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If there is a god, why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people?
My parents are Hindus but I’ve been to Hindu temple, Buddhist temple, and church. Will someone explain this to me?
I really appreciate any info you can provide
Life plays out precisely as one would expect it to in an indifferent universe -- one in which god either does not exist, is absent, or does not care.
This does not mean that one cannot find or make meaning and purpose in life, it just means you aren't an object of fascination for the creator and sustainer of the universe. Which means you're not special, immortal, or anything other than just another human being doing their best.
Your question really speaks, fundamentally, to the concept of justice. It seems unjust, for example, if an innocent child suffers with cancer. But justice is meted out by an intentional actor of some kind. It requires agency. This is one of the reasons people like to believe in gods -- to try to make sense of such heartbreaking scenarios and tell themselves that if only they placate the gods, the gods will smile on them.
But there is a dark side to such beliefs -- we must, ultimately, blame the victim (or at least re-victimize them by throwing them under the bus in some way) when they inconveniently suffer misfortune without some obvious fault. There must be hidden sin, insufficient piety, bad karma, or they have simply been chosen by god to be tested or to serve some ineffable higher purpose. Talk about adding insult to injury!
The cognitive dissonance you are experiencing is quite normal. It goes away when you quit trying to insert god into your understanding of reality. He is an unnecessary entity. His existence neither explains nor predicts anything that actually happens in life.
But there is a dark side to such beliefs -- we must, ultimately, blame the victim (or at least re-victimize them by throwing them under the bus in some way) when they inconveniently suffer misfortune without some obvious fault. There must be hidden sin, insufficient piety, bad karma, or they have simply been chosen by god to be tested or to serve some ineffable higher purpose. Talk about adding insult to injury!
Life plays out precisely as one would expect it to in an indifferent universe -- one in which god either does not exist, is absent, or does not care.
This is precisely the type of abreaction we would expect from someone who was totally invested in a God who supposedly intervened in our physical lives and performed miracles, etc. The degree of disappointment when one is forced to accept that was a false belief about God is proportional to how strongly it was believed and the length of time it was believed. ANY concept of God would become anathema under those circumstances. The idea that the only thing God is interested in is our state of mind and NOT our physical lives just seems like a cop-out. The fact that everything that is displaced is displaced because of our state of mind (including cognitive dissonance) should be probative, but tends to be ignored.
God puts as much interest in pleasing the individual, as the individual puts in pleasing Him.
So good Christians who have scheit happen to them are not pleasing God? But that doesn't address why scheit happens to atheists who don't have anything to do with God. (I nearly said non-Christians but that could mean other religions who do have something to do with God).
If there is a god, why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people?
My parents are Hindus but I’ve been to Hindu temple, Buddhist temple, and church. Will someone explain this to me?
I really appreciate any info you can provide
So let's say there is no God.
Now you tell me why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people?
If there is a god, why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people?
1. In reality, bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.
2. God is not a reality.
3. Thus a claim of 'God exists' will not produce a real God.
4. Since there is real omnipotent God to prevent evil, reality [1] prevails,
5. Since reality prevails, bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.
Even God is not real, the belief in a transcendental of God is still a critical necessity for the majority of people in this current phase [not necessary future] of human evolution to deal with an inherent existential dilemma.
What is of concern to humanity is where this transcendental idea of God is packaged into a religion that has evil laden elements with a no-holds-barred and inspiring a significant 'SOME' believers to kill non-believers without possibility of restraints from itself.
If there is a god, why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people?
My parents are Hindus but I’ve been to Hindu temple, Buddhist temple, and church. Will someone explain this to me?
I really appreciate any info you can provide
I am so sorry that I didn't give this post more attention. It is because the problem of Evil has been done to death. Being of a Hindu background changes the whole thing and makes it a question that needs answering.
This problem was first put by the greek philosopher Epicurus as to why God (he meant Zeus, but the same argument applies to any supposedly omnipotent god) doesn't intervene to prevent evil.
Is he unable? Then he is not God. Is he able but unwilling? Then he is not good and not worthy of worship.
Religious apologists try to get around this with the Free will argument. This fails because the claim that God cannot interfere with our free choice not only does not cut it as he most certainly intervened with Paul in order to start off the gentile church, but it does not explain why preventing disasters somehow nullifies free will.
A similar point was made in the barber analogy.
"Why doesn't God just convert everyone?"
Barber "Why doesn't everyone have a decent haircut? They have to come to me, first."
This fails (and we never see the analogy now ) because if the barber was omnipotent, like God, then everyone would have decent haircuts.
The conclusion that religious apologists are fighting to avoid coming to is: the only explanation of the problem of evil is that there is nobody to help us. We are on our own.
And over to the Austin atheists who can explain it better than I could.
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) because if the barber was omnipotent, like God, then everyone would have decent haircuts.
