Monday, December 08, 2003
Reviewing The Problem of Pain
As C.S. Lewis puts it, pain is of two types:
a.) A sensation that is recognizable, whether likeable or disagreeable.
b.) Any disagreeable experience. Suffering, anguish, tribulation, adversity, or trouble.
There is much more to say on this subject. But beforehand, I'll interject my opinion, and that is that the problem of pain is that it establishes. Meaning that, while one can tolerate some pain, even this toleration removes a level of will from the subject because it inflicts an understanding upon the subject, who now has expectations.
"Imagine at birth that we are all blocks of potential. Perfect, square, unblemished blocks. Not perfect in their morality, but in their fullness of potential. That is to say that we are born neither good or evil. Only innocent. Over time's course, these blocks are weathered by pain -- physical harm, mental anguish. Like a sculptor's block, we are chipped at, whittled down -- to the form of man."
Lewis states that he can have a toothache that hurts x. The person next to him may also suffer, and complain that it hurts exactly as much as Lewis's pain. Therefore, the pain in the room is 2x. Lewis scoffs at this, saying "there is no such thing as a sum of suffering." That is to say that once we have reached a maximum of suffering, we've reached a terrible point indeed, but that this is the greatest suffering in the universe; "the addition of a million fellow-sufferers adds no more pain."
Adding to that . . .
In Lewis's discussion of Hell, he notes that souls cannot be consumed. If they could, they would be the only truly unique entities. Wood may be burnt, but there is a natural remnant left over from this process. So if a soul could be destroyed, one would think, at the least, there is a state of "having been a soul." He argues, then, that this could be the ultimate pain, the fate of having to be 'one who has been' -- 'being', permanently in or defined as the past.
"Their vision fails them and they cover their eyes from the intolerable light of utter actuality, which was and is and shall be, which never could have been otherwise, which has no opposite."
With that said, pain provides the opportunity for heroism.
a.) A sensation that is recognizable, whether likeable or disagreeable.
b.) Any disagreeable experience. Suffering, anguish, tribulation, adversity, or trouble.
There is much more to say on this subject. But beforehand, I'll interject my opinion, and that is that the problem of pain is that it establishes. Meaning that, while one can tolerate some pain, even this toleration removes a level of will from the subject because it inflicts an understanding upon the subject, who now has expectations.
"Imagine at birth that we are all blocks of potential. Perfect, square, unblemished blocks. Not perfect in their morality, but in their fullness of potential. That is to say that we are born neither good or evil. Only innocent. Over time's course, these blocks are weathered by pain -- physical harm, mental anguish. Like a sculptor's block, we are chipped at, whittled down -- to the form of man."
Lewis states that he can have a toothache that hurts x. The person next to him may also suffer, and complain that it hurts exactly as much as Lewis's pain. Therefore, the pain in the room is 2x. Lewis scoffs at this, saying "there is no such thing as a sum of suffering." That is to say that once we have reached a maximum of suffering, we've reached a terrible point indeed, but that this is the greatest suffering in the universe; "the addition of a million fellow-sufferers adds no more pain."
Adding to that . . .
In Lewis's discussion of Hell, he notes that souls cannot be consumed. If they could, they would be the only truly unique entities. Wood may be burnt, but there is a natural remnant left over from this process. So if a soul could be destroyed, one would think, at the least, there is a state of "having been a soul." He argues, then, that this could be the ultimate pain, the fate of having to be 'one who has been' -- 'being', permanently in or defined as the past.
"Their vision fails them and they cover their eyes from the intolerable light of utter actuality, which was and is and shall be, which never could have been otherwise, which has no opposite."
With that said, pain provides the opportunity for heroism.
