Divine Goodness In Ayn Rand's The Problem Of Pain

The author’s purpose for writing The Problem of Pain is to show that just because there is evil and suffering the world does not mean that God ceases to be God; that Divine Good does not exist, or that He ceases to be an all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful God. The author’s purpose for writing chapter three, on Divine Goodness, is to explain that love and kindness are not synonymous, and just because they are not does not mean that God does not love humans. To love someone well does not mean only wanting their happiness, but sometimes means going through suffering with them and loving them through hard truths. To love someone and to be kind to someone are not necessarily one and the same, and it’s important to understand why in order to better comprehend God’s love for us and why He would allow for us to suffer. Love almost always …show more content…
A father who loves his son (a reputable father that deeply loves his son and cares about his character) desires his son not to be someone who goes out in the world and takes things for granted, is greedy, stomps on other people, or a lazy cop-out in the workforce for society. A father who is kind to his son may allow him to continue to be those things, so long as he is happy and content in his experiences and has the choice to do whatever he so pleases. A loving father may restrict his son from doing certain things, and give the son consequences if he does those things so that he may not grow to be a detriment to himself and those around him and have good, upstanding character. God does the same thing with us in that He shapes us in ways that we may not understand and may be painful, but that does not mean He does not love us, much in the way a father loves his son deeply even if he gives him consequences for his