It's been a problem of pain by itself to read the 'Problem of Pain' by C.S. Lewis. Although I love this kind of book, I bet it's too philosophical for many. I even finished reading another book (with similar number of pages) in between just to be refreshed. The difference in reading time is evident.
Now, I honestly thought that it's best to preserve things I highlighted in the book into a bit of writing. However, I will present my own ideas supported/envisioned by this Lewis' piece of art. That way I'll avoiding to not spoiling too many ideas / quotes from the books itself, but if you are either not comfortable with this idea OR philosophically-challenged, it's best for you to pause reading this post until you passed these two criterions.
So you've decided to keep reading. Great, but now I want to warn you to keep an open and critical mind throughout just for the sake of making this a quality reading.
Firstly, let's ask this profound question : Why does pain exist ? Okay, rest assured that I won't try to answer this question right now, but let's try to do this instead : Imagine a world without pain, be it physical or mental. No objects, no activities can make you hurtful in any way. But what does this directly imply ? The word pain itself will have no meaning at all. Even more, if someone call that world 'a perfect world', is there any meaning to the word perfect without knowing what pain is ? Can we imagine a world with pain, by living in a world without pain ? Really, I don't think I can ! On the other hand, in our current world of pain, we can always imagine a world without pain, or at least know there is such possibility. Ponder about it for a while.
Why, you ask ? It's as simple as : it's next to impossible to imagine something that both don't exist (as far as you know) and doesn't have anything related to it in the real world. Magical tree like in the movies ? At least it's a tree, so you can imagine it as an object having roots/leaves/branches. All (or if not, most) of our thoughts are derived from something in the real world that we have experienced by our senses. Moreover, it's not hard to say that there is a possibility of world without pain (just by knowing the word pain !), even if you can't imagine what kind of place it is.
Now you complain that this doesn't have anything to do with the big question "Why does pain exist ?" Wait a minute. By now you should have noticed that we won't have the question "Why doesn't pain exist ?" in the world without pain. If our current world is a world without pain, then we won't have this troublesome matter of asking questions about pain. Of course this is a very general conclusion, that I can change the word pain with some other thing like air, for instance. But if we were to ask a more complete question like "If an all-loving God exists, then why does pain exist ?", then you soon will see why I brought the above's topic. Here one is not trying to prove that God exists (in fact this post will not argue about God's existence at all), but assuming that God exists, one wants to find out 'why the pain' ?
Let's take a break, or drink a glass or two if your brain already starts heating up here.
Now try to assume that God exists (in a Christian manner), but in a world without pain (perfect world). God; perfect by definition; must also co-exist, living together with us in that perfect world God wants us, his creation, to live in that perfect world, but He created humans to have 'free will' (the ability to act with one's own discretion, be it good or evil). And by that free will, human could choose (and had chosen) to do sinful deeds, so they couldn't coexist with God, who is Holy and thus, can't unite with sin. What does this mean ? A human with such free will can't live in a perfect world !
Garden of Eden is a representation of the perfect world which definitely can't stand with free-willed humans for too long. Hence, the Fall. Humans need to live in a new world, an imperfect world. It's called imperfect for lacking something, let's call this factor X. But God still wants us humans to enter the perfect world (or what we use to call Heaven), once again. As God now doesn't live together with human, He needs something to inform these humans; in a compelling manner; that the world that they are currently living, is an imperfect world. God uses this factor X to make humans realize that they will never be comfortable living in the current world. There you go, X = Pain. This way, you can think of Hell as an eternal, imperfect world without God. The suffering/pain that happens there are therefore necessary. And it is up to human to choose (with his free will) which option he/she prefers.
Now you complain that this doesn't have anything to do with the big question "Why does pain exist ?" Wait a minute. By now you should have noticed that we won't have the question "Why doesn't pain exist ?" in the world without pain. If our current world is a world without pain, then we won't have this troublesome matter of asking questions about pain. Of course this is a very general conclusion, that I can change the word pain with some other thing like air, for instance. But if we were to ask a more complete question like "If an all-loving God exists, then why does pain exist ?", then you soon will see why I brought the above's topic. Here one is not trying to prove that God exists (in fact this post will not argue about God's existence at all), but assuming that God exists, one wants to find out 'why the pain' ?
Let's take a break, or drink a glass or two if your brain already starts heating up here.
Garden of Eden is a representation of the perfect world which definitely can't stand with free-willed humans for too long. Hence, the Fall. Humans need to live in a new world, an imperfect world. It's called imperfect for lacking something, let's call this factor X. But God still wants us humans to enter the perfect world (or what we use to call Heaven), once again. As God now doesn't live together with human, He needs something to inform these humans; in a compelling manner; that the world that they are currently living, is an imperfect world. God uses this factor X to make humans realize that they will never be comfortable living in the current world. There you go, X = Pain. This way, you can think of Hell as an eternal, imperfect world without God. The suffering/pain that happens there are therefore necessary. And it is up to human to choose (with his free will) which option he/she prefers.
"No doubt Pain as God's megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity that the bad man can have for amendment. It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul" - C.S. LewisI'll just stop here for now. This is far from what the book itself tells about Pain, but if I were to explain my answers briefly, without taking out the important points, this will probably it. Comments are welcome, by the way.
