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Today in pop songs and philosophy we’re going to talk about the song What About Us,
by Pink.
This song makes me think about the problem of pain in relation to God, the best argument
there is for atheism.
So, in this video, we will briefly discuss the problem of evil, but then also talk about
what this song reveals about ourselves and some answers that we can find.
The problem of pain goes something like this: If God were all powerful, he could prevent
pain.
If God were all knowing, then he would know when pain would occur so that he could prevent
it.
And if God were all loving then he would prevent pain.
However, there is pain in the world, so God does not exist.
The problem of pain goes something like this: If God were all powerful, he could prevent
pain.
If God were all knowing, then he would know when pain would occur so that he could prevent
it.
And if God were all loving then he would prevent pain.
However, there is pain, so God does not exist.
This argument is very good for disproving a God that would avoid suffering at all costs.
But, that is only / one idea of God, and it is not the idea of God presented by Catholic
Christianity.
Catholicism asserts a God who is all loving and allows pain, a mystery, but not necessarily
a contradiction.
Let’s come back to this.
But let’s look for a minute at what the song reveals about us: this deep longing for
something more.
The lyrics beautifully express that we are rockets pointed towards the sky, that we need
to be loved, that things are not right.
There is a deep brokenness in the world, and we are looking for answers.
All of this indicates that there is something beyond.
If we are mere products of the physical world, then why are we so discontent?
Do fish in the ocean complain about their water or clouds write songs of lamentation
about their air?
We were made for more.
Back to Christianity.
The answer to the problem of suffering is not an idea or a concept, but a person,Jesus
Christ.
God is not distant, sitting on a cloud, watching our suffering indifferently.
Instead, He empties Himself and embraces suffering.
He then calls us to do the same, to take up our own crosses, instruments of torture and
execution.
It turns out that there are answers, but they are not the answers we thought we’d find.
Happy ever after is not just a feeling, but a real, deep, lasting joy.
And this joy, the answers to our problems, the sky to which our rockets are pointed and
for which our hearts long, is not away from suffering, but through it.
Our real issues are not the kinds discussed by engineers and doctors but the kinds explored
by artists, poets, and mystics, and all of our contemporary comforts and conveniences
cannot erase this longing.
If God seems distant, it is because we are wearing the wrong lenses.
If He seems absent, it is because we are looking in the wrong direction.
If we are still searching for love, it is because we are searching for something less
than God.