Many people have asked why bad things happen. They ask what they did to deserve it, and they may become bitter or angry at God, the world, life, or other people. And, to tell you the truth, they're justified. But, they do not understand how a "loving" God would let them suffer. I present a number of reasons why bad things happen.
First, we have free will. This is our greatest loss, for it leads to all our suffering. In other words, bad things happen, often, because someone made a bad decision. This is also the true reason war happens (not that "religion did it" stuff).
Second, our world actually moves, which means that bad things happen. Plagues spread, earthquakes, flooding, tornadoes, and fires devastate things. Our world is not terribly friendly, and in His Word, God often left the nation of Israel traditions to prevent this, such as Kosher, and other things.
Third, we need a test. It may not earn us anything, but if we go through all the trials of life, we will come out stronger, and we will never be broken unless we give in.
There, now you know why bad things happen. Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated, hate mail is not.
Ah, now I see where we're going! In a nutshell:
1. Good stuff:Happens because God loves us. Because He is good.
2. Bad stuff that we can live with:Happens because God is 'testing' us. This is a good thing. Because He is Good.
3. Bad stuff that we can't live with:Happens because ... er, happens because ... happens, um ... look, how dare we presume to know the mind of God? Undoubtedly, He has his own reasons for doing this stuff. We don't need to question it. It must be a good thing. Because He is good.
Blazing insight on the one hand, blissful ignorance on the other - an undisputable winning position if ever I saw one.
Incidentally, if anyone is having trouble distinguishing between 2. and 3. above, I offer Victoria Wood's definition of a 'minor' ailment - a condition suffered by someone other than oneself.
What I don't understand is why god is not to blame for everything satan did as when he made him he knew what he would do and made him in such as way so that he would do those things. Not could but would or are you saying that god didn't really know what was going to happen when he made the angels etc?
I design a computer program that will destroy the worlds banking system it is my fault. We can't make a being with the certainty of what he/she will do but when god makes one surely he does know?
Again, I plead free will principle. They decided that they were better than their master, and so rebelled.
But their thought processes were put there by god. He programmed them to make those choices with their free will. The free will that used the thoughts and ideas they were programed to have and the personality they were made to have. The outcome was never in doubt after god made them to react in the way they did and exercise their free will in the way that god decided they would when he made them.
Tell me at least one way this doesn't work.
See, it's been theorized that though time flows one dimensionally for us, God has multiple dimensions of time, allowing Him to see it and interact with it, but be seperate from it.
1. Because God is in the sanctifying business and he does put us thru testing but only what he knows we can endure.
2. Satan likes to persecute us. He pushes our buttons and tries to interfere in our lives to stop our witness. If we fall for his schemes how effective are we in our witness to the world?
3. Our own circumstances. Sometimes we suffer because of our own stupidity. We make bad choices in life and then reap the consequences. Sometimes we like to blame God for this when in fact it's our own fault we're in this place.
I must say, I can't help but admire your tenacity and ingenuity. However, if ever there was a case crying out for Occam's Razor (the principle that "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best"), then this is it.
The existence of neither God nor Satan is necessary in order to 'explain' what happens in this world, 'bad' or 'good'. Indeed, those very terms are merely labels we humans choose to pin on events; there is no evidence they warrant such evaluation. (Indeed, we don't always even agree on which of the two boxes to put them in!)
To put it crudely, rather than being intrinsically good or bad, why should events that occur in the universe not just simply BE? It is much less complicated and convoluted to explain the workings of the universe in terms of it being fundamentally purposeless.
Of course, this kind of explanation upsets people who prefer to believe in an underlying higher purpose or principle. That, of course, is something they are free to do - and this phenomenon too is entirely consistent with consciousness in a meaningless universe.
This is what you believe, no doubt. My point is merely that neither this belief - nor any of the increasing levels of detail that appear to be required in order to sustain it in terms of any and all underlying causes or meanings for what we see going on around us - are necessary in order to explain the world.
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