Tyler Colon 4/8/17 Faith in Reason The Problem of Pain – C.S. Lewis The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis is a short book that is absolutely stuffed with information. However, the information is more about thought. The Problem of Pain brings out a lot of topics that require some deep thinking and understanding. C.S. Lewis has some very interesting and at times different views of how the God is and most importantly of pain. C.S. Lewis discusses in this book about God and the pain that is brought with him. Human and animal pain as well as hell are not sufficient enough reasons to reject belief in God. Chapter one of the Problem of Pain is the introduction. C.S. Lewis explains his idea of pain and evil in the world. He explains that it can be challenging …show more content…
Lewis writes about man changing to be lowed. He has free will to become wicked. Lewis states that there are two causes as to why people don’t see a problem. First he states that people believe they are kind. They have good intentions and have never been violent or hurt anybody. Second, that we believe that feelings such as cowardice, unchastity, falsehood, and envy are natural feelings. We feel that we need to overcome the guilt that these bring. Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. The idea of Christ doesn’t work without sin. People do believe in sin. If humans do something they know they shouldn’t have they will not feel good about it. God’s displeasure feels appropriate. We as humans recognize the simple things that we do or thoughts that we have as wrong. Humans recognize this as a social moral principle. People all across time generally agree on morals. People of different time periods and cultures may be completely separate. However, they still tned to follow a certain set of shared moral …show more content…
Christianity states “Blessed are the poor.” Christinas are supposed to be helping the poor. What’s good is the sufferer submitting to god and for others to help him. Suffering itself isn’t good. If misfortune is necessary than it will not stop until God sees the world as redeemed. Or it will stop if God sees the world as unredeemable. Lewis has stated many times that humans as God’s creatures are to submit to him. This does not apply to any political entity. Lewis explains that suffering may explain why we pleasure in life but not permanent happiness or a feeling of security. He also explains that it is insignificant to discuss “The sum of human suffering” as suffering is not something that can be added together. Lewis states that it is important to note that pain and sin are different. Sin tends to escalate or snowball. Sinning can lead to more sinning. Once this is realized, the sinner must repent. This is not the same as pain. Once pain is cured it is gone. If sin is committed in public it infects all who witness it. They either condone it and share guilt, or the risk being apparent in condemning it. Pain brings out pity in people who witness
of suffering is most beneficial. However, answering this question about suffering becomes increasingly more difficult with the
After reviewing the work of David Hume, the idea of a God existing in a world filled with so much pain and suffering is not so hard to understand. Humes’ work highlights some interesting points which allowed me to reach the conclusion that suffering is perhaps a part of God’s divine plan for humans. Our morals and values allow us to operate and live our daily lives in conjunction with a set of standards that help us to better understand our world around us and essentially allows us to better prepare for the potential life after life. For each and every day we get closer to our impending deaths and possibly closer to meeting the grand orchestrator of our universe.
Lewis is now talking about forgiveness. Forgiveness sounds easy until you find yourself having to forgive someone who has done you wrong. When forgiving someone you don’t have to like them or agree with what they have done, but you do have tell yourself to stop holding a grudge when you think about what that other person has done. But when forgiving someone you have said that you no longer hold that against them. Also God says that we should forgive others like he forgave us and we have done more wrong to him that the other way around.
The position of God and misery is a quite difficult position. Hume the author of this book wanted to show that not everything has to involve a God and it is not reasonable to do so. Hume’s characters resemble points that generally describe opinions of the general population of the Earth. With this he is able to create a dialogue that all people can relate to. But his intention of this book is not to support all opinions but his own.
However, individuals of the World State only require comfort for pain and suffering because they are death conditioned at a young age. Interestingly, soma is compared to religion, a comforting human concept. In chapter seventeen Mustapha Mond states, “Christianity without tears - that’s what soma is” (Huxley 238). Soma provides the desired comfort to its consumers, much like the comfort that Christianity provides to its believers. Soma, however, masks the agonies or “tears” in life while Christianity does not completely eliminate the evil in human lives on earth. The Savage, John, suggests, “it is natural to believe in God when you’re alone - quite alone, in the night, thinking about death” (Huxley 235). While God does provide a natural comfort for humans, He does not provide it to the extreme extent that soma does. The World State civilization relies upon soma’s comfort, becoming addicted to the escape from suffering that the drug provides. John confronts Mustapha Mond for “getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it” (Huxley 238). Religion provides comfort from “everything unpleasant,” however, it does not simply eliminate these unpleasant feelings. In the ideas of Christianity, people first must endure these hardships in life before being granted complete relief through eternal life in heaven. Soma does not create the necessity
to state suffering as the entirety of the first noble truth, is not enough because the expression of
“The greatest evil is physical pain.” Saint Augustine understood that experiencing pain is horrific, and most would agree. However, it is perhaps emotional pain, rather than physical, that causes the most damage. Whether physical or emotional, painful experiences are upsetting at best, and in severe cases, they can be life-changing. Pain is a feeling of distress that is often an underlying problem or symptom of an illness.
Nicholi’s book, “The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life” brings to light insightful perspectives from both Freud and Lewis that are based on their Atheistic (Freud) and Christian (Lewis) worldview. Throughout the book, I discovered an overarching theme of defining a meaningful life that was projected into their overall view. This being said, while both individuals had very different view points, there seemed to be a continued desire to outline key aspects of what constitutes a life worth living. Two aspects of life that I believe uniquely coincide with each other to form purpose in life are happiness and pain (suffering). In confronting these topics, it is essential to recognize that one cannot happen without the other.
In “Happiness and Its Discontents” Daniel M.Haybron describes the relationship between pain and happiness. Put simply, pain doesn 't bring happiness,happiness comes from within.
Pain and suffering is something that we all would like to never experience in life, but is something that is inevitable. “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?” is a question that haunts humanity. Mother Teresa once said that, “Suffering is a gift of God.” Nevertheless, we would all like to go without it. In the clinical setting, pain and suffering are two words that are used in conjunction.
“Reality never presents us with an absolutely unavoidable ‘either-or’; that, granted skill and patience and (above all) time enough, some way of embracing both alternatives can always be found” (Preface:VII). Lewis suggests here that time if spent right can bring us to self-realization of our journey, and in effect influence our choices. These choices are dependent on time. As wrong choices are made only in time, no truly rational choices can be made will out of the realm of time. Time is the evil that surrounds us. It is the letting go of this time when we truly feel void of problems. Only by letting go of our problems we will be able to communicate with God, while in the essence of being one with ourselves and finding our true inner self.
The question of suffering comes up much when talking about, or practicing any religion. Many ask why people suffer, and what causes suffering? The various religions try to answer these questions in their own way. Pico Iyer’s editorial, “The Value of Suffering” addresses the questions of suffering and how it is handled. This article could be compared to the Bhagavad-Gita which also addresses and explains suffering through different stories of the interactions of humans and different Gods. One can specifically look at “The Second Teaching” in the Bhagavad-Gita, which explains the interaction between a man named Arjuna and the god Krishna. In it Arjuna is suffering because he does not want to fight in a war and with people whom he should be worshiping. Krishna says to fight because the souls of the people will forever live on, and because he needs to fulfill his Dharma. With what is known about the Bhagavad-Gita and how Iyer thinks about the subject, Iyer would agree with how the Bhagavad-Gita address suffering.
Trip, D. (1999), “The Christian view of suffering” [Online], Exploring Christianity. Available from: http://www.christianity.co.nz/suffer4.htm [Accessed 18 April 2008].
middle of paper ... ... Being free of pain is something that we feel within us to be intrinsically joyful, and no reason can be used to explain further why we wish to be joyful, or in good health. These things we just sense, and even a murderer, who rejects morality on the social level, will do whatever he can to avoid the displeasures of his inner being. His sentiments, if only for himself, remain within him. “One thing can always be a reason, why another is desired.
"There is much pain that is quite noiseless; and that make human agonies are often a mere whisper in the of hurrying existence. There are glances of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder; robberies that leave man of woman for ever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer-committed to no sound except that of low moans in the night, seen in no writing except that made on the face by the slow months of suppressed anguish and early morning tears. Many an inherited sorrow that has marred a life has been breathed into no human ear." George Eliot (1819-80), English novelist,editor. Felis Holt, the Radical, Introduction (1866).What is pain? In the American Heritage Dictionary, pain is referred to as "an unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder." The word is rooted in Middle English, from an Old French piene, from Latin poena, meaning "penalty or pain", and from Greek pointe, meaning "penalty." Pain is a very realistic problem that many individuals face daily.