Why do bad things happen to good people?

Question: Why do bad things happen to good people?


After 9/11 I remember hearing Billy Graham saying on TV that in all his years he'd never been able to answer that question. Now, I have nothing but respect for that man, and I realize it was a delicate time. One where the entire country was scared and hurting. He had to choose his words carefully. The fact is though that there is a hard answer to the question.

Life is random.

Going back to Genesis, we see what was originally a perfect world. God created man, intending him not to be as servants, forced to obey, but as children with free will. The planet was given to us to take care and manage. The world was a giant garden and we were the caretakers. While we remained faithful, the world ran according to God's plan and will. But then Adam and Eve ruined that.

Instead of choosing to live by God's will man chose to live by his own. No longer was there a perfect order to things. One perfect will guiding the planet. Death and sin was introduced into the world and our various wills, reigned instead.

I'm sure most everyone knows chaos theory, even if it's just from watching Jurassic Park. Life really does operate in that way. Our actions, along with random chance produce outcomes we could never foresee. When you have 6 billion people each struggling to make the world conform to their version of happiness, it becomes chaotic. Like 6 billion people trying to drive one car. Course naturally when things go bad, God gets the blame.

How could a merciful God allow such horrible things to happen?

Because he loves us. God loved us enough to give us free will to impact this earth as we see fit. He's not going to control everything we do, so as a result, we have the ability to create and destroy ourselves anyway we see fit. And we're far better at the latter. If we believe in him though, have faith, it is possible to change things. Sometimes God intercedes for one reason or another. Again it may seem random to us, but every choice he makes has a reason behind it. God won't interfere with our destroying ourselves, but he does love us and will do what he can to save as many as he can.

So, to sum up, bad things happen because life is random. Maybe, instead of asking why there's so much darkness in this world, we should be asking, 'what can I do to shine a light in it?'