Why do bad things happen to good people?

 
Why do bad things happen to good people? Or for that matter good things happen to bad people?  Those who can’t see any answer vote for random chance.  In this they are right a good portion of the time and can ignore causality. fate and Divine will.  Those who’s religion is scientism vote for Causality. Good old cause and effect except that we can’t know all the underling causes in the universe / multiverse and this allows them to ignore random chance, fate and Divine will.  A belief in predestination or divinity allows for a similar ignoring of other answers.

From observation I can say that all of these systems are right at one time or another but that none of them is always right. It is part of human nature to want a simple easy to understand answer to the universe. Unfortunately it is not out there for us. The universe is a far stranger place than we thought it was and we are not yet able to understand it all. Parts of it yes but understanding the whole would make us Gods. Further, the question of why do bad things happen to good people diverts us from the real question of  " And what are we going to do about it ? " Do we help those who are in need?  Do we run away? Or do we stand and cheer because it is them, and not us?  When it is us who is afflicted, what do we do besides hurt?  We can get pissed and attack those nearest to us. Get pissed and do what we intended to do any way. Find another way to live and express who we are. Give up and die in spirit or body. Refuse to give up and die trying. Blame fate or the Gods and avoid our own responsibility. What we do shows who and what we are. If you do not like what your answer is, remember that at its core Karma is that you must live with yourself until you change. There is NO escape. So how long do you want to hide from yourself or be something that you do not like?

" Why do bad things happen to good people? " is also a diversion from the question of  "what are the Gods anyway?"  For most people their belief is conformist.  They were told that God or the Lord and Lady or the Little Green Frog is  XYZ Hallelujah! Hallelujah!!  And they never ever tried to find out for themselves. A real knowledge of life can not be had second hand it must be acquired directly and then studied until understanding and wisdom are arrived at. A simple  I know that this is bad or that is good from experience, shows that a person has the knowledge to work with but has not gone further into understanding nor found the wisdom of what to do with their knowledge.

Why do good things happen to Bad people?  I mean that we were taught to expect a jealous God to throw a tantrum at the smallest transgression of his will and start throwing lightening bolts. ( My God is a bigger bully than your God ) yet I have seen a " High Priest "  of a Wiccan Church try to play with Ceremonial Magic and actually banished the Goddess Herself from the circle to be bound in Hell under the curse of chains never to return! I cleared out as fast as I could and waited for Her displeasure to land on him while hoping that the overkill would not get me. Twenty years and nothing seriously bad happened to him. Why ? I expected something loud and extreme but it did not happen.  After much thought I have come to the conclusion that it was for Her like being shot by a small angry child with a toy gun and her response was " well if you won’t play nice you are going to be placed in a corner and get no milk and cookies " and then just ignored. To date he has received no milk and cookies from Her.     

So what are the Gods anyway? First we must strip away the marketing of past generations who wanted converts.

My god is bigger than your God.  Well ! My Goddess gave birth to your God. So what, my God created the world in seven days!  So did the Goddess and on the seventh she took a break and men ( evil ) came into being. Still she gave us her only daughter who’s name is Star Hawk!!  Sounds like pre school doesn’t it?  

I have met the Lord and Lady myself and I am not really sure how I did it. Part of finding them for me was meeting and listening to those who had met them before  and did not believe just because they were told to. They believed because they had met the Lord and Lady themselves. They would not tell me that " The Lord does not like something! " because they were concerned that he just might like it and they did not want to get caught putting words into HIS mouth!  So I started looking for the Lady and Lord; Unfortunately they were not listed in the phone book. My search required me to try and see beyond the surface of the world and open myself to seeing and hearing what can not be seen or heard while rejecting my own personal fantasies in a search for truth.  It would have been easier to run headfirst into a brick wall to see the stars.  Eventually I found them or they got tired of listening to me crash around in the dark.  I suppose " Seek and Ye shall find "  is true here, but it is not easy.

 

What do I know about them?  Not much.  I think I found out more about myself than I did about them. I know that I love them and would willingly die to protect them. ( Fat chance that my death could do that. ) I know that they love me and are my friends and can’t or won’t protect me from being hurt by life. They are still my friends and I am much richer for knowing them.  I know that I am proud of them, of their greatness, beauty, courage and love and hard to believe it, but they are proud of me.  I suppose it is like a parent’s pride in their kid learning to write their own name.  But they are still proud of me and that means something.