Ecotrain QOTW: If there is a God, why do so many bad things happen?
I asked myself this questions many times as a teenager and walking the Christian path. I still ask it now.
I was part of a charismatic church for a while, did their ALPHA course twice, but their answers always seemed unsatisfactory.
Their answer pretty much is all the bad things are man-made, even the natural disasters, as it is our actions in not looking after the world environmentally speaking that cause those too.
But then you could ask why do bad things happen to good people?
Or why some people have worse luck than others?
Why no matter what they do, does it not work out?
It is a question that leads to many other questions.
If the Biblical sense of God is real, then he gave us free will, so therefore in effect he has allowed all these things to happen and knew they would happen, as he is all knowing and then the ‘why’ becomes even bigger as if He is love and all forgiving, then yes why do bad things happen?
If he is all forgiving, then everyone despite what they do and how they live their lives will not go to Hell
There should be no Hell.
There maybe some truth in the Bible, but it has been misinterpreted and diluted through the centuries. And the stories contained within are reiterations of stories older than when it was 'documented'.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in an omniscient being, sometimes, as I think, there will always be a sliver of doubt in the back of my mind as that’s human nature.
Well if there is no afterlife, it leads to many more difficult questions and realizations, that I keep in a box marked “Do not open”. (It gets opened occasionally and thought about).
But, I will choose how to honor what I believe in, not a church - no ‘human’ can rule how that works for each individual person.
Not organized religion.
Organised religion in itself has caused wars and many ‘bad’ things to happen in the name of these ‘gods’.
And the churches I have belonged to were either rife with hypocrisy and judgment, or hellfire and brimstone.
I wasn’t allowed to join the charismatic one, as I moved into a flat with my boyfriend at the time and that was frowned upon as we weren’t married, but at the same time, the church was full of teenage single mothers.
However, there are people like Vic Hutchinson, who has this vision of 24/7 hour churches where broken people can go, when they are at there lowest, someone is there for them when bad things happen. That’s a real church in my opinion.
Where anyone and everyone is welcome.
No-one is perfect after all.
There is not one of us that say hand on heart that we have never once judged someone.
Excuse my rant, I went a bit off track there…
...But maybe bad things happen to bring us together, to develop our characteristics, to experience life, to continuously see it through new eyes.
Nothing to do with a God.
Just the process of life.
Perhaps its the very perception of a God, means we have someone\something to blame when things do go wrong, which again is human nature.
Even the words Good and bad are perceptions and are somewhat different in each person’s heart, if you delve down.
If you think about it there is that saying “One Man’s trash is another Man’s Treasure”
At the end of the day, it’s learning how to best deal with the set of cards we have been dealt and making the most of them.
Good and bad things will happen, it’s inevitable, but its how we choose to deal with them, act because of them, or how they inspire us.
Bad things can lead to good outcomes.
It’s about embracing life - warts and all.
How would we even know what good is, if we haven’t experienced the bad?
And that's my thoughts on that question...
With <3 @hopehuggs
This is an interesting question, that I think many people have pondered. I think part of the problem is that God is too often associated with organized religion, which is fear based. Organized religion has one believing that we are human with a soul that needs to be save. But what if you are a soul having a human experience?
Adopting this point of view was a game changer for me. It made me realize that what happens to me is part of an experience. It is an opportunity for my soul to learn while having a human experience.
Thank you @emergehealthier, that is really quite profound. Got my cogs churning pondering that one.
Your welcome. You may want to read Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God.
I'm agnostic... i basically don't care about supernatural matters that i can't prove or disprove, i cant prove or disprove god.
I don't need a book telling me what is bad or what is good, i have common sense, i don't need the fear of going to hell to stop me from doing bad things.
If i would guess i would say that god throws these bad things to good people because he thinks they will be able to surpass them and get better, to evolve and reach a higher status, unfortunately only a few are able to surpass the difficult situations... i know i learned more through the hard times then i did through the good times, bad times gave me confidence in myself, in my brain, in my friends and in my family, i only realized what i had when i needed it the most which was when the bad times started rolling...
Hope this makes sense :) being agnostic its easier, i cant follow any church because they all screwed up at one point or other in the past, the crusades, the jihads, etc... if I had to choose a religion i would go for Buddhism, which is more like a "lifestyle" then a religion.
Yes, it makes sense. When it comes down to it, everything we need is inside us and 'bad' things or times helps us develop that further. I.e we cope because there is no other choice.
Just naming a few time i developed further because of hard times:
Started losing my hair at 18, now with 24 if i don't keep it short it's noticeable, at first i had my self confidence crushed, after surpassing it it actually gave me a boost in self confidence
Started failing in college, now that Im doing fine in college i give another importance to education and studying, i think more about the future and my confidence goes up everytime i pass something
Got my heart broken by a girl the same month i had exams and my grandfather died... i was able to pass everything and deal with the situation if i surpassed that i can surpass almost everything easily
I sympathize with you about religions. For me, it is kind of silly to go to one of those regular churches looking for explanations when bad things happen because they only have the standard answer: God knows what he does.
It's like treating us like meaningless beings who will never deserve high wisdom. And as you say in the post, religions has caused and supported wars. Every fanatic always says that has God on his side before launching fire into other regions. Meanwhile those who run religions remain eating in golden tables, using luxurious forks and spoons.
I attend a Church in Singapore. I have learnt that understanding God's forgiveness gives us the strength to do what is right. We need not try to do them but it will be a natural desire in us. Regardless of what you have done, God has forgiven and he still loves. Church is a place of gathering to remember the things Jesus has done for us. All have the right to be in Church regardless of the things in your life. Hope my comment sounds fine to you! God still loves regardless of what we do and his love for us should be the strength that makes us want to do the right things.
No its more than fine.
I have an idea of what church should be like and never found one here in UK, maybe its just the way our culture is, or I have been looking in wrong places.
And who we are regardless of sex, race, religion and sexuality.
That's where I got jaded, as few Christains seem to operate like that, without judging, but then so do people in general, regardless of religion.
There really should be no hell if God is all forgiving or God should have forgiven Satan a long time ago so that we should have had everlasting peace.
I think people are using religion to cover up for a lot of evil and I also agree that there is a lot of truth in the Bible which has been diluted and I think its religion that has diluted all this truth.
I also believe in God and it has little or nothing to do with the way the bible or church perceive it coz its about questions and questions, questions, questions and questions.
It’s a great post and we agree on soo many issues @hopehuggs
I am Not sure you will be interested or not but there are teaching in Sikhism which answer such questions! I started the blog @sikhism and time to time upload these teachings. Now I am doing a series from the very first page of Sikh Holy Book, the post link is below;
https://steemit.com/sikhism/@sikhism/let-s-start-to-learn-sikh-holy-book-sri-guru-granth-sahib-1