"God is love." God is omniscient.
The question has been understandably asked countless times before: Why do bad things happen to good people? The answer I've been given is that God's ways are not our ways. Meaning, we can't see "the big picture". Therefore, with only a partial first person view of things, experiences that are bad are likely part of something bigger that is good.
This seems to be true sometimes. I've had experiences that seemed bad at the time but in retrospect ended up resulting in something better, or I became wiser from the experience, etc.
What I don't understand is when really bad things happen to perfectly innocent people as if the person/people had no more worth (to God) than a thing. Victims of war, starvation, murder, rape, etc. Innocent victims of the most heinous acts imaginable; victims for no reason. God is with us always and knows our every breath.
Even though we're insignificant, we're "dust", God loves us so much that he sent his only Son to save us. In this way we can liken God's love for us as the love a parent would have for their child.
However, a loving parent of a child would never just let horrible things happen to their child and not prevent or intervene. Never. Yes, we can say that a parent would allow a child with cancer to undergo painful cancer treatments, pain that the child might not understand because the parent sees the "bigger picture" (ie remission, cure). But again, a loving parent wouldn't allow their child to be starved, raped, murdered, etc and just let it happen. In fact, a parent who let things like that happen to their child would be considered anything but loving.
Looking at God as a parent the idea seems to be God saying: "Here's the meaning of life for you: No matter what happens in your life all you need to do is love me unconditionally and you'll live blissfully with me in Heaven. I love you unconditionally even though being with me is conditional. I see and know everything that you do and I see and know everything that happens to you when it happens. So even though I might let very bad things happen to you and I won't step in to stop them, you need to love me no matter what and you'll be better off in the end."
The explanation that I gather as to why such things happen to innocent people is that our lives on this earth are not the end all be all. Our bodies are a mere shell. Our corporal (ie of the body/flesh) experiences (e.g. pain, suffering) are secondary in importance to our spiritual experience. We should be "looking toward Heaven" (ie our eternal life), not looking at or dwelling on our experiences we have in this life. I have a hard time with this logic.
Why do you think bad things happen to good people? Especially when it's for no reason/random?
The question has been understandably asked countless times before: Why do bad things happen to good people? The answer I've been given is that God's ways are not our ways. Meaning, we can't see "the big picture". Therefore, with only a partial first person view of things, experiences that are bad are likely part of something bigger that is good.
This seems to be true sometimes. I've had experiences that seemed bad at the time but in retrospect ended up resulting in something better, or I became wiser from the experience, etc.
What I don't understand is when really bad things happen to perfectly innocent people as if the person/people had no more worth (to God) than a thing. Victims of war, starvation, murder, rape, etc. Innocent victims of the most heinous acts imaginable; victims for no reason. God is with us always and knows our every breath.
Even though we're insignificant, we're "dust", God loves us so much that he sent his only Son to save us. In this way we can liken God's love for us as the love a parent would have for their child.
However, a loving parent of a child would never just let horrible things happen to their child and not prevent or intervene. Never. Yes, we can say that a parent would allow a child with cancer to undergo painful cancer treatments, pain that the child might not understand because the parent sees the "bigger picture" (ie remission, cure). But again, a loving parent wouldn't allow their child to be starved, raped, murdered, etc and just let it happen. In fact, a parent who let things like that happen to their child would be considered anything but loving.
Looking at God as a parent the idea seems to be God saying: "Here's the meaning of life for you: No matter what happens in your life all you need to do is love me unconditionally and you'll live blissfully with me in Heaven. I love you unconditionally even though being with me is conditional. I see and know everything that you do and I see and know everything that happens to you when it happens. So even though I might let very bad things happen to you and I won't step in to stop them, you need to love me no matter what and you'll be better off in the end."
The explanation that I gather as to why such things happen to innocent people is that our lives on this earth are not the end all be all. Our bodies are a mere shell. Our corporal (ie of the body/flesh) experiences (e.g. pain, suffering) are secondary in importance to our spiritual experience. We should be "looking toward Heaven" (ie our eternal life), not looking at or dwelling on our experiences we have in this life. I have a hard time with this logic.
Why do you think bad things happen to good people? Especially when it's for no reason/random?
Last edited: