Free Will: Why Bad Things Happen To Good People

That question.

The question is a source of books, including the Best Seller When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Rabbi Harold Kushner.

The question pulls up 810,000,000 search results on Google.

The question that resulted in receiving a message this morning from a dear friend linking a post related to a question none of us have a "good enough" answer to.

So why does God Let Bad Things Happen?

Why did God let (make) me:

• suffer that injury?

• Lose my job?

• Have a car accident?

• Forget that appointment?

• Fight with my spouse?

• Suffer through my parents get divorced?

• Have a disability?

There are the more challenging questions that our non-answer answers rip at our heartstrings. The questions about why God lets horrible, not just wrong but horrible, things happen to children.

We are stuck with 810 Million Google results with almost the same amounts of opinions and theories.

The Doctrine of Predestination, penned by John Calvin, is where this question festers. It is more closely similar to determinism and fatalism than we wish to admit in secular philosophy. Predestination teaches that our salvation is due to the decree of God and that predestination is that God has chosen whom he will save and damn, not taking into account a person's faith, love, merit, or lack thereof.

So, we ask, "Why does God let bad things happen to good people?" and "What did they do to warrant this?"

Free Will

There was never part of the seven days when God introduced suffering into the world in both creation stories. God created humans on the sixth day.

There are four types of suffering(2) three of which humans are the modern-day cause of (at least in Progressive Christ-Centric Views):

• Suffering as a result of natural disasters

• Suffering as a result of man's inhumanity to man

• Suffering as a result of erroneous actions

• Suffering as a result of temptation

Whether God is a distant God who has a "hands-off" method or panentheism who believes that God is in all things and walks among us, I suspect we can all agree that God is God aware of the suffering in the world. The horrendous acts resulting from man's inhumanity to man are things not overlooked by God.

The answer we want is that God made mountains unmovable. In our mind, if there is a terrible mudslide down the mountain, God should move the mountain. But when we see a breathtaking sunset in a panoramic view, we want the mountain to stay.

God made the rules of the game. And from a human perspective, it would be so easy to change the rules. We hold our free will close to our hearts. In the US, the declaration of independence and constitution theoretically is in place to protect it (opinions vary on how successful that may be). Our forefathers did not pay homage to their local congregational churches but held strong beliefs of God nonetheless.

When we think about the war in Ukraine, for instance, God cannot change the game's rules. God can be present for our suffering. God weeps with us when we are suffering due to man's inhumanity to man. And this is the answer that is "not good enough" because God sees our suffering and is the most hyper-empathetic being we can come to know if we wish to.

God created humans on the sixth day. We can debate if Satan is the result of suffering while the Serpent talked to Eve about the apple, but we cannot cherry-pick to blame God ultimately. Job and Eve faced the same temptation, and our faith sees us through the suffering related to Satan. Our humanity questions our integrity with the grief of fellow humans.

Suffering is not God punishing us. It is not a trial to prove faith. Embracing suffering is supporting humanity-induced violence against fellow humans.

(1) Often, the fourth type of suffering is considered Satan causing suffering, i.e., Job and Eve with the Serpent. To be identified in our modern world, this rare case would be equitable to what many refer to as the dark night of the soul.