The Meaning of Pain & Suffering?

[ronedee]

Just in time for the Lenten season!

Does anyone here feel there is any value to Pain & Suffering?

Excepting: "alerts" to abnormal bodily function, and the growing pains of children and physical strength endurance.

What got me started on this was two things: A situation happened with a close friend who died unexpectently, and in Hospice care. Also in one of the articles about Mother Teresa.... one of my atheist friends here was to kindly point out. It dealt with the writer being torn about the treatment, or in this case non-treatment of people suffering that were close to death!

I just want to get a synopsis from [those interested] in this subject before I weigh in on my experiences with the issues concerning suffering from a: spiritual, religious, physical and personal pov.

Thanks ahead of time for your serious, thoughtful and intelligent opinions. Ron

[downbeatplumb]

Does anyone here feel there is any value to Pain & Suffering?

I know Tiberious, does I've seen the pictures!

On a more serious note pain has a useful function up to a point, telling you to keep off that broken leg or to pull the hand away from the flame.
People who don;t feel pain tend to live short lives.

What got me started on this was two things: A situation happened with a close friend who died unexpectently, and in Hospice care. Also in one of the articles about Mother Teresa.... one of my atheist friends here was to kindly point out. It dealt with the writer being torn about the treatment, or in this case non-treatment of people suffering that were close to death!

I just want to get a synopsis from [those interested] in this subject before I weigh in on my experiences with the issues concerning suffering from a: spiritual, religious, physical and personal pov.

Thanks ahead of time for your serious, thoughtful and intelligent opinions. Ron

You mean does suffering have a spiritual purpose in the "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" kind of vein.

Or do you mean the kind of suffering that means you would latch onto any hope no matter how far fetched "just in case".

I have suffered prolonged pain and I was just glad when it ended.

[Cato]

Pain and suffering only have value as negative learning aides. Pain and suffering are physical and emotional stimuli that should trigger a response to avoid the cause. Coping is required when the cause is unavoidable.

[Whateverist]

Does anyone here feel there is any value to Pain & Suffering?

Yes, but that doesn't mean it makes sense to seek it out. In some banal sense we all grow through failure and through agonies endured. But I'm thinking more of the pain of failure to do or be that which you strive for. Such pain forces you to undergo reconciliation between self image and reality.

Physical pain on the other hand is always regrettable and better to alleviate or ameliorate so far as possible. Aside from the feedback provided there is no value in physical pain that I am aware of and none that I have endured which I can say I'm better off for today.

[paulpablo]

People who have gone through pain and suffering are ten times more interesting than people who haven't.
I don't understand people who are obsessed with celebrities who have it easy just because they are famous, I'd rather hear stories from SAS survival experts who were stuck in the desert then got tortured or someone who was imprisoned in Thailand than know about what some celebrity bought at a shop today.
I think most people understand the value of going through pain or at least boredom to achieve something, I go to the gym that is the perfect example of going through pain to achieve something.
Also pain is a good reminder of how lucky I am too, like when i go through hunger pains i think well at least I'm not starving to death, and when i had my abnormally growing wisdom tooth which was probably the most painful thing I've experienced that made me feel SO lucky that i live in a world with painkillers and good dental treatment.

[ronedee]

EXCELLENT POSTS! Please keep it up!

[Tonus]

Does anyone here feel there is any value to Pain & Suffering?

I suppose a case can be made for their being beneficial. Physical pain can help us to determine that we are injured and force us to seek medical attention. Other types of pain and suffering (emotional, mental, psychological) may be ways of coping with trauma that we might not otherwise be able to process all at once. Or it may be a teacher for future reference (ie, the emotional pain that results from not taking action when we should have; perhaps to end a bad relationship, for example).

By the same token, pain and suffering can have no intrinsic value. A person who suffers for years at the hands of a sadistic caretaker may turn the experience into something valuable (sharing the experiences in order to help others cope or resolve similar circumstances) but I wouldn't say that this makes the suffering valuable. It shows the value in human resilience, perhaps.

And that is also aside from pain or suffering that ends in death. The sufferer never sees a valuable consequence of their experience, even if one happens to result.

[Angrboda]

Just in time for the Lenten season!

Does anyone here feel there is any value to Pain & Suffering?

Only if it's yours.

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Jonathan Haidt discusses the research surrounding "strength through adversity" in The Happiness Hypothesis (IIRC), and it turns out that adversity can have some positive effects, but there are serious qualifiers to who will benefit. If I remember rightly, there are certain periods in life in which adversity is far more likely to be useful, to the neglect of others. Also, how you resolve the diversity in terms of your psychological process can be an important determinant in whether you benefit or not. I'd have to refresh my memory on the specifics, but the general message is, only some of the time, and mostly for younger people.

---

[Something completely different]

Just in time for the Lenten season!

Does anyone here feel there is any value to Pain & Suffering?

Excepting: "alerts" to abnormal bodily function, and the growing pains of children and physical strength endurance.

What got me started on this was two things: A situation happened with a close friend who died unexpectently, and in Hospice care. Also in one of the articles about Mother Teresa.... one of my atheist friends here was to kindly point out. It dealt with the writer being torn about the treatment, or in this case non-treatment of people suffering that were close to death!

I just want to get a synopsis from [those interested] in this subject before I weigh in on my experiences with the issues concerning suffering from a: spiritual, religious, physical and personal pov.

Thanks ahead of time for your serious, thoughtful and intelligent opinions. Ron

I had a very close and dear relative die of a inoperal and always lethal brain tumor of a type called "Glioblastoma multiforme".
It slowly made him halucinate, suffer unbareable pain, shut off his bodyfunctions and made him a pittyfull sight no longer resembling what he was before.

He went through this for 8 months.

Yet from the first day of the diagnose it was clear that he would die.

No one deserves going through this.
And those who say differently are assholes.

[ronedee]

Just in time for the Lenten season!

Does anyone here feel there is any value to Pain & Suffering?

Only if it's yours.

Oh really.....why? What is it that I have done that would make you feel that way about me?

---

I had a very close and dear relative die of a inoperal and always lethal brain tumor of a type called "Glioblastoma multiforme".
It slowly made him halucinate, suffer unbareable pain, shut off his bodyfunctions and made him a pittyfull sight no longer resembling what he was before.

He went through this for 8 months.

Yet from the first day of the diagnose it was clear that he would die.

No one deserves going through this.
And those who say differently are assholes.

I'm curious....Why did he go through it for 8 months?

Did he make any decisions regarding his care? Or was someone else making those decisions?