Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

For millennia man has pondered over this problem: if God is both omnipotent and omnibenevolent, then why does evil exist in the world? The problem is referred to as theodicy. Many philosophers and theologians over time have tackled this problem and all have, arguably, fallen short of sound logic in all areas. Many have chosen to diminish the qualities of God in an attempt to derive a logical solution, whereas others have pursued different means of rationalization.

John Stuart Mill denied the omnipotence of God as a way of rationalizing the theodicy. Others have simply denied that we are capable of finding a solution and land on the inscrutability of God’s ways. Still others have attempted to rationalize the problem by viewing evil in a corporate manor from God’s eyes, so as to view humanity as ultimately productive and good in spite of occasions of evil (Jensen, 2009).

Augustine and others have taken a drastically different approach to the subject by denying the substance of evil all together. According to this thought process, evil is simply a term which has been assigned to the absence of good. Evil, then, is only a term which is synonymous with ‘lack of good’. An advocate of this view might well praise God for where He has produced good, rather than blame God for where He has not (Jensen, 2009).

Probably the most common solution is the free-will defense. According to this viewpoint, there has to be an opposite to goodness in order for there to be free-will. If there were no evil, then man would not have a choice on whether to do good or not. Man would be forced to glorify God by doing good. Man would have been denied the will to refuse glory for God and therefore would lack free-will. This solution is logical on the surface, but comes with all sorts of issues. For instance: if God is good and all knowing, then creating a human with the ability to perform evil—it can be argued—is an act of evil (Jensen, 2009).

One very modern concept is that evil is therapeutic. That is, evil is manifest in creation by God for the purposes of discipline and/or punishment. This theory is fairly pure on the surface, but raises all sorts of concerns. What about moral evil? Did the Jews who were killed in the Holocaust actually deserve it in God’s eyes? What about the unborn child who is unnaturally or naturally aborted? Do these sorts of moral evils actually produce spiritual benefit (Jensen, 2009)?

I can certainly see the thought process in all of these theories, but I would approach it from a very different angle. As a result of Adam’s sin, God created natural evil (Genesis 3.17-20 New American Standard Bible). This is definitely punishment for doing what God said not to do. It should be noted that because of the fall, all mankind became sinners, so this punishment was bestowed on all. Therefore, these sorts of bad things are not happening to good people, they are only happening to bad people, to sinners.

Moral evil still requires explanation. Adam and Eve clearly had it within them to produce evil aside from the curse, since they ate of the forbidden fruit before the curse. One has to come to grips with the fact that God created both the temptation and a tempter so that Adam would have to make a moral choice. In the gravest of sins, Adam chose evil.

In order to reconcile this, one has to remember that God’s ultimate purpose in creation is His own glory. Had God created man without the ability to make a moral choice, He would have been denying himself the glory that comes from obedience, since man would be forced into obedience, thus negating His own purpose in creation.

But, God is omnibenevolent! Yes, He is. But, God’s love for mankind is stemmed by His own purpose for righteousness. In other words, God would do an extreme injustice to His creation and ultimately His plan if He refused them the opportunity for righteousness which can only come as a consequence of denying evil. It is interesting that there are many different opinions on the matter. My own opinion (albeit based primarily on scripture and less on reason) borrows from many of the great thinkers who have pondered the problem of theodicy before me.

References

Jensen, J. (2009). Questions that matter L. Miller, (Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.