I can't recall how many times I've heard this.  Can you?  That and  "It's part of God's plan."  

Is it really?  Is God up there somewhere doling out tragedies and blessings because there is some great lesson to be learned by them?  

Are children struck with cancer, hunger, poverty, crimes against them, or even CH because God wants to alter the universe somehow with their suffering?  Or, is it just that life happens and God chooses not to intervene?

I'm just wondering what other views are.

Jeannie

I guess God gives us the material and we must choose what to build. We can either build weapons of mass destruction or schools and hospitals.

I once almost slapped my sister halfway to heaven because she suggested god gave me CH to show me how much he loved me.

Tony

To me, it's just part of life.

Whenever we see something that doesn't fit our concept of "the way God's world should be," we say that it happens for a reason. None of us seem to know what that reason is, but we acknowledge its existence.

Sometimes we learn later what the reason is, but most of the time we don't. Sometimes I think that's a psychological survival technique, sometimes I'm not sure.

Good exists. Evil exists. Does one always win out over the other? Certainly not. I do know this: We would not know what Good looked like if we didn't recognize Evil's face. Which makes me ask: Must they necessarily coexist?

Jeannie I recently watched a story based on fact  about Auschwitz in which the Jewish detainees put God on trial for allowing the Holocaust to take place. During their detention they formed a court with those arguing for God's existence and the others arguing that if God did exist he would never allow such suffering. These were very religious men awaiting death knowing that they were about to meet their maker and yet they still made the ruling that god did not exists... Very powerful stuff...!

Lefty...!

I believe it all happens for a reason and I believe I will know that reason someday. It is just not always ours to know.

Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason, nothing that we can figure out or understand.  I don't necessarily think that God has *everything* planned for us (or whoever your belief system or not is).  If that were the case, there would be so such thing as free will.  Sometimes, it just *is*.

A good book is When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner.

A passage of the book says, "  He is limited in what He can do by laws of nature and by the evolution of human nature and human moral freedom.  I no longer hold God responsible for illnesses, accidents, and natural disasters...."   "God does not cause our misfortunes.  Some are caused by bad luck, some are caused by bad people, and some are simply an ineveitable consequence or our being huban and being mortal, living in a world of inflexible natural laws.".

Thank you all for your responses.   

I too believe in God.   I am struggling right now with "religion" not with faith.  It seems as I get older, things I once felt strongly about I have now begun to question.  Things that once seemed so black and white are now a shade of gray.  This is one area that I have been contemplating.

I have come to believe that circumstances of life are not completely controlled by God.  When we were given free will we were also given consequences.  I'm not saying that our actions are the direct cause of a good or bad thing that may occur in our lives.  I believe that because of living  imperfect lives, in imperfect bodies, on an imperfect planet, we experience imperfections that God did not intend for us.  I also believe that He uses our circumstances to teach us, humble us and bring us closer to Him.  I DON'T believe that He is inflicting disease, pain, or poverty on us.

Anyway, sorry for the deep thoughts from Jeannie   and thanks again for sharing your views.

Jeannie

Well in the case of CH - it's a mixed emotion for me.

On one hand, it's given me some of the best friends I'll ever have and an ability to keep going when I just thought I couldn't.

It's also walloped my baby though and that's something I can't come to terms with. I struggle with that one daily.


I do know I've had a lot of adversity at times but I KNOW its that that has made me the person I am. It's not the good times, it's the bad times so yes, in a way they are all good. I just wish it was a lesson I could learn without the heartache.

Everything does happen for a reason. Sometimes it is clear pretty soon, sometimes it becomes clearer with time and sometimes, well there are somethings I won't understand until I stop drawing breath in this world.

I do have faith always though that better times are coming, I've had plenty of proof of that!

I just keep telling myself, one day, all of this will be history..

Jeannie I think Hope is what we all want whatever or whichever we believe, The hope what we believe is true.
Colin