A question for those with faith

sass_my_frass

So, why do bad things happen to good people? Is God so great that It doesn't care?

No JW replies please, I've already puked this week.

jgnat

Hey, sass! Nice to have someone keep me company so early in the morning. It's 4:30 here.

So, why do bad things happen to good people?

I don't know. I wonder if some life events, who seem bad going through it, end up being good in the end. I'll give some examples. But this is not true in all cases. Sometimes horrible things are done on this earth, and it is wrong. My best answer these days is that it rains on the just and the unjust. With a belief in heaven and an ultimate reward, I can console myself that God balances the scales after our earthly time is done.

Examples:

My mother contracted a mental illness when I was a teenager. Very bad.
I had a violent first husband beat me and my babies. Very bad.
God answered my prayer and lifted me out of that situation. Good.
Being a teen single parent grew me up quick. I became a strong, organized, take-no-crap kind of woman. My daughter and I talked about this last night. We both agreed that our little family was a gift of strength to all three of us. Very Good.
I can sniff out emotional manipulation at twenty paces. Very Good for me, and for you.
My staff say my humility AND my strength has influence far beyond my little cubicle. One employee has described my influence as "ripples in a pond" that go on and on. Very Good

I would not have wished the events of my life on my worst enemy. But I also cannot deny that the bad bits enriched me and made me who I am today. I wouldn't say that God created those bad events in my life. But I do believe He influenced my character towards better choices and a superior life in spite of the circumstances.

Is God so great that It doesn't care?

I've puzzled this out, and I cannot reconcile the idea that an all-loving God is immune to suffering. The alternative is that God is not all-powerful, or for some law of physics or ethics, is restrained from intervening. I have concluded that God is not all-powerful.

Sass, help me out with a logical puzzle of my own. I don't know where you stand on the whole Faithful/Agnostic/Athiest continuum, but I do wonder why Athiests ask questions about good and bad. On what basis does an athiest determine what is good?

DHL

Sass,

I would say that if you have faith in god then you should also trust him/her/it to always be able to know and deliver what's best for you because god must be supposed to have a broader view than you as small human could ever have. For example something that seems to be a bad thing might change into a good thing in the future. A bad experience for example can have a good output in that it might teach you something important.

Something's going wrong lately? Sass

AK - Jeff

Or we could look at the inverse of your question - Why do good things happen to bad people?

Some would even attribute that occurance to an evil force looking out for it's own at times.

I tend to fall back to the proverbial statememt "Time and unforeseen occurances befall them all."

I think the whole question goes to the heart of God's existence or not - right? But does his failure to act prove that he is not there? Many good people have been known to look from the window of thier buildings and observe all sort of mayhem, yet they do not 'get involved' - though no one would dispute their general moral character. Or their existence. They have reasons for not acting - though we may not ever know what they are - we would not doubt they exist due to that. Frail example I know.

Point is; if God is Omnipotent cannot be proved by this can it? Only that he does not act - though some say he does at times.

Personally - my faith stems from an awareness that all the cosmos and attendant life, systems, etc, seem far too organized and complete to be random occurance. There is not enough years in human life to completely grasp the full answer to all the iniquities we see - I just have always accepted that none of what I see is 'chance'. Faith is ' an assured expectation of things not seen' after all.

Just from my Christian perspective.

Jeff

LittleToe

IMHO, mankind is Lord of this planet. To turn the question on its head, why should God interfere?

Blueblades

It has been discussed before that free will has opened the door to choice. Choice leads to choosing for yourself behavior, and that behavior could be an act of good or bad. God cannot interfere with free will and all it's consequences.

Blueblades

lovelylil

Little Toe,

Good point and good question, why should God interfer? Man is in control of this planet and all the evil done on it is totally his fault and not God's fault. Except for acts of nature, most of the evils can be corrected if not for man trying to dominate man.

For instance, there should be absolutely NO starving people in the world because the earth produces enough food for all mankind. It is because of corrupt man in government that food is not getting to the right people.

All the wars and killings today are man sanctioned not God sanctioned, there is also man committing acts of violence on young children which he does of his own initiative

Man decided in his own wisdom to create nuclear weapons which could destroy all of mankind. I still cannot fathom any reason that is legitimate for such a creation. Man is also responsible for genocide in many countries to date.

Even Christians today cannot agree on basic things relating to the bible and get into heated arguements over it, I've seen it sometimes get to throwing punches or worse,and why? Man has a big pride and has to be right about everything.

I personally believe God will get involved one day but why he doesn't now I think its because he has a bigger plan that he is working out which will benefit all mankind in the future. But the wait is certainly hard and this is something many hope for every day.

jgnat

I hear you, Little Toe and Blueblades, but there are also those "acts of god" that bring tragedy to untold numbers of people. I'm thinking of droughts, for instance, that result in millions starving. Why doesn't God intervene in those cases, where the tragedy is not a direct result of bad choices?

DHL

jgnat, that's why I don't have faith. To me it seems obvious that no god is responsible for neither the "good" nor the "bad" things because if a god existed he/she/it would care of his creatures and wouldn't allow them to suffer in any way.

Who would create something and then sit back and relax (7th day rest?) and watch it going down because he had a bigger plan in mind. I think that's hillarious! No parents would do that with their kids (exept JW and some other maniacs!)

jgnat

I've gone the other way, DHL. I've concluded that God does not intervene in some cases because he CANNOT.

I also disagree that ALL SUFFERING is bad. There is such a thing as short term pain for long term gain. Take perms or tattoos, for instance.

A question for those with faith

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