Why does God allow bad things to happen?

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To put it very simply, there's a natural order to things and the rest is relatively incomprehensible.

On natural order of things: imagine what the world would be like if there was no disease and no death? It doesn't really make much sense to ask god to stop death and disease, since they're both deemed 'bad' by people. Should He stop the good things as well? All good and no bad?

As far as bad things go, death isn't a bad thing. Suffering is. And there will always be suffering, one way or another.

For those who believe in a Divine Plan...the whole thing is way too complex for the human mind to possibly comprehend. How can one question such motives?

For those who don't, well then..."things happen." Things happen to everybody.Once again, there's no way of knowing why nor what purpose they serve.

I'm a pessimist sittin' on the fence. I don't know anything.


EDIT: Turned out a bit confusing (for a change). I'm trying to see it from more than one angle.

Simple answer:

Bad stuff happens. Every person on this planet gets into f****d up situations. Deal with what happens in what ever way you can. A strong support network of family and friends helps.

The idea of this omnibenevolent creature watching over you might help you deal with it too, whatever, but the minute you assume that this creature exists, you bring in a whole world of hurt: disassociation from reality, judgementalness, and almost completely erradicate the necessity of logic for basic thought, and instead create a reality based upon how you would like the world to be.

Not only that but having a world where everybody's nice to everybody and we all 'get along' would be extremely horrible and boring. Ever read\watched 1984, Equilibrium, V for Vendetta, and a hundred others. That whole idea of everyone's nice and we all get along 100% of the time is nothing but a fascist ideal. The only way to make such a world possible is to make people the same. Take away our individuality, and everything that makes us different from each other.

Edit: You'll find a world like that feels more like slavery than life.

The important question is not really "Why does God allow bad things to happen?", but rather, "If God cannot prevent bad things from happening, why should I care about God?"

There is a reason for everything, even if we don't know why something happened, there is a reason for it.

It's funny that you mention Natalee, I, too, wonder why God allowed her to die, although it could be because he "called her home" so to speak. She and her family are in my prayers.

To me, the concept of a god is man's way of explaining what we dont understand . . . well, the concept of gods in general. It wasnt until the Egyptians (and some other ancient cultures) that religion was used to control (IE: your "King" is closest to a/the god and if you displease him, you're going to regret it in the hereafter). The concept has ever been for the sake of control since then, more out of fear and keeping power so as to mold society as the leaders wished. As for bad stuff happening, if its naturally occurring (earthquakes, etc) then its chance and location (if not where you are then it will somewhere else because it has to happen). But, when it comes to people and society, its because of the people and what happens is a result of what they do or dont do. Humans want something to blame (since they dont apparently like to take responsibility for their individual actions) so may as direct animosity towards the supernatural (praise the divine for success, belittle the infernal for failures). Fear, however, seems to be the highest power of them all though since its easily applied to us when needed for controlling the masses.