I am told that god lets things happen for a reason, well my question is why does god let bad things happen?

Question

some examlpes WWII, the holocaust, death, even bad things to christians, like there are scam artists, peter popoff and others , they make billions of off christians faith and desperation, this question is not made to insult christians, just to understand them

Answer 1

Because things get out of his hand.

God created the world, but after that things got out of his hand.  He couldn't do anything any more to control the world.  He cannot save anybody directly.  But He tells humans that humans can save themselves, this is the only thing He is sure.

Answer 2

First, is god moral? I am wary of presuming that god is moral in a way that humans normally think one ought to be, for example that when one sees something bad happen that one should try to stop it from happening.

Assuming god has a plan it does not necessarily mean that her plan is for humans to be happy. The Pursuit of Happiness is an American virtue, not necessarily a universal one. It could be that god's plan is for bad things to happen to people. This is bleak, I know.  

Alternatively, it is entirely plausible that god is a sea cucumber and that her plan is for sea cucumbers to be happy but does not really care for humans and thus let's us go on about with our violent tendencies. The obvious retort is that god is all and all is god, so god is both sea cucumber and human at the same time, and thus cares for us equally. But where does that leave us, really?

Think about it like this: maybe god does not know more than we do. Maybe god is not the teacher and maybe we are not the naughty pupil always being caught smoking behind the bleachers. It could be the other way around. Maybe God is trapped outside of life and the universe and can only exist through you and me. If this is so, then we are always teaching god about the beauty (and horror) of being alive. if this is so, then god would not be any better at avoiding bad things than we are.

The obvious retort is that god is all-knowing, and is therefore necessarily our teacher. However, that presumption just leads back to the same old gar-bull-de-guk about our free will and how god puts us through the ringer so we can learn our lessons. This arguments had its day, but now it just seems so patriarchal, and doesn't really advance the ball anymore. At least not for me.

Answer 3

For us to know the good things to do, when bad things happens. And human free will of course. Anyway, I think God will not let bad things happen to good people forever. A day will come when he will bring justice to victims. So, bad people, be aware!

Answer 4

All that learning c**p is bullshitt, god doesn't like us, he just wants to have some fu with us and make us kill our-selfs just like gladiators. How do i know?? because I AM GOD and i will destroy the world because its getting outta hand

Answer 5

God has given us freewill- so we can choose to love him or not. But this freewill also leads to sin. This world is littered with wickedness and atrocities are everywhere you look; however this imperfection should hardly be blamed on God. The sadness and horrid things that occur throughout the world are not God's doings but rather mans.

Answer 6

i may not fit the profile of christian the ones u want the answers from but i have some insight into that. allthings happen for a reason is a sort of cop out by all those who want to make good out of the bad, the truth is that the reason lies within all of us to decide whether to make a valid reason by giving this evil or misdeed or bad thing some vindication and doing something to better the world due to our loss or pain

Answer 7

How did you learn that those things were bad?

Were the lessons learned from them bad as well?

Answer 8

Because we are here to learn. We learn much more from the bad things that happen

Answer 9

So you wouldn't mind him being a puppet master, controlling everybody to do what he thinks is good?  Actually the answer is ultimately because everything is  actually good as long as the universe stays intact.  Since it means we have an eternity to make everything right so it can never be too late.

Answer 10

as you have said...for a reason which we do not want to know , do not want to look for...Good things happen then we are happy to find a reason often identifying ourselves with that reason ...bad things happen we are sabotage it or placing the responsibility for it on someone else ..Have you notice that? Do you think Christianity is right? Well they have huge contradictions and disagreements  between branches even between neighboring churches of same Faith....Which church speaks the Truth? May be there is none?and that is a reason? The Truth does not need to be defended...otherwise  meaning of God would be awfully limited not "omni" for sure..May be we defensing and attacking untruth only? Think about it.

Answer 11

if we didn't have the bad how would we appreciate the good?  How would we learn, because lessons are best learnt from the bad.

Answer 12

This is the rational of a desperate person trying to justify the existence of a god in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Answer 13

Good question. Maybe it's the same reason he let you ask the question. Perhaps there's a lesson from him in your asking.

Answer 14

Because there is no god in reality.  Things happen and you subjectively label them bad or good.

Answer 15

Free will. We were given free will.

I think of it this way, a parent can't force you to live your live this way or that way. They teach us but we make our own decisions and choices.

Answer 16

One day I was driving on the way to an appointment.  A turtle was crossing the road and I prayed, God please let the turtle get across safely.  When I was coming back I saw that the turtle had been smashed in the middle of the road.  I was really angry at God for not watching over a simple creature like the turtle.  In this case, the road was relatively quiet and I could have simply pulled over and moved him out of the road.  Instead, I had just hurried on by and lifted an off-handed prayer to God.  The point is, we are made to act on our faith.  God will intervene for His purpose if and when necessary.  Our freewill and the freewill of others will produce consequences that we will have to live with.  I chose not to stop and move the turtle and the turtle died.  As for those who make money off of naive and desperate people, all I can say is there are scammers in every line of work.  There will be a lot of other answers for your other observations, so I just wanted to answer a couple of them.  Keep asking questions.  Most of us are not, or should not be, insulted because you are searching for answers.

Answer 17

Things happen, period. If this is God's Plan, it isn;'t thought out particularly well

Answer 18

God also hates us to enjoy ourselves... If we let ourselves experience too much pleasure then we might lose interest in obeying him.