The @ecotrain's Question of the Week Tie-up Post: If there is a God, why do so many bad things happen?
Oops! I feel like I may owe you an apology for this QOTW. The reason is not because of the topic, but the way I framed the question. With hindsight I realise that I might have been better off either splitting this question in two parts, with the first question being Does God exist. I didn't do that because I didn't really want to ask that question ;-). In a way I may as well have just asked the question "Why Do Bad Things Happen", rather than If God exists Why Do Bad Things Happen.. because many of our answers would have reached the same conclusions.
With that said, you all dealt with this very nicely, and I didnt spot any hate or much negativity at all.. That is testimony to the community we have here.. Even though we are from SUCH diverse religions, cultures and backgrounds.. we manage to share our feelings and thoughts with each other in a safe space. Well done everyone!
We had a great set of posts this week, and there really are quite a few different opinions. No matter what your opinions are, or if you even believe in God, trust me there are some great posts worth reading below! To give you a quick sense and feel of ALL of our posts I've made a photo collage of the images everyone has used. I really love this way of instantly sharing all our posts in one glance..
THIS WEEKS POSTS ON THE QUESION
If There a God? Why do so many bad things happen?
@trucklife-family
I am late in answering this question, but I really wanted to answer it, so here I go.But before I do , I feel it is important to point out that I have my beliefs and my opinions and I am not here to push them on to others. I do believe it is important to express ourselves and to have the freedom to do so without others taking it personally.
My life is my own, I happily take responsibility for my actions and for the way I choose to live my life. I also happily take responsibility for my health and my well being. I feel very strongly about having the freedom to do so, to have the freedom to listen to myself and follow my own instincts. I can be inspired by others and I have a lot of respect for others who are being true to themselves and who show respect to all other living beings on the earth.
@nainaztengra
Is there a GOD
First of all who do we call GOD?
Allah, Jesus, Ganesha, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jehovah, Krishna......Well some will say these are Gods and some will say these are Masters. Some we know have actually lived the Earth life and some we believe they are metaphors like Ganesha, Krishna and most of the God's in the Hindu religion.
Well I believe the Masters who lived an Earth life were the souls from the higher realms who came into the human birth to teach humanity lessons and to raise the vibrations of the Earth with their teachings and sacrifices. And the Metaphors that were created by the ancient sages were created with the same intention to teach humanity lessons and to keep us humans on the right path of life, giving us a direction. The ultimate motive was the same.
@misslasvegas
If there is a God, then why do so many bad things happen in the world?
If there was ever a question of all questions, this would be very high ranking on the list if you ask me.
And it's not just a question to answer with a one liner taken from a door-to-door Jesus sales guy's script either.
I'm pretty sure that many devout believers will have an answer to this question, but I am almost as sure that these same people had doubts about it somewhere down the line as well.
So to get to the bottom of this, in my opinion, we have to ask ourselves more than just this one question.
Who is God?
If we're looking at it from the point of view mentioned in all the different versions of the bible, or most other holy books, God is either the holy trinity in mainstream Christianity, the Light (whatever that means) in some, the Lord or King in others (couldn't get more patriarchal than that) with names like Elohim, El-Shaddai, Yahweh, Jehovah and Adonai in Hebrew or Allah in Islam. I've always believed that whatever the name or religion, they really mean one and the same 'guy' - even though a lot of these religions don't get along and each believe that their God is the only right god. I think you have to be an outsider to see it for what it is. Or what it isn't.
@zen-art
The answer is pretty simple, there is no God. Before I continue with this post, I have to make an important disclaimer. Everything written in this post is my own personal opinion, it has not been proven as the ultimate truth (nor do I believe such a thing exists) and I do not have an intention to change your mind in any way. If you get offended by my opinion, that is entirely your problem and my right to hold my personal opinion has absolutely nothing to do with it. I do respect your beliefs, I may not agree with them but I respect them.
I will be careful with my words,
I promise...
@mountainjewel
If there is a God, why do so many bad things happen?
Ah what a loaded question! This question is one of those questionsthat people throughout time have tried to answer. And even if there isn't a God, why do bad things happen?
I have been sitting with this Ecotrain Question of the Week since it was posed and today seems like a good day to answer it.
You see, many of you who have been following us since the beginning of the year may remember that we were in a car accident. We didn't have a scratch on us and our car just needed a new tire and a new oil pan- pretty minor really considering what happened when we had the accident. We had the car fixed and processed the trauma/lessons and that was that.
@wombloom
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE??????
Suffering is often caused by not putting a 'ceiling on our desires'
Don't get me wrong, I believe we are entitled to abundance on all levels, being the Divine beings that we are.
But... identifying with the parts of false selves that we have gathered along the way we believe in shortage.
And we crave, we crave...fulfilment.
We feel so empty it's suffocating us, so we grasp outside of ourselves for something, anything to fill us up.
The hole inside is so big, one cigarette won't do the job, maybe two, ah no, five wil surely give us the fix we want.
Another car, new shoes, some chocolate and some love, why is this not working?????
Because we have to realise who we are!
@eco-alex
This week the @ecotrain chuggs deep into the forest as we delve into a loaded question that is sure to bring up a lot of feelings. The Question "Why do bad things happen", as opposed to, "If there is a God, why do bad things happen" is very different. If there is a God, implies the deeper question of, "If there is a God how could s/he let bad things happen?" Is that not what this question asks?! This is a topic that we discussed in school many years ago, when pondering how God could have let the Holocaust happen, and how and why in general there is so much suffering in the world. If there is a God then why the heck isn't everything beautiful and perfect all of the time? Why would God want us to suffer? These are the questions that I will delve into and more on my answer to this question of the week!
WHAT IF....
What if you were free?
To Choose for yourself,
Whatever You wanted?
What would you choose?
F R E E D O M ?
A fREE wILL unIVERse?
DUALITY!
@hopehuggs
I asked myself this questions many times as a teenager and walking the Christian path. I still ask it now. I was part of a charismatic church for a while, did their ALPHA course twice, but their answers always seemed unsatisfactory. Their answer pretty much is all the bad things are man-made, even the natural disasters, as it is our actions in not looking after the world environmentally speaking that cause those too. But then you could ask why do bad things happen to good people? Or why some people have worse luck than others? Why no matter what they do, does it not work out?
It is a question that leads to many other questions. If the Biblical sense of God is real, then he gave us free will, so therefore in effect he has allowed all these things to happen and knew they would happen, as he is all knowing and then the ‘why’ becomes even bigger as if He is love and all forgiving, then yes why do bad things happen? If he is all forgiving, then everyone despite what they do and how they live their lives will not go to Hell There should be no Hell. There maybe some truth in the Bible, but it has been misinterpreted and diluted through the centuries.
And the stories contained within are reiterations of stories older than when it was 'documented'.
@riverflows
I'm sitting here in a hotel room in Bali with this persistant infection and cursing my luck. I'd probably blame God, but I know a bit better than that. I've always been a big believer in the God within all of us, so I think that's important to establish first - at the risk of offending anyone, I'll have to establish from the outset that my God isn't a Christian one, or a Jewish, or any other 'God' as separate from this divine spark of God within each and every one of us - beyond mind and beyond matter.
I was reading a fellow passenger's terrible suffering as she watches her loved one in pain, which truly broke my heart this week. I reminded me of the suffering my Dad was going through this year with cancer (and still is) and how painful that was for all of us. In the taxi on the way here, the driver showed us two pictures of his children, both beautiful daughters, but lamented the loss of his baby son as he couldn't afford to send him to Singapore for treatment for his heart problem. Bad things happen to good people all the time. It never seems fair, or right, and certainly one of the biggest arguments against God is just that - surely if he existed, and truly loved us, he'd do something about this suffering, wouldn't he?
@thegreens
Yes! I think and believe there is a Super natural being called God and I will not use the Bible nor any book to justify Him but rather use science to justify God by asking the questions like: “Who or what created the atom or the Universe?” I guess it’s not the Big Bang or the Nebular hypothesis coz if you say it’s any of them then I will ask you what caused any of these events and I will keep on questioning the origin of your scientific origin until you get lost like science has gotten lost in search for answers of the origin and is more focused on the future which is still a nightmare for them. I think NOW is the most important thing of our lives! Since science has not been able to give concrete answers about the origin of everything, I think it’s best to believe it’s a mystery and to me, God is a mystery and that’s why I believe in him because he is a mystery. One thing I know is that God in his wisdom gave man the wisdom to make wise choices to make the world a better place and this has taken me to one of my strongest convictions that we are God and Heaven is here on Earth. However, it’s unfortunate that man out of his greed for wealth, power, food and everything has changed everything and this takes me to the question “If there is God, why do so many bad things still happen?”
Community Pick Of The Week
Thanks to everyone in our community who also posted on this QOTW, @escuetapamela, @lorvain, @puregrace
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Hey @eco-alex, I am back on Steemit and will be psoting regularly too. Just thought that the @ecotrain is a good place to start off on steemit again. This is such a huge and brilliant question and although I have missed it by a day, I'd work on this one and get my answer out soon. Missed you all so so much. Going to read all the answers now. <3
Very happy to hear this sharoon! Welcome back dear one u have been missed!
We did really good with this one, I am proud of all of us 💚
xx every time..
i really enjoyed reading everyone's response to the qotw. Really proud of being a passenger of ecoTrain and proud of youa ll.
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Where are these last questions coming from? Somebody read "conversations with God" i guess?
lol.. hey bub! no idea where they come from.. thin air ;-)
https://spiritlibrary.com/neale-donald-walsch/%E2%80%9Cwhy-does-god-let-horrible-things-happen-to-people%E2%80%9D
Read his books, you might get inspiration to answer your own questions :-)
Yes many years ago i read them ;)
Wow I spotted this too late, it would have been a topic I would love to write about!! When my friends ask me why do bad things happen if God exists, I have this tendency of asking them, when there are good things happening, do we also ask does God exist? Just a little thought with no intention of shaming anyone or religion :) very insightful posts from many for this question. Very interesting to read about the different thoughts, with respect.
Maybe one day down the road, I may still attempt to write about this topic, if that is fine by you :)
haha what a question indeed eco-alex! i appreciate the opportunity to think so deeply about such a BIG question. in fact, i love that you're going big and asking some deeper questions. yes!!!! love the diversity of these posts <3
Hello @eco-alex! Here is my entry to this @ecotrain interesting question: https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@emdesan/the-ecotrain-s-question-of-the-week-if-there-is-a-god-why-do-so-many-bad-things-happen-e5e4a58abb161
Hope you'll find my post also interesting...