The purpose of pain?

[Nihilen]

Chronic pain helps us to appreciate death

You are insane. Or emo.
Either way...

[EcK]

You are insane. Or emo.
Either way...

[BlackCat]

Pain serves to let us know when our life is in danger. If we never knew when we got cut we could have bled to death by now or have it gotten severely infected, if we didn't know we hadn't broken a bone then we would continue to use it and it would never heal and get worse. Pain is there to make us fix the problem with our body.

[AOA]

What kind of pain are we talking about here? Emotional pain and physical pain are two different kinds of pain. Physical pain can be controlled, but emotional pain...

[mortabunt]

Pain exists so that we know we are beign damaged. We wouldn't survive very long if being mauler by a tiger felt good.

[Kangol]

I think it's pretty clear what benefits pain has to offer now, but just so that everyone's clear, evolution does not have a planned purpose to make life better as life goes on. It's the process of selection that is driven by mutation, which results in more fit species over an often long period of time, like an arms race between the gene against the environment and, as a result, genes against each other in pursuit of the chance to continue.

This does not make perfect beings we think would make more sense if we were playing an MMORPG, it makes life go on.

[Kangol]

I also wanted to add in response to the OP's question of why Chronic pain (I'm not sure if this was said yet):

Given that pain is our body's way of saying there's something wrong, chronic pain means that something's always wrong, and that pain can be debilitating, it makes perfect sense that chronic pain exists: Those that are suffering have something wrong with them, and the pain reduces their chances of producing offspring, thereby promoting more fit generations in the future.

If an individual can reproduce before being debilitated by chronic pain, it doesn't matter since they were able to reproduce anyway, which is pretty much the key moment evolution is concerned with. This is also why a lot of people consult genetic counselors to get informed about the potential of spreading any of their genetic defects onto their offspring.

I know not all chronic pain is genetically related, but the point still remains valid: if the individual is more prone to pain, say, because of weak joints or some psychological disorder, their genes' chances of survival in the long run may be less than others if the vulnerability poses a significant enough problem.

[Alwar]

People who lack pain sensitivity end up having all kinds of problems such as worn joints and blood circulation issues because their brain doesn't tell them adjust when their legs fall asleep or when there is too much stress on their joints etc. Dawkins and Randolph Nesse talk about it in this video series.

[avolkiteshvara]

Reminds me of Kavadi. An old ritual they have Malaysia. I remember one guy on the documentary I was watching talking about how pain provides alot of energy. So if you can get past the negative feeling itself, there are some benefits.

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvxR2ybXEHE"]Kavadi [/YOUTUBE]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvxR2ybX

[Risen]

The purpose of pain?

is to define life itself.