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Huan Yi
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since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688
Waukegan

0 posted 2005-07-28 04:38 PM



Why do bad things
happen to good people?


© Copyright 2005 John Pawlik - All Rights Reserved
Stephanos
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Elite
since 2000-07-31
Posts 3618
Statesboro, GA, USA
1 posted 2005-07-28 05:31 PM


Have you ever read the book of Job?


Stephen.

Juju
Member Elite
since 2003-12-29
Posts 3429
In your dreams
2 posted 2005-07-28 05:40 PM


That statement makes me laugh, because the poeple who usualy say it are poeple who dug there own hole.  Unfotunetly there are thoughs were it actually rings through and the answere my friend is simply that because there are bad poeple who only care about themselves.

-Juju

Juju - 1.) a magic charm or fetish 2.)Magic 3.)A taboo connected woth the use of magic

The dictionary never lies.... I am magical (;

Midnitesun
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647
Gaia
3 posted 2005-07-28 07:09 PM


God's an equal opportunity employer?
JesusChristPose
Senior Member
since 2005-06-21
Posts 777
Pittsburgh, Pa
4 posted 2005-07-28 08:19 PM


This one is easy for Christians and most likely other people from other faiths to answer:

If bad things happen to good people - it is because God is teaching them a lesson.

If goods things happen to good people - it is because God deems they deserve it.

Win - win.

My answer?

Bad things happen to good people because that is how life goes. Just like how good things happen to bad people or any other combination one wishes to include.

It is all fate. The Creator up above, if there is one, allows us to be without interference.

The reason? Maybe the Creator can't determine the future, but is adept on the present and past.

Your guess would be as good as mine.

"I have gone away. The bed is cold and empty. Trees bend their boughs toward the earth. And nighttime birds float as black faces."

Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669
Michigan, US
5 posted 2005-07-28 09:58 PM


Wow. I wouldn't think it was easy to squeeze that many assumptions into just eight words.  

Assumption One: There are bad things.

Assumption Two: There are good people.


JesusChristPose
Senior Member
since 2005-06-21
Posts 777
Pittsburgh, Pa
6 posted 2005-07-28 10:09 PM


"Wow. I wouldn't think it was easy to squeeze that many assumptions into just eight words.  

Assumption One: There are bad things.

Assumption Two: There are good people.

~ For sure... smart look at the topic matter... getting to the basic roots of the question.


"I have gone away. The bed is cold and empty. Trees bend their boughs toward the earth. And nighttime birds float as black faces."

Alicat
Member Elite
since 1999-05-23
Posts 4094
Coastal Texas
7 posted 2005-07-28 10:41 PM


Define bad things, define good people.  We often don't know why things happen, for whatever ultimate reason.  Why might know how things happen, clinically, but not the why.  And who's to tell?

Converse is true for good things happening to bad people.  Define bad people, define good things.

Take a hitman.  By societal standards, he's a bad man, taking life with nary a blink or thought.  However, he's a wonderful father to his children.  To some he's a bad person, to others he's a good person.  It's all down to perspective and rationalization.

Kid who never did anything 'wrong' at all, period, perfect child, is killed by a drunk driver who only gets a slight bump to the forehead.  Bad thing happened to a good person, good thing happened to a bad person.  Drunk driver spends rest of life helping children and societal rejects due to the accident.  Good or bad outcome?

Perspective and rationalization.

JesusChristPose
Senior Member
since 2005-06-21
Posts 777
Pittsburgh, Pa
8 posted 2005-07-28 10:50 PM


Excellent viewpoint, Alicat.


Huan Yi
Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688
Waukegan
9 posted 2005-07-29 12:14 PM



A nine year old girl
is raped and then buried alive
by her stranger “lover”.

LeeJ
Member Patricius
since 2003-06-19
Posts 13296

10 posted 2005-07-29 08:28 AM


John, it is hard to sort out those things...hard to give answers, as no answer seems logical or even fair, at a time like this...all one can say is...it's ok to cry, to mourn, to be angry...hopefully people will want to join and do something to make her death, her parents loss, seem not in vane.  

Hugs you

Huan Yi
Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688
Waukegan
11 posted 2005-07-29 10:48 AM



I’ve been thinking about how distant
many words have become from the realities
they were intended to convey, and thereby
make it easy for us to play with them detached
from true meaning or any ability to resolve anything.
The Jewish community is, accordingly, very watchful
of how the word “Holocaust” is used in the media
and is quick to criticize  when someone uses it
to describe a bad hair day.  We not having been so
vigilant are then unable to communicate as would
properly impact when we use words like evil
or horror.  Perhaps that’s what pictures are for,
but even then those images are on the other side of the screen
co-mingled with those from the latest episodes of “24 Hours”
and “Oprah” and so take on an aspect of unreality,
even, though darkly, entertainment.  Perhaps being
so deprived, we are simply incapable with the words we use
to truly understand any reality beyond our personal
experience well enough to say or judge with any worth.

There is a story from around the French and Indian War
era of how colonists from Western Pennsylvania finally loaded
a wagon with the latest mutilated remains of their loved ones
and then brought it into Philadelphia before the steps
of the government building where Quakers in the name
of peace and brotherhood were arguing against taking any action
in assistance to those frontier communities being attacked.
It was only after that event that assistance was authorized.

Maybe we are incompetent because when we speak
we smell no blood and hear no screams.
  


LeeJ
Member Patricius
since 2003-06-19
Posts 13296

12 posted 2005-07-29 01:30 PM


It was only after that event that assistance was authorized.


I'd been watching into the West...
It was the same, War IS Evil...ugly, and your comment, John, very thought provoking...and true.  

Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354
Listening to every heart
13 posted 2005-07-29 02:05 PM


When I become jaded with life, and get ready to throw in the towel, I usually get met with a repeat of

Shenandoah.
http://www.movie-pages.com/movie/shenandoah/B00008CMT3/

If you do not know this story, a read of its detailed review is helpful.

Some things will never be understood, but I truly believe it can be, in some eyes, "fate", or through other eyes, "God's will".  

Some could even ascribe the term "circumstance" which is saying that things are merely accidental.

It is the richness of the world's cultures, however, that we ascribe happenings in many and varied ways.

I will not say "why ask why?", because I truly believe you would like an answer. I do not know that any person, even a highly respected philosopher, is going to be able to fully answer that question, however, without ascribing to some subjectivity.

Cloud 9
Senior Member
since 2004-11-05
Posts 980
Ca
14 posted 2005-07-29 04:41 PM


I heard on the radio this morning about a documentary this guy did and it is showing in San Francisco. Its called Murder Ball. Its about how "bad things happen to people." The guy that did this documentary was at a party one night and decided to pass out in the back of his friends truck. His friend got into the truck and took off without knowing he was in the back. His friend lost control of the vehicle and he guy flew out of the back of the truck, flew threw bushes, over a fence and was logged in a tree by a canal. Once he came to and some people found him, he couldn't feel his legs. Before that incident happened. He was getting out of his car one day and was hit by a passing vehicle. So with all that said, he didn't let this get him down so he became apart of a rugby team for people in wheelchairs. He then interviewed some people who have experienced the same thing and how they have delt with it in thier life.

I am almost tempted to go see it. It was a tragic story with a great outcome (ending).  


Essorant
Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769
Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada
15 posted 2005-07-30 02:36 PM


[Moderator, please delete this if you may.  Thanks]

[This message has been edited by Essorant (08-01-2005 12:26 AM).]

Juju
Member Elite
since 2003-12-29
Posts 3429
In your dreams
16 posted 2005-08-04 03:35 PM


Hmm  The question is not gods on what side, but who is on gods side, and that my friends is very scary.  By the time we find out it will be too late.  All we can do really hope we are doing the right thing.  what we want may blind us to what god wants.  War is bad... perhapps, but sometimes billy has to have a time out, and realize he cant blow up poeple.

Juju - 1.) a magic charm or fetish 2.)Magic 3.)A taboo connected woth the use of magic

The dictionary never lies.... I am magical (;

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