Theory: Pain and materialism are on the same level in the eyes of God.
6/29 - Assuming there is a God for the sake of argument, let's take a look at this.
We are supposed to have faith in God and if necessary give up our lives for God. Material possessions and physical pain and pleasure are only things that exist in this lifetime. In my mind heaven does not involve matter. I think people always wonder, "How can God let people go through so much pain and suffering?" A lot of times they use that as an argument against God. But, to God, the only thing that is important is our soul. The Devil (assuming there is one) might try to use pain as a seperation device. It is possible that if both God and the Devil do exist that the Devil is using philosophy to seperate me also. Our bodies and our possessions are things that we cling to and do not want to lose or have damaged. Both are things that we can learn to let go though. What I mean by letting go of our body is that if we have pain we don't have to blame it on God or use it as a reason that He doesn't exist. We can learn to accept that it is part of life and God is not purposefully putting us through pain. And if He is, then it is surely for some higher cause. And people can still be content with pain and without material possessions. That's the most important thing.