Has anyone else noticed that's just crap? Getting your limbs ripped off by a roadside bomb doesn't make anyone stronger. Living through the horror of war doesn't make people stronger. It just gives them post-traumatic stress disorder or any one of another anxiety disorders. Oh, sure, maybe they can kill someone faster and better, but they also can't really sleep at night, and they lash out at friends and family because they're filled with inexplicable rages and depression. When your father kicks the crap out of you as a kid, that doesn't toughen you up - it just traumatizes you. So, no, that which doesn't kill you doesn't make you stronger, either. It just hurts and strips away some, and sometimes all, of your ability to recognize and comprehend joy. To the extent that there are compensations - like the ability to resist physical pain and endure physical fatigue - they're totally outmatched by the crazy it puts in people's lives.
I originally came across this lousy argument in TOS Star Trek. One of those godlike beings that populates the Star Trek universe was offering to take away people's pain and Kirk laid out the whole "if we don't suffer, we don't get stronger" bullshit. Or maybe it was one of those pablum speeches about how suffering builds character.
I just want to get it out there once and for all I think that's utter bullshit.
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