Why do bad things happen to good people? (religion 225)

There is one question that everyone asks but to which no one knows the answer: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" The misfortunes of good people raise problems not only for those who suffer, but also for everyone who wants to believe in a just and livable world and in a fair and compassionate God. Rabbi Kushner, author of "Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People", attempts to bring light to this difficult question. In doing so he evaluates past attempts to explain suffering, offers his own approach to the justification of suffering in today's society, and makes suggestions for how one can deal with suffering and continue his or her journey into the future. This essay will examine these rationales and will conclude with an analysis on how Kushner handles the four foundational sources for understanding the will of God through scripture, tradition, history, and modern context.

Kushner evaluates past attempts to explain suffering and discusses why they are not satisfactory. One way in which people attempt to make sense of suffering is to assume that they deserve what they get, and that somehow their misfortunes come as punishment for their sins. This idea portrays God as a righteous judge who is all loving, all-powerful, in total control, and gives people exactly what they deserve. However, Kushner sees major limitations in this idea because it teaches people to blame themselves for their suffering and creates unnecessary guilt. In addition, he argues that it may even turn people away from God and cause them to hate themselves. Victims of misfortune also try to console themselves by believing that God has his reasons for making them suffer, reasons that they are in no position to judge. This idea is based on the strengthening argument, which states that God causes evil things to happen in order to strengthen us, or teach us moral lessons. Many people would like to believe that God has a good reason for making them suffer, but Kushner argues that such a theology doesn't reconcile the goodness of God with the existence of evil. Lastly, some people try to explain suffering by believing that it comes to liberate humans from a world of pain and lead them to a better place. "Sometimes in our reluctance to admit that there is unfairness in the world, we try to persuade ourselves that what has happened is not really bad. We only think it is" (p. 27). In the end, this explanation attempts to work by denying the existence of evil altogether. Kushner finds these responses to suffering unsatisfying, because they assume that God is the cause of human suffering and they attempt to comprehend why God would want humans to suffer. The reasoning behind these justifications of suffering is that it is punishment deserved, it is for one's own good, or God does not care about what happens to people. Kushner recognizes that these rationales can cause people to blame themselves, can lead to a denial of reality, or cause the repression of one's feelings. Because of this, Kushner attempts to create his own reasoning for why bad things happen to good people.

Kushner offers a different approach to the justification of suffering in today's world. He suggests that God is not the cause of our suffering and that suffering happens for some reason other than the will of God. In order to explain his consideration of human suffering and the will of God Kushner refers to the Book of Job. He presents the three conditions in the book that are at stake: 1) Job is good and has not sinned, 2) God is good and loving and wants justice to prevail, 3) God is all-powerful. Kushner explains the contradictions of these three statements when they are all deemed true.

"If God is both just and powerful, then Job must be a sinner who deserves what is happening to him. If Job is good but God causes his suffering anyway, then God is not just. If Job deserved better and God did not send his suffering, then God is not all-powerful" (p.37).

Because of the argument over which of the three statements must be sacrificed, Kushner, accepts statements two and three above and denies the other. Thus, God wants good and justice for all people, but he is not omnipotent. From this perspective, God is a God of justice and not power and since misfortunes do not come from God, one can maintain self-respect and a sense of goodness without feeling that God will condemn or judge him or her through suffering.

If God isn't to blame for our suffering who or what is? Kushner refers to the creation story in the Bible in order to answer this question. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was formless and chaotic, with darkness covering everything.He separated the light from the darkness, the earth from the sky, (and) the dry land from the sea" (p. 51). For six days God worked to create a world of orderliness and predictability to replace the randomness and chaos that he started with. In order to explain suffering Kushner proposes that God did not quite finish creating the world and the process of replacing chaos with order is still going on. "The world is mostly orderly, predictable place, showing ample evidence of God's thoroughness and handiwork, but pockets of chaos remain" (p. 52). Consequently, evil events happen randomly and there is nothing God can do about them. He would like people to get what they deserve, but He can't always arrange for it. These events that cause suffering happen at random, and randomness is another name for chaos, and chaos is evil because by causing tragedies at random, it causes people to loose faith in God's goodness. In addition to randomness and chaos, Kushner also explains the current problem of suffering in terms of natural laws: earthquakes, fires, tornadoes, illnesses, etc. Because God does not interrupt the workings of natural laws to protect the innocent from harm good people get sick and get hurt just as much as anyone else. Therefore a tornado that kills hundreds of innocent people without reason is not an act of God, it is an act of nature. The act of God is the courage people have to rebuild their lives after the tornado and the multitude of others who help them in whatever way possible. Lastly, Kushner also holds free will responsible for human suffering. He explains that God has given us the freedom to choose whether to do right or wrong. In addition, "God has set Himself the limit that He will not intervene to take our freedom, including our freedom to hurt ourselves and others around us" (p. 81). As a result, bad things happen to good people because being human has given men and women the freedom to hurt each other, and God can't intervene without taking away the free will that makes us human.

Although we may not understand why we suffer or be able to control the forces that cause our suffering, we do have the power to control what suffering does to us, and what type of people we become because of it. Looking toward the future, Kushner suggests turning toward God and religion. Unlike other material things, God and religion will always be there when help is needed and can get those who suffer through the pain and hurt that evil causes. Kushner admits that there are no satisfactory answers to the question 'why do bad things happen to good people?' But there are ways of coping with the feelings that are induced by suffering. First, Kushner suggests that one changes his or her understanding of what it means to pray, and what it means for prayers to be answered. According to Kushner, "the first thing prayer does for us is to put us in touch with other people, people who share the same concerns, values, dreams, and pains that we do" (p. 119). He continues to explain that those who pray for courage, strength, and grace often find that their prayers are answered because God provides them with those things to cope with their suffering. Secondly, Kushner encourages those suffering to try to rise beyond the question "why did it happen?" and begin to ask the question "what do I do now it has happened?" (p. 71). Lastly, Kushner suggests forgiving the world for not being perfect, forgiving God for not making a better world, reaching out to others who care, and to go on living life despite it all.

Throughout his book Kushner attempts to answer the question, "why do bad things happen to good people." In order to answer this question, he reverts back to the four foundational sources, scripture, tradition, history, and modern text. It is apparent through his arguments and rationales that Kushner relies heavily on modern context and human actions in order to understand the will of God and explain human suffering. F irst, he uses modern context and human actions when explaining free will and how it allows people to cheat, kill, and harm others. His reliance on modern context is also prevalent when he uses it to negate tradition and scripture, the two most important resources for understanding the will of God. This is evident by the title of his seventh chapter, "God Can't do Everything, But He Can Do Some Important Things." This idea that God is not all-powerful and omnipotent goes against the traditional and historical interpretations of the scriptures in the Bible. Moreover, Kushner negates the traditional beliefs of scripture by using modern ideas of evolution to undermine the creation story, "In a description of Creation which is astonishingly similar to the evolutionary process as scientists have come to unravel it." (pg 72). This statement undermines God's supremacy and promotes Kushners idea of randomness and lack of control. Lastly, Kushner goes against tradition and historical practices of prayer when he insists that asking God for help and asking God to change things is wrong. Instead he suggests that people should change their understanding of what is means to pray and what it means to have one's prayers answered. Nevertheless, Kushner attempts to address the issues of suffering with deep insight and relies heavily on modern context to help people understand the painful events of this life.