Pain is NOT Physical

* Pain is NOT Physical: Adapted from the BEL Forum at TheologyOnline.com: Pain and Sentience are Knowledge Based, and Knowledge is Not Physical! ... Pain is not physical. Plants do not have souls (which are non-material), and when you chop down a tree, it does not feel pain (a 1960s science fiction TV show notwithstanding). Animals, in addition to a body, have a non-material component, a rudimentary soul, so animals can sense pain. God made human beings with body, soul, and spirit, and thus we have a far greater capacity for pain.

Pain is comprehension; it is awareness; and awareness is not physical. Neurologists claim that we sense pain with our brain. As evidence for that, they show that nerve damage can prevent the signal from an injury from reaching the brain, and in such cases, many patients indicate that they do not feel pain from that injury. However, the brain as an organ itself is completely unable to feel pain. When a brain surgeon operates and cuts into brain matter, the patient does not feel pain from that surgery. Why not? How can the brain, possibly the only organ that does not sense pain, be the very organ by which we sense pain? The answer only appears after realizing from the nature of pain itself, that pain is not physical.

Pain is non-physical. It is awareness, which is a state of knowledge. You can program a robot to back up suddenly if it bumps into a wall, and even to yell, "Ouch." But it hasn't felt pain, because it is only made of atoms and molecules, and can have no awareness, because like many very real things, sentience is not physical. The laws of logic are not physical (no mass, polarity, etc.), and neither is reason, nor the laws of grammar. Pain is awareness that something is wrong. Therefore pain is inherently non-physical, and so pain resulting from non-physical causes is dramatically more hurtful than pain resulting from physical stimuli. A paper cut on the eyeball really hurts. A father who will not look his disowned son in the eye is far more painful. The intense pain of childbirth passes quickly. The inconsolable pain of a child dying lasts for years. Physical pain dissipates more quickly because it must be converted to the non-physical realm for it to be experienced. Emotional and spiritual pain hits the soul and spirit directly, and so it persists longer and is more effective. If someone has been abandoned by his parents, he might be able to know the pain felt by the little one who is aborted, purposefully rejected by his mother, and intentionally killed, whether by a surgical or chemical abortion as with the Morning After Abortion Pill. A mother who doesn't have the willingness to love her child hurts him far beyond the physical impact of the abortion. Giving the child anesthesia will do little to alleviate his or her pain from the abortion, and nor will it help with the mother's pain when she meets that child, on Judgement Day.

* Atheist Clichés Disproved in 8 Seconds: or less!
Atheist Cliché 1: There is no truth!
Theist Rebuttal: Is that true? [1 second]

Atheist Cliché 2: There are no absolutes!
Theist Rebuttal: Absolutely? [1 second]

Atheist Cliché 3: Only your five senses provide real knowledge!
Theist Rebuttal: Says which of the five? [2 seconds]

Atheist Cliché 4: Great suffering proves that a loving God cannot exist!
Theist Rebuttal: The unstated assumption is false, that suffering can have no value or purpose. [4.5 secs]

Atheist Cliché 5: Atheism is scientific, because science does not allow for a supernatural interpretation of an event!
Theist Rebuttal: Such circular reasoning forces science to assume that which atheists claim it supports. [5 seconds]

Atheist Cliché 6: Widespread evil proves that a righteous God cannot exist!
Theist Rebuttal: The two unstated assumptions are false: that love can be forced; and that some love is not worth enduring much hate. [6.5 seconds]

Atheist Cliché 7: If theists claim that the universe could not have always been here, then God couldn't have always been here either.
Theist Rebuttal: The natural universe is subject to the physical laws, so it would run out of useable energy; a supernatural, spiritual God is not subject to physics. [7.9 seconds]

"If your worldview can be dismantled within eight seconds, then get a better one." -Bob Enyart, adapted from Battle Royale VII, Does God Exist?

* Lesbian Breast Cancer Risk Factor: From Komen.org: "Lesbians... do have a greater risk of breast cancer than other women... it is linked to several risk factors... [including] never having children..."* Possible Publisher for The Plot: We'll keep you informed as to the negotiations! UPDATE 3 Years Later: Nat'l Cancer Institute Researcher Admits Abortion Link! Louise A. Brinton, largely responsible for getting the government-funded NCI to deny the abortion-breast cancer link, has co-authored a new study which describes significant risk factors, including "induced abortion."

Today's Resource: Bob takes on a college professor and her philosophy class in a debate regarding absolutes. Who wins? Watch Get Out of the Matrix to find out!