Why does God allow bad things to happen?

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he allows it to happen so that we grow closer to him

You can't have bad sex unless you've had good sex to compare it to.

What makes the rest of life any different?

My opinion is that "god" is not a deity or being seperate from the universe. God IS the universe. Everything that exists everywhere makes up one large, infinate universal consciousness. In that sense there is divinity in everyone and everything. Since there is no "big guy in the clouds watching over us", god can't prevent bad things from happening.

My answer to this in the context of Judeo-Christian mythology combines some basic worldwide philosophical thoughts which are not explicitly defined in canonized Christian text (Thank you Holy Roman Empire). It is not my belief, nor my religion. Here it is:

God wanted to give us, his children, a chance to experience the wonder and beauty of life. He also wanted us to learn the difference good and evil, as well as many things that a spirit floating in the universe cannot comprehend. God wanted to give up the opportunity to experience having a choice. This choice is exactly why we never see God on Earth. There are certain people God has "touched" to guide the populus back toward benevolence and "goodness", but he can force no one. If he made it so no bad would ever happen in the world, there would be absolutely no point or purpose to Him putting us here in the first place.

There ya go. I'm sorry I had to use some ideas taken outside of the christian scope, but I could find no reason except OBEY ME to justify or rationalize god's will within greater christian dogma.

I share the same general belief. Welcome to Pantheism.

The only deviation I really have is that the universe, and the universal consciousness I would call energy, which is my "god" or whatever. Energy has no purpose or will, but it definetly exists, and everything in the universe is composed of energy. The only thing energy does is change, and time is nothing but us watching energy change. When you die, your energy meets with the earth's energy, and it changes again, sometimes to grass energy, or worms consume it to live, but the circle of life continues. This deviation can be classified as Neutral Monism.

Side note: I also think that rocks and stars are just as alive as we are, they just live longer and we don't know their language. Energy is Life.

With all-due respect my friend, this makes no sense whatsoever.

Not until you've been through it.

But how many other things in this world work backwards? Too many to count.

Irony seems to be the one constant; the law of the land.

Cause: You're a ruthless a**hole businessman.
Inverse Effect: You get lots of money, and even respect.

No wonder so many people seem to be at least nearing insanity these days. When everything in the world seems to work backwards, or on the basis of irony, exactly the way it shouldn't, who can blame them for starting to believe that "Nice guys finish last", and all the other platitudes about how being mean gets you success in life?

The world works backwards because it's run by Satan. That's why it often seems that "No good deed goes unpunished."

Hi Legato, have to disagree here, God put the tree of knowledge of good and bad in the garden of Eden, and told us NOT to eat from it, he only wanted us to know good, not bad as he knew full well that bad is something us mere Humans havnt got the will or strength to resist.

You are right that he wanted us to have a choice, hence the placing of the tree in the first place, the choice being to obey him and let him decide for us, or to reject him and see for ourselves the error of knowing bad.

God also laid this command upon the man: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. 17 But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”

Yeah, sickos rape and murder children so they grow closer to God.

If that's true, then God is hardly any different from Satan.

I agree totally. I am somewhat of a pantheist. In my opinion, it is the most plausible theory. And yes, energy can only change. It can't be created or destroyed. This is why I believe that when you die, you don't just simply cease to exist. What happens to all the energy and emotions that made you "you"? It can't just simply disappear. And as for that stars and rocks being alive, that is actually a concept called "animism". I somewhat agree with that too. Who says the scientific definition of life is totally accurate? Rocks and stars are made of molecules and atoms just as we are. My girlfriend told me that when she was a little girl, she believed that when nobody was in the room, all the furniture would come alive and have conversations with each other. I told her i thought that was cute. Then she told me she sorta still believes that to an extent. Most furniture is made of organic material. According to animism, the furniture IS alive. The universe is our god. The solar system is just a type of atom and vise versa.

I'd debate that there is no Satan - more God putting us up to trials, perfect bliss tends not to be the best mental state to learn or gain strength in.

Like I said, I was trying to make logical sense of the God argument for why bad things happen, and I acknowledged that I deviated from Holy Roman Christian Dogma. I don't believe in this being you call God.



Exactly my point. Perhaps the tree is nothing but a symbol of this idea.

God is dead.

Bayle's theory of God


This explains about free will and the extents of abilities god may or may not have.

That's Neitchze (sp?)

Sounds more like Trent Reznor to me.

How can a mythological, fictional being prevent bad things in reality from happening? that's what I want to know *munching popcorn*