, we as a race become more mature. In the case of cancer, we become disciplined and knowledgeable in pursuit of a cure. In the case of evil actions, we must become strong to contain and destroy the evil. 

     Second, how does a child's suffering help individuals? Those around the child are called to love the child by the trauma of the event. Few people are not moved by the suffering of a child, but many people are not moved by the happiness of a child. Also, many who are close to the child must find their inner strength in order to be able to handle the situation.

    Third, how does a child's suffering help the child, especially if the child dies?  I cannot explicitly answer this question. However, I can think of some acceptable possible answers to it. A common Christian belief is that there is a special place in heaven for the innocents - those who were unable to mature due to the circumstances of their lives. The concern I have with this is that it works as a "get into heaven free card."  Usually entrance into heaven is the result of a person freely accepting God. A young child cannot do this. Perhaps the child has time after death, but before heaven, where they can complete their maturity, albeit in a different manner.  Somewhat along these lines, Hindi believe that people are reincarnated until their final maturity, and Catholics believe in Purgatory, a place can where people can go who are dead but not yet ready for heaven.  To sum all this up, my answer is that God takes care of the innocents in his own special way, whatever that may be.  To God, the time before death and the time after death is much more connected than it is for us. There is no reason why God cannot correct the problems of this life in the next.

3)  I can handle everyday suffering, such as bad jobs, bad relationships, and broken arms, but is this extreme pain stuff really necessary?  Isn't moderate pain good enough to do the trick?

    In general, the greater the pain, the greater the potential for growth.  Consider U.S. soldiers during WWII.  In many cases soldiers are not the nicest of men, but being at war can lead them to a deeper understand of service.  They were there to serve their country by defending their homeland from attack, serve their allies by protecting and liberating their peoples, and serve their enemies by removing oppressive governments, planting democracy, and liberating their peoples.  If they died, they died in an act of service, which is sanctifying in its own right. Now we can discuss the soldier's family. If they gave, with love, their brothers, husbands, and children for the benefit of foreigners, then they are already far on their way to sainthood. It is difficult to be a saint if the worst that you ever suffer is a cold or a bad day at work.

4)  Well, I don't have extreme suffering.  Does that mean that I am not called to sainthood?

    No.  You are still called to sainthood.  You just don't have the "easy" path of suffering available to you.  Suffering is merely a tool to increase love.  You can still love, without having suffered that much first.

This page was last changed on 2006/09/13