Bad Things? Good People?

One of the most common complaints that Christians hear from unbelievers these days is, "If God is so good, why do all these bad things happen?" Or, alternatively, "If there is a God, then why is there so much starvation and so many wars?" What a person really means when they say this is, "Why do bad things happen to innocent people?" No one really expends much brain power on the question of why tragedies happen to bad people - either because they don't believe in bad people (difficult to do, considering history, but not impossible), or because it seems fitting that bad things should happen to bad people. It's when a person who doesn't seem to have done anything wrong is effected that we ask the question, "Why did it happen, if God is so good?"

Theologians and philosophers, and a few random preachers and such, have written on the problem; a well-known book nowadays that deals with the subject is transparently entitled When Bad Things Happen to Good People. However, the question is a rather simple one to answer in the end and can be refuted from a number of different angles. The first is that all those who ask the question will freely admit that they are saying that bad things do happen, and so "bad" exists. Obviously. If asked if they then believe that there is good in the world - the way things ought to be - they will say yes again.

From here, the argument is fairly easy. The existence of bad things, the complainer will admit, does not negate the existence of good things and just plain Good - rather it proves it, because "bad" cannot exist in a person's rational thinking without there being "good" for the bad to be compared to. Similarly, you cannot speak of darkness without assuming the existence of light; a blind man does not call what he is in "darkness," because he is unable to compare it with something else - light. Therefore, following this logic, the presence of bad and bad things can no more negate the existence of the One Supreme Good than it can the existence of the goodness we see around us; it actually strengthens the case for God's existence and His Goodness.

There's also another point to be made about the question (which is usually meant rhetorically), and that is that the person is assuming that there are good people in the world. From a Christian perspective, this cannot be accepted as true. While it's obvious from experience that not all people are as bad in their actions as they could be, it is clear from Scripture that there is no one who is "good" - Jesus states that when the rich young ruler calls Him "Good Rabbi"; Christ replied with, "Why do you call me good? There is no one good but One, that is, God." (Mat. 19:17) There are other passages that deal with this doctrine (known as total depravity), including Paul in Romans 3:

"There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one."

Once a person can wrap their mind around the fact that we are all evil at heart, with no redeeming qualities in us (as the Bible teaches), it becomes clear that we all truly deserve the things we call tragedies. Most of us realize that bad people deserve punishment; when we then grasp the fact that we are all "bad people," then we are logically forced to concede that we all deserve punishment as well. It is only by the goodness of God that they are trying to disprove that any of us are saved from suffering the fruits of our sin.

This argument is best used with those who profess to believe the Bible, and then it takes the wind out of their sails. Not, of course, that it is terribly easy to change a person's opinion, even if you have bucketloads of fine arguments and logic to back you up; unfortunately, the response is usually either irrational anger or the common phrase, "Well, you believe what you want to and I'll believe what I want to" (which is irrational enough in itself). However, these are two of the arguments that I learned in philosophy class and reasoned through, and I've actually used the first on someone who thanked me and said it made sense. I don't know if she actually meant it or was just trying to end the conversation, but I'll hope for the best.