Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
Overview: Addressing the million-dollar question from an atheist perspective, the biblical perspective, the religious perspective, and the no-answer answer.
This multifaceted question doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all answer. It depends who is asking it and for what purpose. The atheist asks this question to conclude that God doesn’t exist. Others can ask how this fits with the traditional understanding of God as omnibenevolent. And others are sincerely bothered by the creation of evil and suffering. We will address these three questions separately.
First to the atheist. What connection does the existence of evil have to do with the existence of a God. See “God is Not Bound by Our Morality” for a discussion on whether God is bound by the human constructs of morality and what we consider “good” and “bad.” As for the challenge to God’s claimed omnirelevance, see “Is God a Nice Guy?” and “Is Everything that Happens for the Good?” where we discuss the misunderstanding of that label for God.
The real million-dollar question is the third one. It’s the sincere cry of the heart: why does God allow for evil and suffering to exist. Many of us have lost a loved-one, gone through life hardships, wars, hunger, illness, and pain. Had nature been the only force at play, we would have no one to complain to; but believers have a God to complain to, a God who created and controls nature. My God, why has though forsaken me?!, cries the Psalmist.[i] “Behold these are wicked, yet they are tranquil in the world and have increased wealth.”[ii] The entire biblical book of Job is a thesis attempting to understand the problem of evil. Yet here we are after thousands of years of contemplating the question – with no satisfying answer.
The concept of reward and punishment is the Torah’s explanation for the existence of suffering. The covenant between God and the people of Israel established at Mount Sinai and elaborated in the book of Deuteronomy states that suffering will be visited upon the community of Israel (and possibly individuals[iii]) when they abandon the ways of God.[iv] In this sense, reward and punishment is not a solution to a problem; it is merely explanatory. Indeed, it creates further problems. If the Torah guarantees rewards to the righteous, why do some righteous people suffer?
The book of Job is dedicated to this problem. Job’s life is invaded by tragedy despite his righteousness. His friends maintain that he must have sinned, but Job affirms his innocence and questions God’s justice. Ultimately, God speaks to Job from a whirlwind, rejecting the response of his friends—thus admitting that righteous people can suffer—and also chastising Job. God wonders how Job could question the master of all creation. The book of Job appeals to the mysteries of the universe as a response to the problem of suffering. Humans with finite minds can’t possibly understand the ways of God.
The book of Job also seems to suggest that the suffering inflicted on Job was a test to see whether Job will preserve His faith in God. Why God had to test Job with suffering is indeed something our finite minds cannot comprehend.
One of the classical approaches to the question of evil is the belief in an afterlife (discussed here), in which the righteous people who suffered are compensated for the pain and struggles they faithfully endured in this world. This is comforting, although it doesn’t fully answer the question. Why must we endure the suffering in this world in order to appreciate the World to Come; why must there be any suffering at all, no matter which world it be.
The no-answer answer
This answer is adopted from the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks ob”m, a great thinker and master in Torah.[v]
God does not want us to understand why bad things happen to good people. Because if we ever understood it, we would be forced to accept that bad things happen to good people. But God does not want us to accept those bad things, he wants us not to understand so that we will fight and faithfully endure the bad and the injustices of this world. And that is why there is no answer to this question, since God has arranged that we shall never have an answer to this question.
Our job is not to embrace the evil and suffering. Instead we must pray for it all to end, pray for the day that “He will erase, oh God our Lord, all tears from every face.”[vi] We need to challenge God, just like Abraham did: “Shall the Judge of the earth not do justice?!”[vii] We can understand, in the back of our heads, that surely God has a reason for the suffering – but consciously the evil should bother us, since after all we don’t understand the ways of the Lord and we have human experiences of suffering and pain.
[i] Psalms 22:17.
[ii] Psalms 73:12.
[iii] Deut.29:17-27. However, it appears to be referring to the nation as a whole (continuing its theme from before), except that it speaks in singular and to the individual in order to personalize the message and one Jew won’t just throw the responsibility on others. This fits well with the fact that the message starts off in singular and gradually continues into a discussion of the entire nation being exiled etc.
[iv] Deut. 4 and 28.
[v] https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=0rW1znjmPFE
[vi] Isaiah 25:8.
[vii] Genesis 18:25.
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Again, thank you for your essay.
Thank you for your essay. I have some thoughts about why do bad things happen to good people? As you wrote, the biblical explanation is that if the Israelites observe the commandments all will be well for them. Later, the view of the prophets is the view of proper behavior. Hosea 6:6. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of G-d rather than burnt offerings.” The Book of Job offers a third approach. To be fair, Job is the only person who is perfectly good in the Bible. G-d tells him in a whirlwind that we are incapable of understanding the laws of nature and why good people suffer. The view of Rabbi Sacks. Additionally, we might say that Job’s suffering ceased when he realized his reaction mattered, not what happens to a man (Rambam).
Warren Zev Harvey adds that Rambam considers the imagination, the “evil inclination” (Hebrew: יצר הרע yetzer hara‘) to be evil. The yetzer hara may lead us astray. But according to Rambam, “Satan” is a metaphor for the imagination. There is no such thing as a yetzer hara but the idea is true.
Additionally, we can add that Ralbag felt that G-d does not know the future. If we accept the Ralbag, the age-old problem is resolved. Ralbag wrote: “In general, all evils that occur are attributable to matter or to chance (not to G-d). For the causes of evil are necessarily in the recipient itself or from some external source.” This is also the view of Maimonides. above all, I think Maimonides answered this well.
Rambam felt that G-d does not cause evil, G-d is good. He explained that evil is caused by one of three things, either people harm themselves or others, or natural law, which are good for the world generally but may harm certain individuals. For example, a hurricane is good for the earth because it helps clean the air may harm people. This explains why bad things happen to good people. The laws are good as a whole but can affect people.