• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Why do bad things happen to good people?

S

stealth82

New Member
I had a question on beliefs surrounding this. A family member of mine was the type of person that would do anything for you, loved helping people, and was basically one of the greatest people I have ever met. She had a quick and surprising medical issue which left her with brain damage. Now she is disabled and must have someone care for her all hours of the day. She was not old and has many years left in her life.

Why would this happen and why to her? Why would God do this to someone? When someone dies everyone says they went to a better place, ok I can accept that but why debilitate someone like this? Also everyone says God works in mysterious ways, but why and what explanation could there be, there is absolutely no good that can come out of this. To me that is just a way of giving an answer without actually giving one.

Does anyone have any insight on this? I have always believed in God, but If it wasn't clear above this event has made me question my faith as I fail to see any positive work from God, I would like to regain the faith I had but will have trouble without understanding.
 
Reverend Rick

Reverend Rick

Frubal Whore
Premium Member
stealth82 said:
I had a question on beliefs surrounding this. A family member of mine was the type of person that would do anything for you, loved helping people, and was basically one of the greatest people I have ever met. She had a quick and surprising medical issue which left her with brain damage. Now she is disabled and must have someone care for her all hours of the day. She was not old and has many years left in her life.

Why would this happen and why to her? Why would God do this to someone? When someone dies everyone says they went to a better place, ok I can accept that but why debilitate someone like this? Also everyone says God works in mysterious ways, but why and what explanation could there be, there is absolutely no good that can come out of this. To me that is just a way of giving an answer without actually giving one.

Does anyone have any insight on this? I have always believed in God, but If it wasn't clear above this event has made me question my faith as I fail to see any positive work from God, I would like to regain the faith I had but will have trouble without understanding.
Click to expand...

Bad things happen to everyone. I am sorry to hear about your friend.
 
9Westy9

9Westy9

Sceptic, Libertarian, Egalitarian
Premium Member
I think in the christian viewpoint no one is 'good'. Everyone has 'sinned' and therefore deserves death.
 
InChrist

InChrist

Free4ever
stealth82 said:
I had a question on beliefs surrounding this. A family member of mine was the type of person that would do anything for you, loved helping people, and was basically one of the greatest people I have ever met. She had a quick and surprising medical issue which left her with brain damage. Now she is disabled and must have someone care for her all hours of the day. She was not old and has many years left in her life.

Why would this happen and why to her? Why would God do this to someone? When someone dies everyone says they went to a better place, ok I can accept that but why debilitate someone like this? Also everyone says God works in mysterious ways, but why and what explanation could there be, there is absolutely no good that can come out of this. To me that is just a way of giving an answer without actually giving one.

Does anyone have any insight on this? I have always believed in God, but If it wasn't clear above this event has made me question my faith as I fail to see any positive work from God, I would like to regain the faith I had but will have trouble without understanding.
Click to expand...



I am sorry about your family member. I think situations like this are very hard because we want things in this life to be well, happy, and comfortable. At least, I do. It is difficult to see others suffer or go through suffering ourselves.

I think your questions are valid and important. I also think God will answer these questions if you ask Him for wisdom and insight. I can't answer them specifically for your situation or that of your family member, but I do believe God only allows things to happen for the ultimate purpose of bringing about something good.The difficulty for us as humans is that we only look at the temporal and want everything good right now, while I believe God's goal is eternal good. Though it is hard for you and others see and understand right now, God may know from His vantage point that these are exactly the conditions necessary to teach and work through in your life and other family members or friends for the sake of your eternal lives. Eternity is a long time and much more important than this brief life we live today on earth.

You are in my prayers.
 
Kilgore Trout

Kilgore Trout

Misanthropic Humanist
If there's a god, I don't see any evidence that the plight of human beings are of any concern to this entity.
 
Revoltingest

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
There's an old saying in business.....no good deed goes unpunished.
Good people often seem to suffer more than the likes of me.
Why? I believe that stuff just happens.
We go astray when we try to give it meaning.
 
bobhikes

bobhikes

Nondetermined
Premium Member
stealth82 said:
I had a question on beliefs surrounding this. A family member of mine was the type of person that would do anything for you, loved helping people, and was basically one of the greatest people I have ever met. She had a quick and surprising medical issue which left her with brain damage. Now she is disabled and must have someone care for her all hours of the day. She was not old and has many years left in her life.
.
Click to expand...


You seem to be upset about the condition. How does she feel about it. Is she religious? Is she upset with God?

According to what I understand God will only give you a suffering you can handle. For a better understanding read the Book of Job in the bible, its the closest religious answer you will get.
 
Photonic

Photonic

Ad astra!
stealth82 said:
I had a question on beliefs surrounding this. A family member of mine was the type of person that would do anything for you, loved helping people, and was basically one of the greatest people I have ever met. She had a quick and surprising medical issue which left her with brain damage. Now she is disabled and must have someone care for her all hours of the day. She was not old and has many years left in her life.

Why would this happen and why to her? Why would God do this to someone? When someone dies everyone says they went to a better place, ok I can accept that but why debilitate someone like this? Also everyone says God works in mysterious ways, but why and what explanation could there be, there is absolutely no good that can come out of this. To me that is just a way of giving an answer without actually giving one.

Does anyone have any insight on this? I have always believed in God, but If it wasn't clear above this event has made me question my faith as I fail to see any positive work from God, I would like to regain the faith I had but will have trouble without understanding.
Click to expand...

Some will try to tell you that this life is just a test, but it isn't. Bad things happen because they happen, not because there is any hidden meaning. Life is life. Death is Dead. You are you. Assigning meaning just complicates things where there need not be complications. You lost faith because you realized there is no one to really blame. If you want to do something about it though, you could study brain damage, figure out what makes the mind tick.

Who knows, maybe you will figure out how to reverse brain damage to help other people out there who have brain damage. Or will in the future.
 
S

stealth82

New Member
bobhikes said:
You seem to be upset about the condition. How does she feel about it. Is she religious? Is she upset with God?
Click to expand...

I am, of course things could be worse, I think you could say that about any situation but I am and always will be upset at the situation. I don't believe she is of sound mind to realize exactly what happened. She was religious and I do not think she would be upset with God. I can't say I am upset at God either, just at the situation. I get the fact we can't understand everything but to me this situation is so blatantly bad I don't see how anything remotely good has or could come out of it.

I agree stuff just happens and for that reason is maybe why I've started thinking that God doesnt control everything to the level I did before. If he did I would think he would help those that do so much good.

Also I didn't expect a perfect answer but I still feel the need to look for one.
 
Levite

Levite

Higher and Higher
stealth82 said:
I had a question on beliefs surrounding this. A family member of mine was the type of person that would do anything for you, loved helping people, and was basically one of the greatest people I have ever met. She had a quick and surprising medical issue which left her with brain damage. Now she is disabled and must have someone care for her all hours of the day. She was not old and has many years left in her life.

Why would this happen and why to her? Why would God do this to someone? When someone dies everyone says they went to a better place, ok I can accept that but why debilitate someone like this? Also everyone says God works in mysterious ways, but why and what explanation could there be, there is absolutely no good that can come out of this. To me that is just a way of giving an answer without actually giving one.

Does anyone have any insight on this? I have always believed in God, but If it wasn't clear above this event has made me question my faith as I fail to see any positive work from God, I would like to regain the faith I had but will have trouble without understanding.
Click to expand...

I am sorry to hear about your friend.

I guess my answer is that I believe that we exist in the nexus of the Divine Plan, and human free will, and the inherent chaos of an evolving universe.

I think that God designed this universe, and as such, it is clear that for whatever reason, He created it the way that it is. And part of how the universe functions is that there is chaos, and entropy, and in the course of evolving systems, there can be flaws, there can be predators, there can be parasites, and natural disasters of all kinds.

But I think that God does not constantly step in and save people from natural calamities or the predations of other human beings abusing their free will because to do so would require Him to re-create this universe into a world that would work differently.

So I try to take on faith that for whatever reason, this is the best universe that God could come up with for us, and it is up to us to look to God not for rescue from disasters, but for comfort and sympathy in times of grief.
 
javajo

javajo

Well-Known Member
According to the Bible when God made everything it was very good, but now we live in a fallen creation because Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sinned and sin brought forth the curse and death and sickness, etc. Nobody is really immune to the effects. But this is not a permanent condition, for God will restore all things and those who have trusted Christ will live forever with no more pain, sorrow, sickness or death. The pain we endure now is but for a moment.
 
E

espo35

Active Member
Wise King Solomon said....

From Eccleciastes 9:

11 Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the fast and the battle to the men of war. Bread is not to the wise and riches are not to the men of understanding. Favor is not to able workers. Time comes and goes and things happen for no reason to them all. 12 Man does not know his time. Like fish caught in a bad net, and birds caught in a trap, so men are trapped at a bad time when trouble comes upon them when they do not expect it
 
Last edited:
Quintessence

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
Oneatatime said:
Another question.

Why do good things happen to bad people?
Click to expand...

And another few questions that gets more at the root:

Do good and bad actually exist or are the constructs that humans choose to project onto the world and onto situations?

Even if we allow good and bad to exist in some objective sense, what makes humans think that there is any sort of innate justice or greater meaningfulness in the distribution of events? Put another way, doesn't $#@% just happen?

People like to ascribe meaningfulness and some logical cosmic justice to things as a coping mechanism. There's no shame in that, but it can be more or less difficult depending on your theology. I suppose I have less trouble with these questions because I see the universe as a fundamentally amoral entity and I am not a classical monotheist.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top