Pain! Evil or a Gift with which to Fight Evil?

In chapter six of The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis presents his view of pain stating that, "Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil." It is important to mention that here Lewis is defining pain as, "Any experience, whether
physical or mental, which the patient dislikes." In contrast to Lewis philosophy on pain is the position of Dr. Paul Brand, a medical missionary to leprosy patients in India. Dr. Brand entitled on of his books, The Gift of Pain, in which he uses examples from his work with lepers to argue that pain is in fact, although unpleasant and often horrible, a gift, which prevents evil from continuing to grow unchecked.

I agree with Dr. Brand on this and feel that Lewis has missed and important distinction. Lewis justification for his statement that pain is evil is that "Every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt." While I agree with that statement it does not follow that because a man knows that something is wrong when in pain, that it is the pain itself that is wrong. To make such an assumption is equivalent to saying that the sign that tells a man who is lost that he is in quite the wrong location is incorrect. For once I feel that Lewis surprisingly, did not logically examine his premises and conclusions to ensure that the conclusion did in fact follow from those premises.

Pain is merely that road sign that points to something being wrong. It tells us that all is not right with the world but it in itself is not what is wrong, it is merely the messenger. Another point that I'd like to make is that it may not always be a messenger of evil. The fact that something is not entirely right might not necessarily mean that it is evil. I say might because I'm only now thinking this through and someone may well have strong evidence to the contrary. However, as an example, it would seem that quite an amount of the physical pain we feel in everyday life is not necessarily attributable to evil. Would you say that stubbing you toe is evil? Or that breaking a finger playing basketball is evil? Or indeed that any of these pains that come from natural causes such as those are evil? If one of you says yes, that it is evil or a result of evil then I would love to hear your reasoning . My reasoning for believing they are not evil is that it seems to me that pain did not enter the world with the fall but rather with creation. I find it hard to believe that it was impossible for Adam and Eve to get hurt in the Garden of Eden, that they never cut their feet on rocks, pricked their fingers on thorns, or stubbed their toes on tree roots. There is also the verse Genesis 3:16, which says "Unto the woman he said, 'I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing." To say increase seems to imply that there is all ready a certain amount of pain present. While it is arguable that it could mean increase from zero, typically if something was absent before one does not increase it but rather create it. Again I am not sure of the theological soundness of this position as of yet and would love to hear opposing opinions.

So far I've only dealt with why it isn't evil, now I turn to how it can be a gift. Dr. Brand talks about how with the disease of leprosy, the disease itself does not cause the skin problems, or missing fingers, or open sores. Rather it is the lack of pain that leads to a patient not being able to tell when the have a rash or not feeling the heat of a stove or not knowing that they have an open cut on their elbow. Their lack of pain makes it possible for these problems to persist, so much so that a leper placing their hand inadvertently in boiling water would not instantly remove it but might leave it there until they see or hear the water boiling and connect it to the location of their hand. They can completely destroy themselves without realizing it because they cannot feel any pain. Pain is how we recognize that something is wrong. Without pain that issue continues and can grow and fester and destroy our lives. This goes for not only for physical issues but emotional and spiritual as well. Pain is the gift that reveals what's wrong so that we can address the problem or in some cases avoid any serious problem all together.

Pain may not be pleasant, but that is necessary so that we cannot ignore it and must recognize the damage we are doing to ourselves. The devil doesn't care so much about causing us pain now and in fact might actually help you avoid it, as long as he can eventually lead you to a place where pain will be all you know. Pain is a gift from God that helps us live in a fallen world.