Harold Kushner When Bad Things Happen To Good People Summary

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If God is all powerful and loving, why is there suffering in the world? God is said to be full of love and power but yet He does not prevent bad things from happening in the world. I think at some point in every one’s life we all wonder why bad things happen in our lives. These pains have been from as little as a failing grade to a disease and death and we have all asked why. Why do bad things have to happen to us if God is so good and powerful? This answer is essential to know to truly realize how good our God is. Everyone sees God as so amazing and wonderful in good situations but as soon as something bad happens we all get question Him. Many people explore this topic but a Jewish man, by the name of Harold Kushner, takes …show more content…

After losing his young child the rabbi looked further into his faith for an answer to the question. “Good people will do good things, lots of them, because they are good people. They will do bad things because they are human.” (Kushner, “Harold S. Kushner Quotes") According to Kushner’s views, bad things happen to everyone because God is not all-powerful but he is all loving. He says the bad things or “unfairness” in the world is God helping us. He is helping by making us stronger and making sure each of us value how amazing the good things in life are. “Our responding to life's unfairness with sympathy... may be the surest proof of all of God's reality.” (Kushner, “Harold S. Kushner Quotes") This is Kushner communicating that God is loving in all these hard …show more content…

After reading a vast amount of Kushner’s works I did not initially agree or disagree with his position. It took time for me to really think and take what has happened in my life to come to a decision. After much consideration, I agree with Kushner’s position that the statement that God is “All-loving and all-powerful” is half false. Throughout my life I have been faced with many things that have made me question if God is “all-powerful and all-loving”. My father passed away a little over 2 years ago. I could not understand why He would take such an amazing, loving man and give him such a terrible cancer if he was such an amazing God. Several years later I see how much my dads passing away has made me a stronger person and has made my faith grow immensely. From Kushner’s arguments, books and interviews I see that he is correct- God has a plan for us. I understand that God allowed us to have free will. He blessed us with the option to choose between things. He created the world to have options and to be diverse. For the world to be free we must have options in the things that we can do. From free will can come many good things, but unfortunately many bad things can come as well. Free will would not be free will if we were only free to choose from good options. Humans cause suffering from virtue of their choice. People are questioning the Lord because

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