Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Why Does God allow suffering? This question is probably as old as religion itself. It is a stumbling block for some of us, and for many more at given moments of tragedy. There are as many answers to this question as there are people who care to engage in theological dialogue. One understanding is that yes, God allows "bad" things to happen; God does not cause them to happen.

At times it may seem like God causes suffering, but actually it is the fault of mankind. In the beginning, God created everyone to have free will because He knew that without free will, no one would be able to make their own choices (Life on Hold). Without being able to make their own choices, there would be no real love because everyone would be forced to love. Everyone would all be programmed to do the same thing, so

First of all, it is possible that God has his reasons for allowing evil to exist that we just do not understand. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” There is not much we can do in this case, we just have to have confidence in God and understand that his ways are above our ways. God may also just be letting evil run its course. He might want to prove that anything contrary to what he says will cause pain and suffering, eventually leading to death. Personally, I don’t think God created the world how it is now but rather evil was created because of man. God created man because he wanted people to love him just as he loves us. However, natural love can only exist through free will, and thus man was given free will to either accept or reject God’s love. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God they brought evil into the

Being a Christian we fail to understand sometimes why God allows bad things to happen to good people or bad things to happen in our life when all we are trying to do is live it the best we can. Or like that old saying goes “when it rains, it pours”. Why does evil exist in the first place if God created the world to be holy and sacred? Honestly we have all asked ourselves this question at least one in our life if not multiple times a week!

Why does God allow suffering? This is the age-old question of Christians and non-Christians alike, and it's unlikely to be answered to anyone's satisfaction this side of heaven. Even though I'm just an ordinary guy, I'd like to take a stab at it.

How can God and Evil both exist in the World? I have asked myself this question probably a million times in my 27 years of life and I know I will continue to ask myself this question for the rest of it. If one believes in a higher power how can this higher power allow for such bad things to take place? Many people have this certain image of God as an all-wise, all powerful parent figure who would treat us as our earthy parents do or even better. But when something bad happens to us we somehow may forget all that and want to put the blame on him. But if you think about it who is the one to say that you, yourself are a good person? You may think you are a good person but in the end I truly believe that the Lord our Savior is the only person that can ultimately make that decision. As stated by the author, Dave Earley

William Rowe defines gratuitous evil as an instance of intense suffering which an omnipotent, omniscient being could have prevented without thereby losing some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse.(Rowe 335) In a world with so much evil it raises the questions If God is all powerful, all knowing and all good, how can he allow bad things to happen to good people? Can God even exist in a world with so such gratuitous evil? These are questions that has afflicted humanity for a very long time and has been the question to engross theologians for centuries. The existence of evil has been the most influential and powerful reason to disprove the existence of God. It is believed among many theist that God is the creator and caretaker

The question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” has most likely been around for a very long time. It will always stay relevant as long as there are natural disasters killing so many people and making others suffer, many of them being innocent. There is no common factor found among all people that suffer great physical and emotional pain. It happens to people of all religions, ethnicities, and morality. Suffering does not seek out the guilty, it is just a part of life. Bad things happen to good people, because bad things happen to all people, so even the righteous can suffer, which is seen in “The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer, and The Book of Job. Suffering is just left up to the will, or

Generally, God is known to be all good, to have complete control and power, and to be loving. Although, how come there is evil in the world with such an angelic God?  If God cares and loves us- wouldnt he prevent the suffering if he could? Since he is all powerful, he should be able to eliminate the suffering that evil brings. It seems we only have two potential answers: either God is not loving and all powerful, or God does not exist. Although, I am going to try to give an alternative answer and possibly explain how God could coexist with evil.

If God exists there is no bad stuff because God is an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent being. With these characteristics, God should prevent all bad things from happening.

God is all powerful, loving, and knowing and allows evil in the world not because he approves evil but because he has given us free will, the choice to chose right or wrong with the consequences. We are loved by God so much that he has given us free will. Free will is the decision we have to do good or evil in any situation we are put into or can be tempted by Satan. Every decision we make is showing how we use are freedom He has given us. Many people get double minded, which is when Christians know God's word is true but do not believe it necessarily when the time comes. God loves us not by a feeling but by a choice and we are given the free will to love him or it is not love. C.S. Lewis explains why we are given free will in this quote:

As far as evil goes, I have dealt with some many evil people, people who used me, people abused me. I get to watch them completely take over someone and get everything they ever wanted in life, how is this fair? How does this have any purpose in life? Why if there is a god, does he allow his children to be so evil to others and give them life filled with greatness? I guess I see it as if there is a god, he can’t always make the world a better place, it’s those who live to make the world better, but isn’t he supposed to guide us through the ways of

God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, which makes us wonder what kind of morally sufficient reason justifies God to allow evil. We know that evil exists in our world, but so does God, so would God be the source of evil as well as good? We have established that God is the omnipotent and benevolent free creator of the world, but suffering and evil exist. Is God unable to prevent evil? If so, he would not be omnipotent. Is He able to prevent the evil in our world but unwilling? If this were then case then he wouldn’t be benevolent. A Persian thinker, Mani, suggested that the answer to this question was a kind of duality between the good and evil. This pluralistic view of the good and evil in our world would suggest that God is

Its impossible to reflect on the origins of evil without bringing up the concept of free will. God created man with this idea of choice; the choice to believe and obey, or the choice to disobey. It was this free will that allowed Adam and Eve to fall from their initial glory and introduce evil and suffering into the world. We can justify a large amount of sustained suffering by acknowledging that it actually benefits us and is not incompatible with God's loving nature. We learn lessons both physically and spiritually that allows us to grow and mature according to God. Some suffering is used to spark revival or for a great advancement in his kingdom, cause after all we're

Where does evil come from in the world? Depending on an individual’s faith, this question might be answered numerous ways. Each religion has their own bases as to why there is evil present, even questioning why a good God would allow suffering. There are four main theories that correlate depending on the religious teachings you believe in and why bad things happen to good people. It is human nature to try to figure out the world around us, and understand why we are here and why things happen. Religion gives us a foundation to stand on. The idea of evil in this world can contradict and strain the idea of a God that is good. Why would a God allow such pain and suffering to innocent human beings? The four main theories are as follows, karma, the consolation of promise, the appeal to sovereignty, and dualism.