Pain

[henrikhank]

Pax!
I agree that other people feel pain. I also agree that it is extremely difficult, at least for me, to experience how it is to be someone else. As a Christian you could say that charity (caritas) is extremely important. It is! All people feel/experience some kind of pain, don’t they? But how could you actually prove that other people feel pain? What is the Catholic response to this?

 

[Petaro]

I would take their word for it and move on to the question as to whether grass feels pain on lawn mowing or is it like a close shave? What is your view as a Christian?

 

[JapaneseKappa]

Pax!
I agree that other people feel pain. I also agree that it is extremely difficult, at least for me, to experience how it is to be someone else. As a Christian you could say that charity (caritas) is extremely important. It is! All people feel/experience some kind of pain, don’t they? But how could you actually prove that other people feel pain? What is the Catholic response to this?

You could measure the activity of their nociceptors. You could measure brain activity to look for indications of pain.

 

[ynotzap]

We share a common humanity, and by understanding we can identify with each other, we can sympathize and empathize with our understanding, and we can indentify through love. there are signals for pain physical and psychological, tears, depression, agony, intense feelings, crying, sadness, anguish, nervousness, shaking, weakness, frustrations, worry, unhappiness. If one loves his neighbor he learns to identify pain and seeks to comfort, encourage, strengthens, feed, nurse, care, and does all in his power to bring about solutions to the problems that are causing the pain, be it spiritual or physical.

 

[Aloysium]

Pain takes one to the core of existence.

Undeniably real to the sufferer, it requires faith, trust and a stretching of the imagination on the part of the other to merely imagine it.

What is it? On a physical level, it is just another sensation, the firing of nociceptors and neurons in the nervous system. So, what makes it so bad?
Pain as a manifestation of suffering, I will suggest, is spiritual - an experience of death, an absence of being.

In dealing with pain, do not forget the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

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[fhansen]

Pax!
I agree that other people feel pain. I also agree that it is extremely difficult, at least for me, to experience how it is to be someone else. As a Christian you could say that charity (caritas) is extremely important. It is! All people feel/experience some kind of pain, don’t they? But how could you actually prove that other people feel pain? What is the Catholic response to this?

The most scientific method is the finger-in-a-vice test. Watch their reactions carefully-this is also a test to for ourselves-to see if we have anything akin to empathy.