What is the best answer you have heard to the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"?

Question

I will be taking a course which is all about the "Problem of Evil" or theodicy. This is basically the old question of why do bad things happen to good people.

Before the class begins, I'm just interested in hearing some individual's responses to the question.

Please share what your faith tradition is, if it is relevant. Thanks!

Answer 1

Things aren't "bad", and people aren't "good".

Answer 2

I think the Book of Job is a good starting place. It is the whole book including the speech of Elihu and Jehovah. The three friends of Jobs responses are meant to critique common attitudes. The whole book is meant as a social commentary. I am always surprised by the power of the argument presented. You might want to skim the repeating parts of Jobs trials or illustrations of Gods majesty. Much of that is just to reinforce the Idea of the helplessness of man before fate.
Job was a righteous man that suffered through no fault of his own. His friends used the standard arguments to him. They blamed him for his suffering, the told him that he deserved whatever he got etc. God rebukes them.

As I said, Job is one of the best reads I have seen on this question.

As for my own opinion, stuff happens to everybody, good or bad. The world is not totally predictable and chance and chaos still have a place to operate.

I am an atheist if it matters at all.
sorry about making it so wordy.

Answer 3

because CHAOS does not distinguish between the morally good and the morally bad. you could ask, "why do people with perfect vision get into traffic accidents?" and you will see a similar answer. the real problem here is the definition of "bad" things. a toddler will consider not getting to eat the chocolate right before dinner a "bad" thing, however we know that dinner is more important than the chocolate. "bad" is relative to perspective. it is the same as saying, "why don't good moral people get everything they want, when they want it?"

Answer 4

The best answer I've heard was provided by Jesus.

Luke 13:1 And some people were present at that very time, reporting to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. (2) And Jesus answered and said to them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? (3) Not at all, I tell you; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. (4) Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that these were offenders more than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? (5) Not at all, I tell you; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish."

Here's the second best answer which is also from the Bible.

Isaiah 57:1 The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity; (2) he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness.

Answer 5

Bad things happen to everyone, not just "good" people.
I believe that both good and bad things happen to us because of Karma. If you have done many bad things, then many bad things will happen to you and vice versa. The important thing is to own the bad things that happen...to accept responsibility for them..in doing so, you will be happier because you know that you earned the bad event. This will also help you to do more good things and thus improve your existence.

Answer 6

I know this is dodging your question, but I don't think there is any answer. Not one that makes any sense in the face of real suffering.The question is absurd because it presupposes that there is a reason why. Evil and suffering are axiomatic.

The more useful question is what do we do about them?

Humanist.

Answer 7

I find my answer in the bible. John 15:19-21

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master. 'If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.

Jesus led a very difficult life why should I expect less.

Answer 8

I think in 2 things that first it is a test to be still good or change to be bad,and the second thing that satan like being nervous so he wants you to do wrong things and be bad and tell wrong things...and the result Allah will judge it...

Answer 9

The soul-light of man veiled in darkness by the Lord of Darkness, darker that the darkest night is he. Wanting to destroy man and rule in his place. Man must know he is the light from the light that gives life. Man creates his own life, to become Masters of Life.

Answer 10

It's just perception... when bad things happen to bad people, nobody cares, it's expected. But when Jerry the great guy who was nice to everybody gets mugged, then we notice we call it a tragedy, but when Dave the murder gets beaten to death in prison, people think... he had it coming.

Answer 11

Swami Sukhabodhananda
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One youngster comes to me very depressed and asks this question "Why is God creating so many difficulties for us? How to handle stress?" I tell this youngster to reflect on this beautiful story:

A man goes to a shop, picks up a beautiful cup and says "my god this cup is so beautiful" and suddenly the cup starts talking to the man. The cup starts saying "O man, I am beautiful right now, but what was the state of my being before the pot-maker made me a beautiful pot?

Before I was sheer mud and the pot-maker pulled me out of the mud from the mother earth and I felt why that pot-maker is so cruel, he has separated me from mother earth. I felt a tremendous pain. And the pot-maker said, "Just wait." Then he put me and churned me, when I was churned I felt so giddy, so painful, so stressful, I asked the pot-maker "Why are you so cruel?" the pot-maker said, "Just wait." Then he put me into a oven and heated me up, I felt completely burnt. There was tremendous pain and I asked the pot-maker "Why are you so cruel?" and the pot-maker said, "Just wait."

Then he poured hot paint on me and I felt the fume and the pain, I again asked the pot-maker "Why are you so cruel?" and the pot-maker said, "Just wait." Then again he put me into an oven and heated it to make me more strong, I felt life is so painful hence pleaded the pot-maker and the pot-maker said, "Just wait." And after that the pot-maker took me to the mirror and said, "Now look at yourself". And surprisingly I found myself so beautiful.

When god gives us lot of trouble, it appears god is very cruel but we need patience and we have to wait. When bad things happen to good people, they become better and not bitter.

So all difficulties are part of a cosmic design to make us really beautiful. We need patience, we need understanding, we need the commitment to go through in a very calm and wise way. So all difficulties are not to tumble us but to humble us.

With this understanding, let us not be against difficulty. Understand difficulty is a part of a purifying process. A purifying process at present which we cannot understand and hence we need faith and we need trust.

Let us understand how to handle stress with this background. You can be affected by stress from two angles. There is an internal stress and there is an external stress. Nobody can avoid stress; one has to only manage stress. Managing stress can be internal and also external.

The internal stress is; your thoughts can create stress, your values can create stress, and your beliefs can create stress, meaning thereby your stress is coming from your mind more from the outer world. Many people suffer not from heart attack - they suffer from thought-attack.

For example, when somebody says you are an idiot, we get so hurt, we get so victimised. My boss has called me an idiot and I am feeling tremendous pain. Now where does this stress come from? If my boss has called me an idiot, I have to ask myself "am I an idiot"?

If I am an idiot nothing to be upset about; and if I am not an idiot, then also nothing to be upset about! It is the perception of the boss. But why do we suffer from that stress? I suffer not because my boss has called me an idiot but because of the thought-attack.

I may say the boss has called me an idiot; therefore I am suffering? It is true that the words are unpleasant. But what hurts is the interpretation of the unpleasant word. The thought in me interprets. That is pain and therefore it becomes pain. Much of our stress is our mind interpreting it as pain. So we suffer from thought-attack more than heart attack.