Hello friends.
Upon reflection, I thought that I might share some thoughts on pain and reflection to begin a time of sharing and discussion.
More below the fold:
We all experience pain. No one's pain is to be trivialized. We all experience pain in different ways. We can't compare the pain that people feel. Our hearts hurt. We search for answers and relief. This is true of all of us, regardless of our world view (be we atheists, agnostics, buddists, Christians, ...). We all need love and affirmation.
I have thought upon this topic since I was a child. My experiences led me to attempt suicide numerous times (by ingesting lethal amounts of poison, 15 pills at once, slitting my wrists and so on). I don't mind sharing them here if it would be helpful to others. I have known women who were raped (my wife and another person, a friend).
I have had 3 major times of depression in my life. The first culminated in numerous suicide attempts for a number of years.
Then I became a fundamentalist Christian. And the first and main group I was around brought a great deal of healing to my life. This was as an undergraduate in college. I was surrounded by affirming people and doing things that made me feel part of something larger (God and His plan). Then, I went through a really tough situation and I was separated from this group. Then I found healing from that, again in Christian circles. Then, I married. And with the separation and the separated disks, the McDonalds situation and even being scammed lately, I am dealing with it once again.
To me, there are no easy and obvious answers to pain.
I am an agnostic. I used to be a fundamentalist Christian (until 2005 or so - graduate school).
I will ask questions and offer some humble reflections.
Is there meaning in pain ?
Is pain beneficial ?
Is pain evil ?
Is evil the reason that pain exists ?
What is the source of pain ?
If so, are there ultimate solutions ?
What context and perspective should we have in regards to pain ?
Different world views offer different perspectives on pain and answer these questions differently. As a nurturing and compassionate person, many people come to me with their hurts. My approach is to take from their own personal world view and use those beliefs to be an agent of healing for them. I would find it very callous to use someone's pain as an excuse to push my own views on them, if I had any.
One other thing I must state for the record: There are an enormous amount of people who are a lot smarter in every way than I am, including in mathematics.
Still, I hope that the faculties that I possess and a humble heart help to analyze this issue.
For fundamentalist Christians, pain and evil is a problem. Christians wonder why they are going through such pain. They wonder why other Christians wrong them. They struggle to trust God in the midst of it.
The question comes to them: Why hasn't God destroyed evil ?
But we receive the retort: You mean, why hasn't God destroyed you ? You just want God to get rid of your problems, not get rid of all evil because you, like all other humans, are evil. God has not yet gotten rid of evil. That does not mean that He won't or can't do it in the future.
And I must say that fundamentalist Christianity does at least provide some answers:
Where did the Universe come from ?
Is there such a thing as evil ?
Are there moral absolutes ?
How is evil to be dealt with ?
What is the future of the universe ?
If there is no perfect absolute standard, then we have no basis to declare anything evil. So, I can't say that rape is evil. It is simply inconvenient. This, logically, must be my position as an agnostic, unless I adopt the inconsistent view that I know that there are moral absolutes. God, the fundamentalists define, as the essence of moral perfection.
On the other hand, as an agnostic, I am free from the theonomists and proposition 8. I am free from the brow beating and the evangelism, the people who think that they are the Holy Spirit.
The fundamentalist Christians have epistemological certainty.
But for the rest of us questions remain:
Can we be wronged ?
How are wrongs to be made right ?
How ought we to treat people ? How do we go from is to ought logically ?
C. S. Lewis said that God shouts to us in our pain.
Pain is an opportunity for growth and can produce the ability to comfort others. But then, why should they need comfort ?
I believe that my experiences of pain have been vital in making me the person I am today. The compassion in my heart today was not there prior to the pain. I believe that I grew deeply from those experiences.
For me, I do have some things that I label as evil, even if I am doing so in a logically inconsistent manner.
First and foremost, racism and prejudice I find evil.
I find gender discrimination evil.
I find overly judgmental people evil.
I find hatred and opposition to science evil.
I find it evil when theonomists want to impose their views upon the rest of us.
How are you my friends ? What are you going through now ? Sharing might help and I believe that you will find compassionate friends here !
I believe in kindness. I believe in equality. I believe in equality of opportunity. I believe in the social safety net. I believe in peace.
I believe in LOVE.