The Problem of Pain Critique
In the first chapter of “The Problem of Pain,” C.S. Lewis, the author, opens with an observation of the universe and of pain. He notes that the universe is a vast, cold, desolate, and lonely place and if there were really a God, he would not make a harsh universe like the one we live in. This is the reason why he denied Christianity for so long. Lewis also writes that pain exists on earth, and if God was a loving one, he would not allow us to feel pain.
In the second chapter, Lewis opens with a thought and lays out the foundation for the rest of the book: “If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what he wished. But the creatures are
Tom Paine’s, A Boys Book of Nervous Breakdowns: Stories, published by Louisiana State University in 2015, is a collection of stories that deals with issues from war, Wall Street, and to inner demons within a human mind. Each story there are the main characters, the background characters, and the care free characters. Each character struggles with some form of sickness whether its PTSD, depression, or suicidal thoughts. Every character is not some hero to change the world but to struggle and survive everyday problems. Whether it’s a soldier from Afghanistan with a girlfriend that wants a normal life, to a Japanese reggae singer that is positive that the CIA killed the infamous singer Bob Marley.
In 1776, tensions between the American colonies and Great Britain were high. A war was brewing. There were those who desired independence, such as Thomas Paine, and there were those, like Charles Inglis, who wanted to remain loyal to Great Britain. Both Paine and Inglis penned influential works to the colonists in regards to preserving their way of life. Inglis wrote The Deceiver Unmasked as a rebuttal to Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, because he understood the far reaching effects the pamphlet could have on the public. Common Sense was an emotional appeal to a population in which emotional tensions were high. Through discrediting Paine, elevating himself, and arguing both sides of the conflict, Inglis effectively emphasizes the need for the colonists to think logically and thoroughly before a war broke out.
If Christ lives in us, controlling our personalities, we will leave glorious marks on the lives we touch. Not because of our lovely characters, but because of his. –Eugenia Price.
In C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity, The Obstinate Toy Soldier is a chapter with good points. Lewis takes his reader step by step through this chapter. In paragraph one he talks about how humans are consumed with the here and now, so people do not really think about what would have happened if humans never fell. Paragraph two is about how natural life and spiritual life are not just separate, but opposing sides. Lewis says this because people are born one way and God wants them another way. If these two sides, natural and spiritual life, combined then the way people normally do things would be destroyed in the process. It is like the analogy about the people who were brought up dirty and are afraid to take a bath. Lewis states in paragraph three that if we were to try and make a toy soldier human, that the toy would not see it as helping it, but as trying to destroy it. In some ways people see God this way even though he is trying to save our souls. Paragraphs four and five shed some light on who Jesus was. According to C.S. Lewis he was a real man of particular attributes and ever...
In 2002, Doctor Armand Nicholi, Jr. sought to put two of the greatest minds of the 20th century together to debate the answer to the lifelong question, “Is there a God, and if so, how should we respond to his existence?” Nicholi is the first scholar to ever put the arguments of C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud side by side in an attempt to recreate as realistic of a debate as possible between the two men. He examines their writings, letters, and lectures in an attempt to accurately represent both men in this debate. His result, the nearly 300 page book, The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life, is one of the most comprehensive, well researched, and unbiased summaries of the debate between the worldviews of “believer and unbeliever” (Pg. 5).
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.
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.” Clive Staples Lewis, known as C.S. Lewis, was a popular Irish author, famous for his Christian works, especially “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Throughout his novels, Lewis enlightened his readers with his views about faith. Although his novels were revolved around Christianity, Lewis was not always a believer. There were many things that influenced Lewis as a writer, but the most significant were his love of fantasy, his fascination with mythology, and his Christian beliefs.
When Lewis says that Christians are in for a rough time, he means it. Just because we are Christians and begin to see some transformation in our lives from the past, does not mean everything is going to be easy from there on out. God is always with us, but sometimes he does things that make us uncomfortable in the moment to make for a better tomorrow. When we are going through something of this sort, we do may think that it is unnecessary, but we cannot see down the road that God is taking us
Aim. The purpose of this paper is to clarify and analyze the meaning of the concept of pain. The paper will clarify the defining attributes of pain and identify the antecedents that influence the perception of pain and list the consequences of pain. It will also state the empirical referents in reference to pain.
The analogy breaks down messages that are revealed in the Bible in order for the average person to understand what it being said, similar to how Jesus used parables to explain his teachings to mass audiences. The people listening to Jesus’ sermons weren’t very educated and had little prior knowledge about who Jesus was. He had to make his sermons relatable to the audience, just as C.S. Lewis does with his readers. Within the novel, Lewis also only covers what he considered the “basic teaching of orthodox Christianity.” Many theologists either focused on details that were unimportant to a new believer, or they wrote in ways that were difficult for the average person to understand. Lewis did not see himself as educated enough to provide a detailed theological and historical explanation of the doctrines that he discusses, but because of the lack of simplicity in religious works of literature, he strove to educate people on the basic outline of Christian beliefs (Mueller). Lewis explained his purpose for writing Mere Christianity in an interesting way,
Trip, D. (1999), “The Christian view of suffering” [Online], Exploring Christianity. Available from: http://www.christianity.co.nz/suffer4.htm [Accessed 18 April 2008].
The problem of reconciling an omnipotent, perfectly just, perfectly benevolent god with a world full of evil and suffering has plagued believers since the beginning of religious thought. Atheists often site this paradox in order to demonstrate that such a god cannot exist and, therefore, that theism is an invalid position. Theodicy is a branch of philosophy that seeks to defend religion by reconciling the supposed existence of an omnipotent, perfectly just God with the presence of evil and suffering in the world. In fact, the word “theodicy” consists of the Greek words “theos,” or God, and “dike,” or justice (Knox 1981, 1). Thus, theodicy seeks to find a sense of divine justice in a world filled with suffering.
Lewis died quietly in 1962, his works continue to be read, studied and enjoyed. He has a unique style and large array of skills that allowed him to write in many ways. Lewis’ “case” for Christianity is strong because he uses just the right amount of logical and emotional appeal. As G.K. Chesterton wrote “A man is partially convinced when he has found this or that proof for a thing and he can expound it. But a man is not really convinced of a philosophical theory when he finds that something proves it. He is only really convinced when he finds everything proves it (qtd 133 Purtill). However, Lewis has opened up the conversation and ignited the spark to ask questions about Christianity which is ultimately the goal of anyone advocating Christianity.
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.