When Skeptics Ask

My oldest son, Paul, loaned me a book, When Skeptics Ask, to read. This is an awesome book and a good book to have as a reference. It covers some very heavy questions from the skeptics. I trust you will enjoy the quotes below:

The Gift of Pain

Dr. Paul Brand, a leading researcher and therapist of Hansen's disease, expressed significant insights on the problem of pain. Having just examined three patients, Lou - who may lose his thumb to infection from playing the autoharp, Hector - who can't feel the damage he is doing to his hand while mopping, and Jose - who is unwilling to wear special shoes to prevent the loss of the nubs that were once his feet, Dr. Brand says this:

Pain - it's often seen as the great inhibitor which ropes off certain activities. But I see it as the great giver of freedom. Look at these men. Lou: we're desperately searching for a way to give him simple freedom to play an autoharp. Hector: he can't even mop a floor without harming himself. Jose: too proud for proper treatment, he's given a makeshift shoe which may keep him from losing even more of his feet. He can't dress nicely and walk normally: for that, he would need the gift of pain. [From Where Is God When It Hurts? by Philip Yancey (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977), p. 37] p. 66

C.S. Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." In some sense, we need pain so that we are not overcome by the evil that we would choose were it painless. He alerts us to the fact that there are better things than misery. p. 68

People don't go to hell because God sends them; they choose it and God respects their freedom. "There are two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done.' and those to whom Gods says, in the end ' Thy will be done.' All that are in hell, chose it." p. 68

Jastrow closes his book God and the Astronomers with these words:

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. p. 222

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