A Fragment on the Problem of Pain

[I debated whether to provide any context for this post. I've decided that it is important, for understanding the tone in which this fragment is offered, to know that I wrote this, not out of academic interest, but in response to an experience of pain. I am speaking to myself here more than anyone else.]

The so-called “New Atheists”—Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, etc.—like to talk about the “Problem of Evil” (Which I think is more properly called the Problem of Pain) as a logical criticism of ethical monotheism (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). They treat it as a logical problem which they, or at least their scientific-minded predecessors, have discovered about the beliefs of those religions. If you’re not sure what the Problem of Pain is, here’s a brief summary:

A.      Evil exists in the world, and pain happens.

B.      A loving god who is all good would not allow evil or pain to exist if he could prevent it.

C.      Therefore, if God exists, then either (1) he is not all-powerful, because he cannot prevent evil and pain, or (2) he is not all good, because he allows them to exist.

This argument, the New Atheists claim, proves that the existence of an all-good and all powerful god is logically impossible.

The problem with this argument is that atheists are simply not equipped to have discussions about the god that believers actually believe in. One will notice that none of the New Atheists have any background in theology whatsoever. They have about as much authority to speak about religion as I have to speak about evolutionary biology or neuroscience—which is to say, none. See, if they had any theological training they would see the glaring assumptions which their argument makes. The Logical Problem of Pain assumes (1) that human beings are able to identify good and evil when they see it, and understand how it is good or evil, and (2) that we know what it means to say that God is good. We can challenge these assumptions with a logical argument of our own:

A.      The god of ethical monotheism is infinite—all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-present, all-good and all-loving.

B.      Human beings are finite—they are limited in power, knowledge, presence, goodness and love.

C.      Therefore it is impossible for limited humans to know what goodness and love truly are, or to fully grasp the nature of God.

The Logical problem of evil doesn’t work because it is based on assumptions that cannot be proven by logic. As Christians (I will narrow my focus now because I am speaking as a Christian) we know that God is beyond us, that in our fallen nature we do not always know goodness when we see it, and when we do see it we don’t always know how it is good. This is why we need revelation, because it helps us to understand these things (in a limited way, of course). For instance, Christianity teaches us that the goodness of God means that he gives us a choice whether to follow him or not, and that he respects us enough to give us what we choose. With this understanding of God, there is no inconsistency between his goodness and the existence of evil or pain. The Logical Problem of Pain is rendered moot. This is why I will make the seemingly-bold claim that no believer has ever lost their faith because of the Logical Problem of Pain.

Now I imagine that not everyone followed me with that last conclusion. It seems callous or ignorant of me to say that no believer has ever struggled with the logical problem of pain. But that is because the true Problem of Pain is not logical. The true Problem of Pain is existential. What I mean is this: the true problem of pain doesn’t come up in a philosophy class—it comes up in real life, and in real life the problem of pain is not a philosophical problem. See, the New Atheists never acknowledge the interesting fact that the Problem of Pain doesn’t come from atheists, but from believers. The first meditations on the problem came from the context of religion—the Book of Job, for instance, as well as several similar works that come from the Babylonian tradition. This is because the true problem of pain can only come up in the life of someone who believes in God.

The Problem of Pain is experienced by a person who believes that God is good, that he loves them, and who has experienced (or at least believes they have experienced) his goodness and love. It becomes a problem when they suddenly experience something that seems out of character for a good god, when God seems to have done something that is not good or is not loving. The believer has come to expect the goodness of God, and suddenly they experience something in their own life that challenges that image. This is why the Problem of Pain can strike a believer at any time, any stage in life, any level of development. Because humans are finite, eventually we are going to experience an event in which our idea of goodness and the true nature of goodness collide.

Job was a wise man, a religious man. He was the priest of his household. Then suddenly something happened that challenged his idea of a good god.  Suddenly he discovered that his image of God and of goodness could not explain what had happened to him. What ensues in that book is a struggle between Job and God: if Job’s idea of goodness was correct, then God had mistreated him. If God’s idea of goodness was correct, then Job had no right to challenge him. This is why (I believe) the Book of Job never gives us an explanation of why God allowed the bad things to happen to Job: because the ultimate answer to the problem of pain is submission to God, faith that his is in fact good and in a way we cannot understand. Even Jesus experienced the problem of pain—in Gethsemane when he begged God to take the cup from him, and on the cross when he asked why God had forsaken him. But Christ responded to the problem of pain in the correct way, with submission.

If I have a point, I guess my point is this: first of all, the problem of pain is, well, painful. And it can strike anyone at any stage in their lives. We all have a limited concept of who God is and what it means for him to be good. Eventually we are going to experience a situation in which our concept of God and of the good cannot explain our experiences. And these experiences are infinitely more intense than the logical problem of pain could ever be. Atheists are simply incapable of experiencing this. 

Second of all, the solution to the problem of pain is submission. We are limited creatures—we will never know the full goodness of God, not in this life anyway. God’s true goodness is beyond what we can know, and better than whatever we think it is. If we truly understand that God is beyond us, then we must be submissive to his goodness. This is not to say that it is a simple matter to deal with the problem of pain—I would never claim this. Like I said, the problem of pain is painful, it cuts us to the very core every time, and it cannot be avoided. But eventually, if we are faithful, we will learn to submit to the goodness of God, even if we never get to understand it. Job had the answer right the first time when he said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away: may the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21 NIV).