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Why does God let bad things happen to innocent people?


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When my best friend tod me about her father raping her when she was little, and she would pray and pray to make it stop. She would pray everyday that he would love her like she wanted, and it didn't happen. Her prayers were never answered. What kind of beneovelent God could bear to hear this precious child cry and hate herself and blame herself as she was raped and threatened?

 

If God could idly stand by, what purpose does he serve? What can I tell my best friend about her prayers unanswered? God knows best? You should have been raped? What should I tell her? God had bigger plans so she was raped by dad? While mom pretended she did not know? Please......no one can answer that. God had larger plans you were not intended to understand?

I took this from another thread to keep it from being derailed, and thought it would make an interesting topic for a new thread. (I took out a particularly gross, and graphical part on purpose)

 

This poster is very bitter towards God for what happened to their friend. Quite frankly, I can see why.....

 

Now....if you don't believe in God, this thread isn't for you.....unless you're just here to stir up a debate......so I'm just going to ignore those, (others should take that advice), and ask that you just hear these thoughts out with a somewhat open mind......

 

I won't go into extreme detail, but what happened to this girl happens to thousands of children everywhere......and I was one of them.....you heard me.....

 

Now....I've altered the original post and took out a part that didn't happen to me.....but yes, I was an abused kid, and forced into sexual acts I didn't want to participate in...

 

The man who did this to me/us owned the town, the police, the media......noone had enough power or guts to set him straight or stop his behaviour, and yes.....the whole town knew about his ways....

 

I was just like this girl who prayed and prayed, and begged God to stop him, and that God would intervene and take care of this man with His Justice.....he would certainly pay for what he's done....and I wanted to be a witness....(which was wrong of me to feel this way)

 

God ignored my prayers, so I left home at the ripe old age of 15 leaving my little brother, sister and mother behind to face it themselves......

 

His wrath trickled down to my siblings for several years until they both left and moved in with friends.....I've never.....even till this day have forgiven myself for leaving them behind....

 

Mom finally divorced him once we were out of his house......

 

You would think that I would be as bitter as the person who posted what they did above......and.....for a time......I was.....

 

I'm 40 now with 5 kids of my own. They've never been beaten by me.....(they do get spanked), they haven't been forced into brothels to have sex with strangers and they don't hang out in redneck bars all hours of the night with me.

 

I now councel abused kids, and couples with broken marriages, I donate and help build shelters for single moms, I volunteer whenever and wherever I can to help those who went through the pains of life that I went through.

 

God doesn't have a time table. And we can't see into the future. We don't know how or when He's going to use us.

 

That's not to say that He's going to use everybody that's went through strive in our lives.....it's up to us whether or not we do.....

 

Sometimes terrible things happen to "innocent" people because they aren't as "innocent" as we may believe.....

 

I just think it's unfair to blame God for terrible things.....especially if you don't even believe in Him.....

 

What will become of this poster's friend? Will she live the rest of her life in bitterness because of her childhood? Or will she use these terrible experiences to help others get through?

 

What are you thoughts?

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Now....if you don't believe in God, this thread isn't for you.....unless you're just here to stir up a debate......so I'm just going to ignore those, (others should take that advice), and ask that you just hear these thoughts out with a somewhat open mind......

 

 

Well, you know my thoughts, so I wont go there.

 

BUT. I am very sad to read about both the other posters friend, and your experiences moose. Hearing stories like that makes me mad.:mad: Its so wrong. And heartbreaking...

 

For me, the very fact that such awful things can happen to innocent people (children) is one of the reasons WHY I don't believe in god.

 

I admire the fact that your faith has remained strong, despite what you have been through.

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I just think it's unfair to blame God for terrible things.....especially if you don't even believe in Him.....

 

I agree, Moose.

 

When terrible things happen it’s usually the result of having made a bad choice. And when people do terrible things “to” you ... that’s because People suck, and there is no outside entity running the show who happens to have a particular grudge against you.

 

I remember people blaming “God” for the flood in New Orleans, citing that it was a town of “sin” and therefore it was an act of divine punishment. Totally discounting the fact that Human error and ignorance played the ONLY role in that tragedy.

 

NATURE is what it is. It plays no favorites. Build your house in a flood zone, under a volcano, near a geographic fault line ... and Nature will continue to run it’s course as it has done for eons. The same goes for Human nature and all that is good and ugly about it. For all our trying, we haven’t been able to do much to change our own animalistic tendencies in that area either.

 

“Life” itself is cruel in nature. Look around and notice how many life forms must “consume” other life forms in order to “sustain” life. Hardly perfect, divine order ... except by natural design. Death, disease and sometimes eventual extinction is all a part of that cycle of life. Nothing is immune. And even if as a species we humans go the way of the dinosaurs, it won’t have any impact on the continuum of that life cycle ... and the planet will go on merrily without us as it had for thousands of years before us.

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What will become of this poster's friend? Will she live the rest of her life in bitterness because of her childhood? Or will she use these terrible experiences to help others get through?

 

What are you thoughts?

 

First, she will have to reach the point where she understands that the blame for what happened to her rests squarely on the shoulders of the man who abused her. And that it was the ignorance and/or fear within other human beings who were unable to step up and help her when she most needed it at the time.

 

Sometimes we are powerless to prevent those horrible things that happen to us. But in overcoming it we are no longer the victims ... rather we become the victorious. In order to do that she will have to reach within and recognize her own power to rise above and triumph against the darkest parts of the human condition. We can’t conquer evil, the best any of us can hope for is to survive it. Her faith may help her to eventually find acceptance, but if she gives away ALL of her personal power and will to an outside force, she may surrender herself as a victim of uncontrollable circumstances and martyr to some malevolent Being who takes sadistic pleasure in her torture.

 

There has to be a balance.

 

What she takes from this experience will depend on so many things. Some people are just born with personalities that enables them filter, respond and react to certain situations better (or worse) than others. Some folks are more sensitive, some more emotionally able to disconnect. And some will disconnect too much. Some people have the ability over time to process and develop better coping strategies, while others will require more help, guidance and support from others to get there. It really depends on so many different variables.

 

I know, as a sibling, you processed things differently than your sister. Faced with the same situation and circumstance, you each responded differently to what happened within your family. As did me and my sister. Two different people, two different inherent personalities, two different ways of coping ... two very different outcomes.

 

It’s sorta like that. :(

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acts of atrocity in themselves are bad, but they are not the whole of the situation … there are still so many other influences and factors to support healing and growth. Not that it takes away the evil that's taken place, but it does allow it to be tempered.

 

Moose, that was a painful passage to read, and my heart cries for the childhood you lost. Yet I can also see how that horrific experience helped shaped you into the kind of man you are now – someone who can share your love with others freely (even though it's often tough love!), and who gives back in ways unexpected.

 

the original post, in which the writer asked, God had larger plans you were not intended to understand, I think the answer is less about what has happened and more about how you choose to respond. Again, not tryiing to downplay the atrocity or evil, but allowing yourself to rise past it.

 

something I hear from time to time in interviews with people about why they're so active in their parish is "we are the hands of God, we are the arms of Christ," and I think there's truth in that. God is an abstract; we are concrete. We place our faith in Him; we act on our faith to help others. So that when someone is truly in need, it's by the power of God that we reach out.

 

Enigma brings up NOLA … we had a lot of Katrina (then later, Rita) evacuees come to East Texas seeking shelter. Now, this is a very rural part of the state, and there just isn't a lot of industry here. I daresay many East Texans live from paycheck to paycheck, sometimes barely squeaking by.

 

now, while the vast majority are good Protestant Christian people (after all, this is part of the Bible Belt), there are also residents who don't particularly claim a religious faith or belief in God. Yet when Katrina blew into New Orleans and we were flooded with evacuees, everyone but EVERYone opened their hearts and their homes and their wallets to help these folks.

 

it would have been so easy to say, "not my problem," and turn away, but no one did – people just pitched in and helped in whatever small way they could. And I truly believe that sometimes a terrible event like that allows God to work his good through his people. Much in the same way that there are trained counsellors and shelter workers – and volunteers like Moose – who've dedicated their lives to helping abused families.

 

I don't imagine God is pleased with the atrocities man foist on his fellow man, but the larger picture *is* that there are people who care enough to want to help others heal from those atrocities and we need to remember that above all else …

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I believe God instills in each of us both a strong desire for justice (for when we see someone else doing something wrong and deserves to be punished) and a strong desire for mercy and forgiveness (for when we ourselves do something wrong, and want to avoid punishment and be forgiven).

 

The justice in this world isn't perfect. Some people get away with horrible things. Other people who are not any more evil than the next person have disaster enter their lives.

 

Personally I believe that there is a time and a place when all this mess will get straightened out -- the evil will get their due, the good will get their reward, and those asking for it and being truly sorry for their sins will receive forgiveness.

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God isn't responsible for those awful awful things happening, and He weeps for this to happen, but when He gave His son as a sacrifice, He also gave us the choice to either be those types of creeps and freaks, or not to.

It's our choices to be ppl like the poster of this thread described.

 

God lets us make our own choices and doesn't step into it. he let His only Son be sacrificed for us to have those choices.

That's why He doesn't step in and do anything.

 

I know ppl myself who are angry at God for things that happen in their lives, awful things. I have been guilty of it myself, but I had to get to a place where I realized it's not His fault.

That awful person made thier choice.

Those kinds of horrible things do not come from God.

I now put the blame where it belongs, squarely in the hands of the perosnn who did and from there Satan himself.

Satan's going down, he knows it, I know it and God knows it. He's taking as many as he can with him when he goes.

I don't want to be one fo those, just because something awful happened to me.

Forgiveness is hard. HARD, but I'd rather do that than possibly be with the person in Hell who did that horrible thing to me.

 

I hope I didn't go too far off topic. JMHO:o

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I believe God instills in each of us both a strong desire for justice (for when we see someone else doing something wrong and deserves to be punished) and a strong desire for mercy and forgiveness (for when we ourselves do something wrong, and want to avoid punishment and be forgiven).

 

The justice in this world isn't perfect. Some people get away with horrible things. Other people who are not any more evil than the next person have disaster enter their lives.

 

Personally I believe that there is a time and a place when all this mess will get straightened out -- the evil will get their due, the good will get their reward, and those asking for it and being truly sorry for their sins will receive forgiveness.[/quote]

 

 

This is true. But, we as humans, mere humans, want it taken care of NOW. I know I've been guilty of that. :o

I believe if you are truly sorry you are forgiven. One is known by their deeds, not just their words.

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We are in a fallen world, bad thing happen. we get hurt sometimes by other's sins, sometimes by our own bad choises. but God tell us "good overcome evil, not evil overcome good", including forgiveness overcome bitterness, bless instead of curse enemy..... here just temporary, heaven is forever. I believe if we pray to God to give us the strength and grace, we can do the right things. so we have to keep talking to God on daily basis :D otherwise the bitterness and garbages will store in our heart

 

and I salute people who had been through a lot and still keep believing, they have deep compassion and understanding for others.

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First I will say that I am sorry to hear what you went through Moose. That must have been a nightmare, but I think it was best you left and you shouldn't feel so bad about who you left behind because there was nothing you could've done to protect them so at least you saved yourself.

 

As for the girl who says what purpose does God serve if he stands idly by while bad things happen to good people. My response is two-fold. One is something you touched upon, which is that we can't see the big picture and therefore it's hard to make sense out of a lot of things that happen. Next, I would say that if God intervenes, then there would be no free will. One of the gifts of life is that God has given us the gift of allowing us to make our own decisions. Considering she believes in God, he created the universe so it is disrespectful to say the least that he stands "idly by," as though she is aware of all that He continues to do such as keeping the world and life going.

 

People who suffer obviously learn and grow in ways that differ from lessons they learn without suffering. Maybe in a past life they were the bad ones and they need to suffer to learn compassion or pay the dues of a past transgression. The most we can do is thank God for giving us the opportunities to learn, to live and to grow and overcome whatever we can and make the choice to be better instead of bitter.

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The Collector
Maybe in a past life they were the bad ones and they need to suffer to learn compassion or pay the dues of a past transgression.

 

Don't you think it's a little offensive to suggest to people suffering because of things beyond their power that they might deserve it for sins of a past life?

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Don't you think it's a little offensive to suggest to people suffering because of things beyond their power that they might deserve it for sins of a past life?

 

a) I said "maybe"

b) If someone was a sex offender or worse in their past life and they need to pay back, then I am not God to make decisions on what is the master plan for people to learn.

c) I don't mean to offend anyone but stating various thoughts. Maybe they did something very wonderful in a past life, but to make their soul well rounded they have to suffer through something. I'm not saying they deserve it. I don't know the answers, but what I did say I think is that people should try to learn even from hard situations instead of giving up and turning bitter which is a natural reaction for most of us.

 

If bad things only happened to bad people, would that make sense? What would the initial indication of a bad person be? Wouldn't they by default be good to start out with? So bad things happen to everybody including good people. A more correct question would be, why does evil or bad things exist to begin with? And to that, some would argue without the bad, the good wouldn't mean as much or whatever answers, I can't really think straight right now.

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why does evil or bad things exist to begin with?

 

To test our strength. I don't know...But that is a good question, and I think it's something everybody can have a different answer to. Makes me stop and think...

 

Moosey, I am sorry that you experienced such pain, and it really breaks my heart. Though, it sounds like you've worked so hard to BE the man you're meant to be, and to give back, to help others that are suffering through their difficult times. I commend your strength, your desire to not ever give up.

 

What will become of this poster's friend? Will she live the rest of her life in bitterness because of her childhood? Or will she use these terrible experiences to help others get through?

 

I hope she finds the strength inside, and tons of support around her to eventually give back, to know that she has a story to tell so she can help someone else.

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I just think it's unfair to blame God for terrible things.....especially if you don't even believe in Him.....

 

Huh? Run that one by me again...?

 

I don't believe in God. Therefore I do not and cannot blame him. Because as far as I am concerned he doesn't exist. You can't blame something on a nonexistant entity. Thats what disbelief is all about.

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wizer

 

who Knocked your teeth out? :confused:

 

I was kicked by a horse that I was trying to do something to that I probably shouldn't have been trying to do but I had seen a movie on the internet and I was curious. In the movie the horse didn't seem to mind what was happening but I think I picked the wrong horse because it was a male.

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Maybe in a past life they were the bad ones and they need to suffer to learn compassion or pay the dues of a past transgression.

I have some problems with this:

 

1. It's no longer free will, it's God engineering somebody to come along and rape somebody for something they may have done in a past life they can't remember.

 

2. The fact that they can't know that they're being punished for something makes it merely cruel and sadistic.

 

3. It's vulgar.

 

Cheers,

D.

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Now....if you don't believe in God, this thread isn't for you.....unless you're just here to stir up a debate......so I'm just going to ignore those, (others should take that advice), and ask that you just hear these thoughts out with a somewhat open mind......

 

 

First, I think this bears repeating. And I agree with this. If one does not believe in God, then obviously God has no influence on life...good or bad.

 

Moose, I admire you for all you have endured. And I know from speaking to you that this experience has led you TO God versus away from God. I have often wondered why people with the same experiences go down opposite paths.

 

You would have some good conversations with my wife. She suffered similar abuse. Why she ended up the way she did is also a puzzle.

 

Why do bad things happen to good people? (It also begs the question...why do good things happen to BAD people?) As you undoubtedly know, this is the subject of many books. Personally, I think there is more than one reason. In your case, it was used to bring you closer to God. But...then the obvious question is...can it be used to push people away from God?

 

I am sure that many other reasons can be given, but I have always thought this was one that made sense.

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I just think it's unfair to blame God for terrible things.....especially if you don't even believe in Him.....

 

 

What are you thoughts?

 

 

I think that sometimes when someone says that the reason they don't believe in God is because he did not intervene when they prayed or because of all the suffering or injustices that take place in the world that "God allows", it makes me wonder if some part of them actually does believe in God but they are either angry at God or believe in a God thats bad.

 

Those angry and bitter feelings towards God must really feel awful for them to go through life with because every time they experience or hear of something bad taking place in the world those angry and bitter feelings towards God come out cursing the loving God that they truly don't believe in. Sad situation.

 

If the woman who was sexually abused by her Dad were to get angry and bitter towards her father, mother, herself, family members, friends, the world and everyone in it that she may have thought should of saved or protected the little girl from being sexually abused, at the time it was taking place the little girl would have had no one. So instead she blamed God, that was her coping mechanism.

 

Obviously, she still needs that coping mechanism to deal with the painful and traumatic sexual abuse she endured as a child because she is still using child-like reasoning as an adult grown woman saying "God doesn't exist because he didn't answer my prayers when I was a child".

 

Or did he??? I suppose its all in the way you look at things.

 

If she chooses as an adult to believe that a loving God doesn't exist, who does she blame? Hopefully, its just the person that abused her and the people that didn't protect her but that wasn't mentioned in that post. In fact, I think it was used as someone else's proof that God doesn't exist.

 

Moose, you exhibit what true faith and belief in a loving God really is.

 

God is not a puppet master putting on a show for his own amusement. He would never force someone against their will to choose to believe in him, to choose to want to spend eternity with him in heaven. That is why we all were given free will, free choice to do with it what we want.

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Nobody disbelieves in God out of spite because they secretly do believe but are angry, that is just such a ridiculous and irrational charicature.

 

Unless, of course, you only believe in your god because you're bitter and angry at all the other gods (Zeus, Odin, Allah, Vishnu, etc.), then there's no reason to project this silly idea onto atheists.

 

You may carry on now, I don't mean to start an argument but I can't let this nonsense pass unchallenged.

 

Cheers,

D.

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Nobody disbelieves in God out of spite because they secretly do believe but are angry, that is just such a ridiculous and irrational charicature.

 

Unless, of course, you only believe in your god because you're bitter and angry at all the other gods (Zeus, Odin, Allah, Vishnu, etc.), then there's no reason to project this silly idea onto atheists.

 

You may carry on now, I don't mean to start an argument but I can't let this nonsense pass unchallenged.

 

Cheers,

D.

 

 

I think that there are some people that do believe in a cruel God when they blame God for allowing the existance of suffering, injustices, evil, etc. to take place in the world.

 

How could anything be God's fault if a person truly doesn't believe God exists?

 

So in essence what some are saying is that they don't believe in a loving God and that if God exists they believe he is cruel.

 

Someone who felt that way wouldn't be an atheist, would they? :confused:

 

I'm not meaning to sound argumentative just explaining what I wonder. :)

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To some of us praying has about the same effect as crossing one’s fingers and hoping for the best.

 

I just think it's unfair to blame God for terrible things.....especially if you don't even believe in Him.....

 

What are you thoughts?

 

In agreement with earlier posts, people who don’t believe in god don’t blame him for anything.

 

People who don’t believe in god(s) don’t credit god with the good or blame for the bad that happens in the world but rather lay blame and credit where it truly belongs, on those actually causing the good or bad.

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I think that there are some people that do believe in a cruel God when they blame God for allowing the existance of suffering, injustices, evil, etc. to take place in the world.

I haven't met one, and that isn't from a lack of trying. Mind you, I've seen countless theists stupidly accuse atheists of being angry or bitter at god, not quite grasping what disbelief actually means.

How could anything be God's fault if a person truly doesn't believe God exists?

My point exactly. It makes no sense, but it's only ever the theists who claim this.

So in essence what some are saying is that they don't believe in a loving God and that if God exists they believe he is cruel.

 

Someone who felt that way wouldn't be an atheist, would they? :confused:

Correct. Nobody who believes in any kind of god is an atheist. I just can't wait for the religious population to figure this out.

 

Cheers,

D.

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