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<\/a>Meaning in Pain Proves There\u2019s a God (Jeff Cook)<\/p>\nToday we hit what I see as the second best reason to believe in\u00a0a God, and as I outline in more detail in\u00a0Everything New<\/a><\/em>, this is the reason I not only\u00a0believe in a God, but a very specific God.<\/p>\n Anyone who thinks seriously about God has to think about the evil in our world\u2014both the moral evils that some human beings inflict on others, and the natural evils that seem to unthinkingly strike even the best people.<\/p>\n Many have argued that the suffering in our world gives us a good \u201creason\u201d to reject God-belief, for certainly a good God would act decisively to end sex slavery. A good God would destroy Malaria. A good God would not remain silent in the face of war, disease, the death of children, and the other tragedies that many experience each day.<\/p>\n But there are other arguments that arise out of pain and suffering in our world. If God does not exist, the vast majority of horrific suffering fails to lead to\u00a0any<\/em>\u00a0identifiable good. Most tragedies kill the victim before the victim can discover any meaning in their pain. As such, when a young girl dies of bone cancer, when a region is drowned by a tsunami, when a man detonates a bomb laced with nails and ball bearings in a crowded area\u2014these catastrophes have no resolution or value for the deceased.<\/p>\n If there is no God such victims couldn\u2019t experience their pains being made right again, couldn\u2019t work through the tragedy to find value. Such evils were just brute facts to swallow at gravesites.<\/p>\n Conversely, if God is real, suffering and death might be doors leading to new lands. They could be transformed in God\u2019s future into meaningful experiences, for no matter what might happen to the body of someone suffering, her soul might grow, her mind might progress, her future self that God was presently fashioning might alter into something far more substantial.<\/p>\n We might outline such an argument this way:<\/p>\n (P1)\u00a0\u00a0Horrendous pains resulting in the death of a human being occur daily in our world.<\/p>\n (P2)\u00a0\u00a0If materialism is true, Horrendous pains resulting in death hold no meaning for the sufferer.<\/p>\n (P3)\u00a0\u00a0Without meaning for the deceased sufferer, horrendous pains resulting in death are irredeemably tragic.<\/p>\n (P4)\u00a0\u00a0If materialism is true, our world experiences daily events that are irredeemably tragic.<\/p>\n (P5)\u00a0 Our world does not contain events that are irredeemably tragic.\u00a0\u00a0 [Denying the repugnant conclusion]<\/p>\n (C1) \u00a0 Materialism is false.<\/p>\n (P6)\u00a0\u00a0In order for there to be meaning in the horrendous pains resulting in death in our world, there must be a mind of immense power that can create states of affairs in which pain of the quality and quantity we experience are transformed into good.<\/p>\n (C2)\u00a0\u00a0Given P5 and P6, a mind of immense power that can create states of affairs in which the horrendous pains resulting in death in our world are transformed into good exists (and this being we call God).<\/p>\n What does pain tell us about our world? This may be the primary question for a world like ours.<\/p>\n When I look at desperately sad event through the perspective of God-belief and of materialism only one holds out the potential for real hope. The other is irredeemably tragic.<\/p>\n Suffering gives me a substantial reason to embrace God-belief, for a God alone could take a world that is clearly groaning and transform those spots into something alive. But if there is no God, most of the pain experienced by those I love, by most of humanity in fact, is plainly pointless.<\/p>\n As philosopher Peter Kreeft notes, If God is absent then our lives, with all the spots of light in them, are surrounded by darkness, but if God is real then our lives, with all the spots of darkness in them are surrounded by light. Jeff Cook lectures on philosophy at the University of Northern Colorado. He is the author of\u00a0<\/em>Everything New: One Philosopher\u2019s Search for a God Worth Believing in<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(Subversive 2012). You can find him at\u00a0\u00a0everythingnew.org<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0@ Meaning in Pain Proves There\u2019s a God (Jeff Cook) Today we hit what I see as the second best reason to believe in\u00a0a God, and as I outline in more detail in\u00a0Everything New, this is the reason I not only\u00a0believe in a God, but a very specific God. Anyone who thinks seriously about God has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWhen we assume that there\u2019s no God, the value and meaning of suffering in our world is fairly clear. As many have pointed out, in a universe of blind physical forces some people will get hurt, other people will get lucky, and we won\u2019t find any rhyme or reason in any of it.<\/p>\n
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