The Problem of Pain (and Suffering)

I would never qualify myself to be able to discuss the great problem of human suffering. In his book The Problem of Pain, CS Lewis, a prominent Christian writer, said 'God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience but shouts in our pains'. However, I know many people, including many who profess to belong to a certain faith, who cannot reconcile the existence of a good, all powerful and kind God with innocent human suffering.

There are many solutions to this dilemma given by major religions of this world. The commonest would be that suffering is for our own good - this is to show that we are not as self-sufficient as we think we are - so we all need God.

Another would be suffering in this life is only temporal. We shall attain a better life in the hereafter / nirvana as a reward. Anyway, life is short here on earth compared to eternity.

Still another solution is that we all deserve it as a form of punishment since from the beginning, all humans are fallen - this is the concept of the original sin.

There's also another solution formulated since the ancient of times - that there is always a cosmological battle between good and evil. This is called dualism - a struggle in which humans are the pawns.

Another solution would be to leave God out of the picture and blame the major catastrophes to nature itself and the great wars of the world to human greed. It looks like a rational solution at first, only this position called atheism is untenable in the long run.

Here is another solution which I will call the painterly answer - light stands out best in darkness. In any painting, there is always an interplay between light against dark, and dark against light. In order to let the highlights of my trees and bushes stand out, I need to block in a dark base - the darker, the more outstanding will be my trees. Also, for contrast, I must remember not to kill all my dark areas so that I can bring out individual trees and bushes. So you see, if you are in a difficult situation, don't forget to light a candle in the dark period of your life - it will be a life giving source to you!

Now, having said all this, you may ask why do the innocent suffer the most - you will not find a better example than the recent Indian Ocean tsunami that happened to our neighbour - where mostly children and women perish in a twinkling of an eye. To this, a friend of mine gave me a remarkable answer - God also suffers along with us. Sometimes, in the face of great suffering, human empathy is worth much more than all the knowledge we acquire about the problem of evil and divine justice.....

Some stress relieving technique:

Sometimes, I find my patients are trying too hard to get better. Do not think that you must or you should get well soon, because if you put a demand on yourselves like saying you must fall asleep by 12 am, you are putting unnecessary pressure on yourself and your insomnia will get worse. Similarly, if you are someone who likes to work on a job to impress other people, or fear others will look down on you if you didn't do well, your performance will deteriorate. Instead, do something for your own personal improvement and stop thinking the perfectionist attitude. This is a matter of self-esteem.