The Secular 'Answer'
If there is a God, why is there pain? The question everyone asks of Christianity. Hopefully you have seen that Christianity has some answers to that question. The real question that should be asked is, if there is no God, why is there pain? Far from trying to say that God is the source of all the pain in the world, what I wish to imply is that without God, there is no purpose in pain.
“The real test of a theory or way of life, however, is not whether it can relieve the pain, but what it says about the pain it can’t relieve. And this is where, I think, psychology lets us down and Christianity supports us. For in psychology suffering has no meaning, while in Christianity it has great meaning.” ~Williams Kirk Kilpatrick
If there be no God, one of three outlooks on pain emerge. Pain is life. Pain is pointless. Pain is an illusion. These three interlocking outlooks are the only somewhat cohesive answers I have found available to those outside of Christianity.
Pain is life. Survival of the fittest. Pain is natures way of moving evolution along. If you can’t stand the fire, get out of the kitchen (die). It is better for the weak to die, they hold other people back. This may sound cold, but these are not my words.
“With Savages, the weak in body or mind, are soon eliminated. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination... No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals would doubt, that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worse animals to breed.” ~Charles Darwin
This is a cold outlook, but in the eyes of many, purely scientific. It is Darwin’s survival of the fittest applied to life. Some argue that science should not be applied to other fields, but should stay in science, but if science Is reality, then it must be applied to all of life, for it is True.
Pain is pointless. This is a depressing outlook. It is the answer of a calloused heart. It is reached after a point in which the heart bleeds so much that it will no longer allow itself to be hurt by evicting itself of all emotions. It has no answer for why there is pain because it denies pain any purpose. There is no reason or purpose behind your suffering. What happens happens. Fate is determined and it is out of your hands. There is nothing you can do about it. This is no answer but is a denial of the question.
Pain is an illusion. Buddhism is based upon this. 1) Life is pain. 2)Pain is an illusion. 3)Rid yourself of pain by detaching yourself of all things in life. That is a simplified form of it. So this idea begs the question why is there pain. What pain? Pain doesn’t exist, it is an illusion created by your overreactive mind trapped within your body. This also is cold. It takes those things that break your heart and says, this pain is your fault for believing it is actually real. It does not actually exist, you are just deluded. Your father just died. You feel pain because you hold onto a lie. Let go and you will feel no pain. It is like a spit in the face. It is no answer to why the heart is breaking. Why this had to happen. Why it hurts so much.
The world has no answer outside of Christianity. It is still difficult, but there is great purpose within Christianity.
Jared Williams
“The real test of a theory or way of life, however, is not whether it can relieve the pain, but what it says about the pain it can’t relieve. And this is where, I think, psychology lets us down and Christianity supports us. For in psychology suffering has no meaning, while in Christianity it has great meaning.” ~Williams Kirk Kilpatrick
If there be no God, one of three outlooks on pain emerge. Pain is life. Pain is pointless. Pain is an illusion. These three interlocking outlooks are the only somewhat cohesive answers I have found available to those outside of Christianity.
Pain is life. Survival of the fittest. Pain is natures way of moving evolution along. If you can’t stand the fire, get out of the kitchen (die). It is better for the weak to die, they hold other people back. This may sound cold, but these are not my words.
“With Savages, the weak in body or mind, are soon eliminated. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination... No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals would doubt, that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worse animals to breed.” ~Charles Darwin
This is a cold outlook, but in the eyes of many, purely scientific. It is Darwin’s survival of the fittest applied to life. Some argue that science should not be applied to other fields, but should stay in science, but if science Is reality, then it must be applied to all of life, for it is True.
Pain is pointless. This is a depressing outlook. It is the answer of a calloused heart. It is reached after a point in which the heart bleeds so much that it will no longer allow itself to be hurt by evicting itself of all emotions. It has no answer for why there is pain because it denies pain any purpose. There is no reason or purpose behind your suffering. What happens happens. Fate is determined and it is out of your hands. There is nothing you can do about it. This is no answer but is a denial of the question.
Pain is an illusion. Buddhism is based upon this. 1) Life is pain. 2)Pain is an illusion. 3)Rid yourself of pain by detaching yourself of all things in life. That is a simplified form of it. So this idea begs the question why is there pain. What pain? Pain doesn’t exist, it is an illusion created by your overreactive mind trapped within your body. This also is cold. It takes those things that break your heart and says, this pain is your fault for believing it is actually real. It does not actually exist, you are just deluded. Your father just died. You feel pain because you hold onto a lie. Let go and you will feel no pain. It is like a spit in the face. It is no answer to why the heart is breaking. Why this had to happen. Why it hurts so much.
The world has no answer outside of Christianity. It is still difficult, but there is great purpose within Christianity.
Jared Williams
