Pain VS Pleasure Options

[aceweaver]

Hello everyone I wrote an article about the fact that sometimes to do the right thing you experience pain. Yet also if you do the wrong thing you may experience pleasure. It is a paradox of sorts. All opinions are appreciated.

As human beings we have many things pulling at us. Many things pulling us in different directions. One of those predominant forces is what I call the "Pain Pleasure Principal." That is when given two choices, one which leads to pleasure and one which leads to pain, most people will choose the one that leads to pleasure. Yet the paradox is that if we want to do the right thing in life, a lot of times that will result in pain not pleasure. For instance a friend of yours has started taking drugs, you know it will hurt your friend, may even lead to addiction and jail time. Yet the Pain Pleasure Principal is at work and if you want your friend to like you, you are likely to say nothing. Because to confront the person may cause pain because the person taking the drug may get mad at you and not want to be your friend. If you do confront your friend you may be saving him or her from a life of pain. So there lies the paradox. What to do choose pleasure for yourself and possible pain for your friend, or pain for yourself and possible freedom for your friend?


This principal applies to a lot of life's dilemmas. For instance at work you see a co-worker cheat someone out of money. Maybe even assault a fellow co-worker. If you speak up you may incur the wrath of the person who did the evil deed, which leads you to stay quiet. It has been said the only thing needed for evil to succeed is for good men to stay quiet. So it is that a basic survival instinct is pitted against the need to expose evil. So then the Pain Pleasure Principal, though true, may lead us to do the wrong thing. Which leads us to the conclusion that human nature is inherently evil. Which brings us to the basic principal of Christianity that is mankind's nature is sinful. That is why Jesus had to die on the cross, because the punishment for sin is death the Bible tells us. Even so Jesus took our place in God's judgement. The Bible furthers the point by saying, (1Pet4 NIV)"Therefore, since Christ has suffered in his body, arm yourself also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin." So how do we then overcome the Pain Pleasure Principal? First of all by accepting God's grace which was expressed by Jesus dying for our sins. Secondly by deciding you are willing to go against your noticed sinful instincts and do the right thing.


For instance perhaps you yourself are taking drugs or smoking. It will be painful to stop but in the long run it will cause you less pain if you stop now. You may be having sex outside of marriage, it is better to stop now before you get a STD or sex addiction or have a baby out of wedlock. If you do the right thing it may just save your life and in the process help the people around you to also choose the right thing. The only problem is that doing the right thing may not feel like the right thing. That's O.K. that is just the Pain Pleasure Principal at work.
The Pain Pleasure Principal
By: David S. Weaver
Pain Pleasure Principal

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This post has been edited by kryogenix: Mar 6 2006, 08:13 PM