Some Thoughts About the Intended Consequences of Pain
by bob hyatt

Imagine if you called for help and no one came.

Imagine further that no one even knew what you meant when you asked for "help", that when you said the word "compassion" all you got was a blank stare or when you said "justice" people just scratched their heads

The problem of suffering has plagued theologians (both the armchair variety as well as the professional kind) and braced cynics for millennia. How can we look at the world in which we live and conclude that God is either all-powerful or all-loving? Either He loves us but is powerless to end our suffering, or He is able to end suffering on earth but just doesn't care enough to want to make the effort. Perhaps He is neither all-loving nor all-powerful. Perhaps, some wonder when they watch the evening news, He isn't there at all.

This topic has been extensively written about, and endlessly debated. I think for many newly-minted college atheists its definitely a hot seller. There are many good ideas about the problem of evil, and how a good God could allow suffering (most of those ideas having to do with the inevitable consequences of mans free will). Even so, I'm fairly certain I cant end the debate here. But I do want to add a twist, and that's this: Without evil in general and suffering in particular, most of the qualities that we love in people, many of the things we think of as character would be non-existent.

It occurred to me awhile ago as I thought about what had happened on Sept 11th that just as without sin there would also be no forgiveness, and just as without crime there would also be neither justice or mercy, a world without suffering would also be a world without compassion. A world without need is a world without giving. And a world without all of the things which we hate in life just might also be a world without all of the things we aspire to, all of the things we hope to be, all of the best qualities that we love to see in others and someday hope to see in ourselves.

Think of it this way: The outpouring of compassion and charity in response to acts of terrorism, the actions of a heroic many, acts of sacrifice in the face of suffering… all of these would have been left undone, had tragedy never occurred. A world without terrorists is a world without heroes.