The Problem of Pain

Chapter six of Lewis's book, The Problem of Pain, is titled human pain, and talks about where pain comes from and what it is. "When souls become wicked they will certainly use this possibility to hurt one another; and this, perhaps, accounts for four-fifths of the sufferings of men. It is men, not God, who have produced racks, whips, prisons, slavery, guns, bayonets, and bombs; it is by human avarice or human stupidity, not by the churlishness of nature, that we have poverty and overwork." We have created this kind of pain in the world, but physical pain is not the only type of pain in the world. "Pain is synonymous with suffering, anguish, tribulation, adversity, or trouble, and it is about it that the problem of pain arises." If God is all powerful and all good, then how is there pain in the world? That is the question, and the problem of pain. As seen in Lewis' quote earlier, mankind has created much of the pain in the world. Some of the other pains, such as diseases, are controlled by Satan as seen in the Bible in Job. Another explanation is that pain can be good for us. Many times it takes people pain or some big event in their life to turn back to God. We want God as our backup but in the good times when everything is going right we don't think we need him. As a friend of Lewis said, "We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; its there for emergencies but he hopes he'll never have to use it," The pain of being poor can actually be good because we don't have the distraction of money to keep us from God, but it can also get in the way if our poverty is all we worry about. "Poverty is blessed and yet ought to be removed."