Why did God make pain so painful?

[OnceConvinced]

As a Christian I believed that God created us to be able to feel physical pain as a protective mechanism. So when we say touched a hot element or flame, that pain forced us to withdraw our hand. This was a way to protect us against the damage that flames or hot elements would do to our body if we continued to handle them.

If you are a theist who believes the above like I did, then this thread is definitely for you and I'd really like to hear your opinions on this. If not, then this debate is not aimed at you. Of course anyone, even non-theists are welcome to tune in with their view on this topic. Just please do not try to argue that the above view is a false one. In this thread we are assuming that it is true... ie that God created pain as a protective mechanism for us. (and that God is real!)

Moving on to what I want to talk about...

My issue is with the intensity of the pain we experience in the above scenario... or similar ones. This is not just a slight deterrent to prevent you from touching something dangerous. This is a extremely intense pain we are talking about. Horrible pain inflicted upon us when we touch say a flame. What's worse is that even just touching it, we can be in real pain for some time after. Even just one touch can result in damage to our skin, even if it's minor and temporary.

Why is the pain so intense? Why does it need to be that horrible just to deter us from touching say a flame ever again? Couldn't the pain it cause be a little less sadistic?

Even farmers know that to keep their livestock fenced in that you only turn up the electricity so high on your electric fences. Just enough to give the animals a jolt so that it will deter them from ever touching the fence again. They know there is no need to turn the electricity up to a ridiculously high level so that the animal suffers more that what's necessary. Yet God seems to have turned the electricity right up for us humans.

So why does God turn up that pain to such a high level?

Why does God not provide a different defense mechanism that isn't so cruel?

A question that kind of encompasses these questions... Why did God make pain so painful?

[Talishi]

A question that kind of encompasses these questions... Why did God make pain so painful?

Sometimes people have misguided priorities, such as touching a flame. Pain not only re-organizes your priorities such that you much prefer removing your hand from the flame immediately, but the lingering pain serves as an incentive to consider an entirely new hobby.

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 1 by OnceConvinced]

My understanding of the human body is that various parts of its surface are extremely sensitive to outside stimuli to protect it. For example the human eye is very delicate, so even a grain of sand can be extremely painful so that a protective reaction is almost immediate to avoid damaged. On the other hand that same grain of sand on the base of a foot will hardly be felt at all.

The way I see it a healthy body will always have nerve endings that send signals of pain to the brain so that a person can interact with the outside world, (I am not a doctor, so I will stand corrected) and that the same nerve endings that signal pain also signal pleasure. In other words (again I am no expert) but I believe it is the same mechanism that registers the pleasure of having ones skin stroked that will register ones skin being burnt - except one stimuli will send pleasurable signals and another painful ones (I think that probably a different part of the brain reacts). If this is the case then the question "Why did God make pain so painful" is simply another way of asking "Why did God make physical pleasure so pleasurable?" the flip side of the inevitable consequence of being able to feel - a design mechanism so that a person can interact meaningfully with the world around while protecting itself from damage.

Of course I do think people have various levels of tolerance, and there are probably physicological diseases or illnesses that make people super sensitve to outside stimuli but this, in my opinion is a malfunction of the human body not part of God's orginal design. Asking why is pain so painful is a rather bizzare question. Pain (and pleasure) exist in a healthy body to the degree necessary to achieve the purpose (ie to procure pleasure or to protect the various parts of the body). Generally speaking I believe that the more vulnerablethe part of the surface of the body, the more accutely the sensations will be felt and the more or pain (depending on the stimuli) will be felt.

The female clitorus is a good example of this. Apparently, tiny as it is, it has an enormous number of nerve endings, this means that a woman can potentially feel extreme pleasure or even ecstacy with it being stimulated by even very small about of stimuli, fortuately this part of the body is placed where it can be protected because the same mechanism means she will feel agony if it were burnt or cut (God was thus showing love and compassion by not placing the clitorud on a womans forehead or on the tips of her fingers which would make everyday activities extremely inconvenient or painful). To describe the design mechanism itself as "cruel" (ie its super sensitivity) would also condemn the multiple orgasm; something I hazard a guess most women would be loath to do.


So in short I believe God made various parts of the body sensitive to varying degrees of stimuli so that a healthy body can interact with the world in a meaninful way, being able to both protect itself from damage AND register pleasure to a high degree.

[Talishi]

To describe the design mechanism itself as "cruel" (ie its super sensitivity) would also condemn the multiple orgasm; something I hazard a guess most women would be loath to do.

I don't think the superpower of multiple orgasms is based on that little nubbin. It's deeper, chemical, anthropological. Fellas who could do it wouldn't get up and try his luck with another female, and Darwin would go "Tsk, tsk."

[OnceConvinced]

A question that kind of encompasses these questions... Why did God make pain so painful?

Sometimes people have misguided priorities, such as touching a flame. Pain not only re-organizes your priorities such that you much prefer removing your hand from the flame immediately, but the lingering pain serves as an incentive to consider an entirely new hobby.

But does it really need to be so agonizing? Burns are one of the most intense sources of pain ever. Surely the lesson can be taught without inflicting so much agony?

It's like with a child. One could spank a child with their hand or they could inflict far greater pain by using a belt or a rod. Why the need for far greater pain when the lesser pain will do?

[OnceConvinced]

[Replying to post 3 by JehovahsWitness]

Yes, there is the issue of pleasure vs pain, but some types of pain are naturally more excruciating than others. Why can't the pain that say a flame inflicts be something less intense?

Surely it's God that determines just how much pain and damage something inflicts. So why not make a flame cause as much pain and damage as say that of a slap across the hand?

[theStudent]

[Replying to post 1 by OnceConvinced]

I agree with JW's comments entirely.
I would also like to add that all element have their own makeup.
For example, fire, water, air, earth, are all made of different components (if I may use that word).
The elements don't change to take into consideration what they interact with.

If someone throws themselves off a 50 foot building, the fact of the matter is, their matter coming in contact with other matter, will result in the end of that matter.
Unless the contact matter happens to be... "a gentle kind" of matter.

[OnceConvinced]

[Replying to post 1 by OnceConvinced]

I agree with JW's comments entirely.
I would also like to add that all element have their own makeup.
For example, fire, water, air, earth, are all made of different components (if I may use that word).
The elements don't change to take into consideration what they interact with

If God is the designer then he created the elements and can determine just how much pain and suffering the elements can inflict on us.

Or perhaps these elements are not a result of creation, but evolution, and thus that is the reason why some inflict more pain and suffering on people than others?

If someone throws themselves off a 50 foot building, the fact of the matter is, their matter coming in contact with other matter, will result in the end of that matter.

Bones breaking is excruciating.
Internal organs being crushed or burst is excruciating.

Why the need for this excruciating pain?

Why did God create things in a way where there is so much agony and intense suffering?

This seems like very malevolent design to me.

Or it could be that this sort of suffering exists due to evolution and there was no god involved in any of it.

For me now when I look at creation I see so much malevolent design it makes it impossible for me to believe it was created by a loving caring god. I am forced to conclude that it wasn't actually created at all.

Evolution makes so much more sense.

[theStudent]

[Replying to post 8 by OnceConvinced]

So let's make the sun an iceburg, and ice a fireball.
Would they do their job?

I say wisdom, not blind chance, is the logical, and reasonable answer for why things are the way they are.
The reason a bee can land on a flower without damaging the flower is because it was designed by a wise creator.
Blind chance would probably have produced an elephant sized bee, with the tongue of a dragon.

Goodbye flower.

[Talishi]

The reason a bee can land on a flower without damaging the flower is because it was designed by a wise creator.

Big bees who damaged their own food supply died out, and left the little bees all the food.