Why do bad things happen to good people?

[kallipolis]

"God does not play dice with the universe"?

The issue of divine providence can be much more mind boggling than we usually imagine. For there are times when we might readily point to situations, or events that seem to have worked out so well that we must attribute the results to the "hand of God". However, there are also many times when our aspirations fail to seed, when the innocent suffer; and "bad things happen to good people". Must we also attribute these to the "hand of God"?

Believing in the one God who "is Love" can suggest that we should not blame God for the evils and inequities in the world; otherwise, we might assume that God plays dice with the world. So we come up with all sorts of ideas about us being punished for our failings ... or we simply reject the notion of the Judeo-Christian God altogether. We become atheists, or we resort to Wicca and Neo-Paganism — Feng Shui is big at the moment — anything that means we can gain some "power" over the forces of nature (as a form of sympathetic/white magic).

The Hebrew Scriptures present God as a God of mercy and compassion, constantly battling injustice and disobedience. The Christian Scriptures speak of a God incarnate, who models goodness and permits his son, to suffer crucifixion because he dares challenge the corruption and evil of the day. On this view, God does not control history, but calls it to higher and better things. Hence, Jesus of Nazareth rejected the accepted wisdom that God punishes evil and rewards good by manipulating historical events. Instead, God makes the divine presence, actively present in our life as a source of comfort, and encouragement during our times of trial and tribulation.

What then should we understand when we suffer periods of unrelenting unhappiness, as a result of trials that bring us to our wits end? We lose our job. We cannot afford to pay the rent. Our partner walks out on us for a younger model.

From my life's experience, everything in the world is subject to indeterminacy (change and alteration, or asymmetry). Are we to imagine that tsunamis, earthquakes, disease, infant mortality, war, starvation and freak building accidents are some sort of punishment from God? Or are these catastrophes merely a reflection of the natural order, encouraging human life to better appreciate that its place in the bigger picture, depends upon our efforts to transcend all that life's many challenges presents to us to evolve into a better person, more able to accomplish our life's purpose.

Then we return to the question - is there purpose to our life - and if so, why does the rain always appear to fall on me, in torrents while that slick banker on Wall Street lives the life of Riley? Misfortune has a habit of reminding us that when it rains on us, there are those who bask in sunshine, despite their lack of material benefits that we assume should witness to their reason for being so happy.

I am working on an answer.

 

[sixthson]

First and foremost, at least in theological terms, we are living in a fallen world. When sin entered the world, death and suffering came with it.
You talk about rain and we know from Scripture that the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. No exceptions. When the rain is falling on us, it does feel like it is unfairly disproportionate to others. Often times, in our suffering, it is difficult to recognize that we do not suffer alone. It only feels like it.
When we talk about why evil people seem to prosper while good people suffer, struggle and fail, we have to look to the mercy and justice of God. We all want God's mercy, but His justice reminds us that he is also Judge. We have to see things from His perspective and when we do this, we know that the God who is full of mercy toward us, will also ultimately settle the accounts. This is why He reminds us that Heaven is our real home. Our suffering causes us to loosen our hold on this world while looking forward with great hope for the real home He has prepared for us.

Also, bad things happen to us for many reasons. One is that God uses them to teach us, to nurture us and make us into people we would never be if life were always easy. What incentive would we have to reach out to others and try to alleviate their pain and suffering if we knew nothing of it first hand? Hopefully, our personal suffering causes us to be less selfish, to be outward directed and not just inward focused.

Obviously, this is a topic that could never be exhausted.

 

[Orlandude]

Bad things happen to all people. It is through mistakes and adversity in life that we learn and grow. God has nothing to do with it. That's life.

 

[wooffy]

So we come up with all sorts of ideas about us being punished for our failings ... or we simply reject the notion of the Judeo-Christian God altogether. We become atheists, or we resort to Wicca and Neo-Paganism — Feng Shui is big at the moment — anything that means we can gain some "power" over the forces of nature (as a form of sympathetic/white magic).

I think you're way off base in your assumptions about atheism.

As for your title question - Why do bad things happen to good people? - there is a much simpler explanation, though one that goes against the grain of many theists.

You don't matter.​

Shocking, isn't it? It goes against the grain of conventional Judeo-Christian though, and it isn't particularly flattering. But we human beings live for such a short time, in universal terms, that we may as well not exist. An immortal being like a "god" could blink an eye and miss whole generations. Current population of the planet is about 6,878,000,000 people - puts one's individual existence in perspective!

You don't matter.​

Some bad things - and some good things - will happen to you because of planning, or how you structured your life, or the people you brought into your life. Being irrelevant on a universal scale does not mean you are insignificant to those around you, or that your life is totally out of your control.

Most bad things, and most good things, however, are completely random. You and I have nothing to do with earthquakes, or bad storms, or even getting laid off or a friend getting hit by a drunk driver. You likely got a promotion for doing a good job; you may find a new job by literally being at the right place at the right time - random chance.

You don't matter.​

Even is there is(are) a God(or gods), it is hubris to think any individual human is so important in the grand scheme of things that external events have anything to do with us.

Human should take personal pride in their accomplishments, and personal blame for their failures. That is the adult thing to do. Beyond that, there is no more need to thank some external influence for random "good things" than there is need to blame said influence for "bad things". They are just random, and have nothing to do with us.

Sometimes the simplest answers hold the most truth. They are elegant, don't require intense rationalisation to explain contradictions, and don't cause cognitive dissonance.

 

[TX-Beau]

Why do good things happen to good people?

Or why do bad things happen to bad people? Bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people, so obviously being deserving of good things, or being deserving of bad things is completely irrelevant.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Because there is no god, and only the religious find this phenomenon strange in the slightest.

 

[fetaby]

For that matter, who's to say what is good and what is bad. What is good to you may be bad to me. So now what?

 

[NineOfClubs]

It bothers me more when good things happen to bad people.

'Cuz what will they learn from that?

 

[mooncake]

when it rain, the rain fall on good soil as well as bad soil.

 

[bankside]

To the dumb question “Why me?” the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: Why not?

- Christopher Hitchens

No one becomes an atheist. We are born that way, and it takes rather a lot of persuading and cajoling to become anything other. It is possible to resume one's atheism though.

 

[Supersix]

I don't mean to be flippant, but "shit happens". Is it right? No, of course not. Given the chance, I hope to ask Jesus the same question upon meeting him. Thankfully, I've been spared most of the bad things I've seen happen to other people. I mean major things, like the loss of a job, loss of a loved one (especially their own children), a bad accident, major diseases (so far). For the record, I believe in God, I am a Christian of Catholic and Jewish background. I've seen prayer work in my life to prove the existence and love of God. However, I do not pretend to have all the answers, far from it. Since my experiences with the gay community are quite limited, it is nice to see that apparently many gay people also believe in God, and refuse to give in to the angry, judgemental types. In fact, I'd venture to guess that the rate of believers compared to non believers is the same among gays as among straight people. This is just my observation, of course, nothing scientific here. I just wanted to point out that it's refreshing to chat with all of you, I really am enjoying this board!

 

[kallipolis]

Bumped for further discussion.

 

[Robbert]

Cut the crap. Every time I tell a Christian god made diseases etc and all the bad things they deny it. I would like to think of karma but karma is very complicated. While being Christian isn't I will be a Christian when there is actual proof 'god' exists cause it just seems like a hole. I'm not a Christian hater but you have to come with hard facts to get my vote on that one

 

[zoltanspawn]

The question of injustice looms largest to theistic faith.

But at its root, injustice defies an elemental human intuition we have about the way things should be. Those who don't wonder about the outrage of our situation, I think, are merely deceiving themselves. That wonder is only genuinely absent in the pathological.

 

[kallipolis]

The question of injustice looms largest to theistic faith.

But at its root, injustice defies an elemental human intuition we have about the way things should be. Those who don't wonder about the outrage of our situation, I think, are merely deceiving themselves. That wonder is only genuinely absent in the pathological.

We often hear the term natural justice, obliging me to ask whether there is such a reality in nature that could be interpreted as justice, or injustice when recognising that an equitable approach to the mysteries of life is hardly the measure that we can use to understand why bad things happen to good people.

Bad things happen to good people because that is the way of nature. Order and chaos are always in conflict because balance is the key to life. Ying and Yang. To know the day we must experience the night. To understand death we must live. To appreciate happiness, we must experience unhappiness. To understand calmness, and tranquillity we must also have experienced anger, even rage.

The cynical person might well say that bad things happen to good people because life is random; that life is a bitch, then we die.

 

[bankside]

The cynical person might well say that bad things happen to good people because life is random; that life is a bitch, then we die.

I think it is far more cynical to say, for instance, that a divine personage visited the holocaust on the bewildered and terrified peoples of Europe, as part of his agenda of perfect mercy and justice, or that tsunamis were enacted with deliberate care and love so that we might better live in the moment. I don't think "natural order" should be allowed to become a euphemism for "because god said so."

 

[kallipolis]

I think it is far more cynical to say, for instance, that a divine personage visited the holocaust on the bewildered and terrified peoples of Europe, as part of his agenda of perfect mercy and justice, or that tsunamis were enacted with deliberate care and love so that we might better live in the moment. I don't think "natural order" should be allowed to become a euphemism for "because god said so."

I agree........................

 

[Seasoned]

Because of intellect we assign the terms good and bad to events. In reality the events themselves are all neutral. We aren't here to have nothing to do or no reason to grow. We are molded by the events which affect us.

 

[FirmaFan]

The easy answer is a statement of simple fact:

Things happen.

Oh, and the quote about dice was from Einstein protesting quantum mechanics being defined in terms of probabilities. A shame really, as quantum mechanics has been shown to be remarkably accurate. I sometimes wonder what new marvels Einstein may have given us had he not spent so much of his later life working against quantum mechanics rather than with it. That being said, his quote about god playing dice has nothing to do with good or bad events happening to people.

 

[zoltanspawn]

^Not just an easy answer if you ask me, but a rotten one to boot.

Things happen: a child gleaner lives his whole life of eight years in a garbage dump, only to be buried alive in an avalanche of debris.

Things happen: Dad spoke up to Caligula, so he executed him, and then Mom and my two older siblings before my eyes. When someone in the crowd protested my own impending execution on grounds of my virginity, Caligula ordered my rape before I was choked to death.

Things happen: a thief is burned alive by a crowd on a public street with gasoline, the shame of his death hidden beneath what random trash is easily piled on top of his final agony.

Things happen: women raped, children starved, innocents imprisoned, black people hung, intellectuals exiled, tongues cut off, skin peeled, torture, mayhem, madness, buried beneath tumbled walls, fed to insects, lost, cold, isolated, imprisoned, dehumanized, denied. Left for disease, rot and agony.

To hell with your "things happen."

 

[kallipolis]

^As you correctly remind us The Fatalist would have us bend the knee before the likes of Hitler, and other barbaric creatures when stating that "things happen."

Things happen, when we allow them.