If you looked at how long this was before my sister edited it, you would laugh. Apparently “concise lists” are more appreciated than wrapping your message in cleverly crafted metaphors. Not that you wouldn’t believe me, but I took a picture of her reading my unedited blog post just in case:
She also said to get rid of my humour because it “wasn’t funny”. But one can only really listen to so much advice. Anyways, I’ve heard this question. I’ve had this question. It seems to be one of the main arguments against God’s existence, or at least His goodness. While I’m definitely not qualified enough to answer one of the most prominent questions in religion, fortunately, there are people that are. The points below are from the books they've written. So let’s get to it: why do bad things happen to good people, and why do good things happen to bad people? #1 Biological significance: we need physical pain to survive
In his book, Where is God When it Hurts? (side note: this book is a game changer, I highly recommend), Philip Yancey explains how countless doctors and medical engineers have tried to improve the human pain system, but found that it's the one thing they can’t touch. Every so-called improvement actually proved to be really harmful to the individual, because decreasing the amount of pain we feel only makes it easier for us to get hurt. Pain is our body’s alarm system. Without it, we wouldn’t take our hands off a hot stove, or notice when we've fractured a bone.
Yancey observed the lives of multiple leprosy patients, who suffered from nerve damage. The patients’ inability to feel pain prevented them from being able to stop their suffering. So, in short: pain catches our attention. It’s the body’s way of telling you what needs fixing, and without it, we would injure ourselves on a daily basis. In Philip Yancey’s words, “the healthiest body is the one that feels the pain of its weakest parts”.
#2 Psychological significance: being conditioned to do good strips us of our goodness
Whenever you have a question about the world’s condition, grant yourself what you want for a few minutes. Play it out in your head, and see how it pans out. So right now, let’s say we lived in a world where only good things happened to good people and vice versa.
If I get a reward every time I do something good, my brain forms an association between the two; between the cause (my good action) and effect (the reward). And I become conditioned. If you wanna look at this from a scientific point of view, in psychology this is called operant conditioning (side note: they use operant conditioning on little kids).
If I become conditioned to do good, and I learn that that’s the only way to get what I want in life, every good deed I set out to do will not be because I’m good. Rather, my actions would be tainted with selfish and self-seeking motives.
This brings up the idea of free will. God is a huge believer in the fact that I should be able to choose without any bias; without being bribed into loving him. Good things happening to good people and vice versa takes that free will and bias away.
In other words, I'd be forced to do good or to love God in order to get what I want in life, whether that’s money, power, success (i.e. things that can drive me even further away from God). If I’m forced to act a certain way, I’m no longer truly good. And I no longer truly love God. Because forced love isn’t love. Love and goodness lose all meaning when they become a means to achieve an end result.
What’s more, my relationship with God becomes transactional. To paint a picture, put yourself in the same situation: your friends only come to you when they need something, and they only stick around as long as they know you can benefit them in one way or another. Most people would rather have no friends in this case, because the relationship at that point would be more meaningless than having no relationship at all. Our relationship with God loses meaning in much the same way when we start loving Him for what He can do for us, instead of loving Him for who He is. This brings up the concept of self-serving religion; the idea that worshiping God comes with tangible, personal benefits or immediate gain. This idea is commonly advertised in the media today, and is a dangerous byproduct of the belief that good things should only happen to good people and vice versa. Needless to say, it can lead to a dangerously misconstrued idea of God that results in a lot of anger and confusion.
#3 Our demand for justice leads us to asking the important questions, prompting our pursuit of heaven
Suffering makes us acknowledge the brokenness and injustice that exists in the world. For most of us, the reality that bad things may happen to good people and vice versa angers us. But it should anger us. It should leave us demanding more. It should leave us demanding a place and time when people are judged fairly, and where justice exists. It should prompt our search for such a place. Maybe God allows suffering because he knows that, in one way or another, it leads us to asking the big questions. It points us towards Him, and towards the existence of heaven.
If we go beyond the accusations and we genuinely try to answer the questions we have, suffering will actually lead us closer to God, not further away- and He knows that. He’s not afraid of our questions; he has the answers. Be brave enough to ask the important questions.
#4 If our mistakes were held against us, we’d all be screwed
If after all this you’re still convinced that only good things should happen to good people, and you use that as an excuse to justify your demand for a good life; I would like to very kindly (I promise) point out your entitlement, your self-righteousness, and pride. Three reasons you may not be as good of a person as you make yourself out to be. And that’s without me knowing you on a personal level. Maybe- hear me out- we’re not as good as we lead ourselves on to believing. But no one can be truly good. And God would never hold our mistakes against us like that.
#5 The belief in a set standard of good, points to the presence of a higher authority
Your belief in the presence of “good” people points to your acknowledgement that some standard of good must exist. But who are we to decide this standard? Humans have no authority to decide what is good; each culture and religion has their own version of good that differs greatly from the next. And so what’s “good” in one culture or religion might not be “good” in another. Acknowledging that there must be a standard of good that everyone should follow points to the existence of a higher authority in which this is even possible.
#6 Pain is sometimes self-inflicted
Simply put, sometimes we place ourselves in situations we know aren’t always good for us. And so a large part of our suffering comes from choices that we make, knowing full well the consequences they carry (this applies to a lot of physical, emotional or spiritual struggles where we often lack self-discipline). If we know the result of a specific action prior to carrying it out, we can’t really blame God for giving us the freedom to choose how we live.
# 7 Environmental significance: the role we play in natural disasters
To take our last point a step further, let’s look at something, that on a surface level, couldn't possibly be self-inflicted: the suffering caused by natural disasters. This is one of the most frequently brought up topics when arguing against God’s goodness.
In his book, Timeless Truth In Truthless Times, George Bassilios explains how hurricanes wouldn’t exist without a large hole in the ozone layer, that in turn wouldn’t exist without pollution. Pollution and climate change also cause a large part of the floods and wildfires that we hear about. In this case, our greed for profit and the subsequent damage to the earth causes much of the harm that we blame on God. But let’s ignore this last point and pretend that absolutely all of the natural disasters are solely God’s doing:
God created a world ruled by natural laws, which He established at its creation. We’ve studied these laws; we know these weather patterns. Scientists have the ability to predict and forecast events such as floods, monsoons and hurricanes. And most of these events happen periodically (i.e., at the same time, whether it’s every year or every ten years). In his book, Bassilios explains that humans still choose to build on well-known fault areas, knowing the dangers in doing so.
Let’s argue against this one last time: people are born into their circumstances and can’t always choose where they get to live. It’s not their fault they are victims of such tragedies. And that’s a hundred percent right. But if these fault areas are recognized and studied, then we can’t pin the cause of harm to the location itself. Knowing that natural disasters occur periodically, companies and businesses have the ability to build high-quality infrastructure designed to survive these events. While some understandably don't have the resources or money to do so, many industry giants do. The poor construction of high-rise structures over well-known fault areas in order to minimize cost and maximize profit, is an example of the previously mentioned "greed for profit" (George Bassilios, Timeless Truth In Truthless Times). Everyone has the freedom to choose their own actions. When one person’s free will (in this case, the industry giants' free will) happens to inflict pain and suffering onto other people, we are misdirecting blame when we blindly throw it at God.
If you made it this far- thank you! I'd love to hear your opinions regarding this topic. Let me know what you think about these points in the comments; I'm excited to learn from you!
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