Response: No pain, no gain?

This is a response to: http://billybobhenry.blogspot.ca/2012/03/no-pain-no-gain.html

Alex,

You hold many valid points. From what I gathered, your most important argument was that we as a society should not encourage pain in order to achieve certain results, whether it be for sports (Sidney Crosby) or for religion(Silas).

You stated that: "It might not be in the same fashion as Silas but are young athletes like football players for example being encouraged to take repeated blows to the head in order to grow more proficient at a game?" I see the parallel that you are attempting to draw between the two and it is a very interesting one -- One that is plagued with an infinite amount of questions. Some that cross my mind, and might in turn stimulate deeper thought about the topic are:
Does religion deserve the right to glorify pain in order to grow closer to a god?
Do sports deserve to be condemned for their excessive amount of pain for the sake of entertainment?
Do religious people like Silas understand their actions to their full extents?
Are they justified in sacrificing themselves through a self-infliction of pain?
Do athletes really inflict pain on themselves in order to satisfy the fans or themselves?
Are they justified in doing so?

In relation to the point I attempted to emphasize in my article, pain might be somehow justified if it is done for the right purpose. We can never surely know someone's motives but we can learn to try; we should try and appreciate their sacrifices. Here is a blood-soaked Jon Jones -- crossing himself before he gets into the ring only to defeat his opponent.
Click Here.
It is strange what a little change in perspective does. All of a sudden, we are put inside the athlete's mind and see things from a different view; perhaps to him, his pain or infliction of pain on another, is merely a way to let himself know that all of his hard work has paid off.

-Arina