Pertaining to “infinity,” such abstract concepts exist only in mathematics. God wants the best for us, his love is best, therefore he allows people to choose to sin so that people can also choose to love. Since you quote Smolin, here’s his take on String Theory: A scientific theory that makes no predictions and therefore is not subject to experiment can never fail, but such a theory can never succeed either, as long as science stands for knowledge gained from rational argument borne out by evidence. The Law of Attraction. Swedenborg learned big picture reasons for this. I was flabbergasted.I couldn’t believe what was happening. He is not, however, willing to give us short-term pleasures at the cost of long-term suffering. But more importantly, I have my own conclusion about why this proposition is wrong. And 3. As I said, I agree that there are many things that science may never know, but the 'God of the Gaps' argument is a precarious one -- I addressed this in my book. According to this view, God may nevertheless still be at each person's side comforting them and giving them strength during times of adversity (an idea also invoked in the famous "Footprints in the Sand" poem). So here are 3 reasons God is allowing bad things to happen to you. God didn’t create cancer, famines, and broken relationships in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 1. This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. While I would never want to make light of hard questions like these, the reality is God is not responsible for all the evil in this world. Davies spoke at the Templeton Foundation and would be sympathetic to the view that life is a non-random process. However, recently I've been doing therapy and my old coping mechanisms are failing. In the end, I believe it takes more faith to be an atheist than to believe in some sort of intelligence behind the curtain. is indeed a very intriguing question, one to which some scientists have given much thought. The single most fundamental conclusion of modern science is this: In an infinite number of universes such a universe is not only possible, it is inevitable. “How could He let this happen?” “My God failed me.” “If this can happen on Earth there is no God in heaven.” Unfortunately, too many religious leaders respond with sayings like “God works in mysterious ways” or “there must be a reason in God’s plan.” Most Hindus and Buddhists may point to karma, the consequences of our previous actions in this life or the last. 3. Why? It is the real solution humanity desperately needs. Like the prodigal son who could only see the love of his father when he was at his lowest, God often lets us go through dark valleys so we will then be able to see how glorious and loving he really is. In all empirical matters, I believe that science is the ultimate arbiter. Why you? Smolin assumes the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection. repeatedly had to pull up its stakes and relocate. I recognize His limitations. That would nullify the point of making us to begin with. The glory of God is when the invisible qualities of God are made manifest. Bad things happen because sinful people can do hurtful things to us. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.". Our brains have a natural proclivity for coherent stories—grand narratives with an overarching point and a satisfying end: things must happen for specific reasons, they must have a point. A Guidebook for Every Phase of Christian Singleness, To really understand this point, we have to take a quick step back and remember, what the glory of God is according to the Bible. Well again, that would take away our opportunity to choose, and if we are all just puppets on a string with no choices to actually make, there would have really not been a reason for God to create us at all. The belief that life is random is unsettling, but it can be emotionally liberating. Why? Because He loves you. Money Can Buy at Least One Type of Happiness, Consider Skipping New Year's Resolutions in 2021. To be clearer, regarding my statement "We could only have evolved within the type of universe whose laws of nature are conducive to ordered matter and life evolving." People can and do care, even if the universe doesn’t. Are we self-reliant or do we rely on God? Some of my cancer patients are facing less lucky outcomes than Karin, and the psychotherapeutic work turns from reassurance or tolerating uncertainty to defining their legacy—how their life has mattered to all the other lives they have touched. But the solution found in the gospel will only be received by those who put their faith in Jesus, repent of sin, and receive God’s grace. “I believe that everything happens for a reason. We agree that multiverse theories and other ideas about the origin of the meta-laws of physics are in the speculative realm at the borderlands of science. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’, And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.””. It's not clear if this is your belief. For several years following the diagnosis, we expected the worst and lived with tremendous uncertainty. 3. . I’m especially amused by Krauss’s explanation for trying to dispense with God and attempting to explain a universe emerging from nothing. A lot of times I get angry comments on my videos from someone who says, “If God was real, why are there starving children in the world?” Or, “If God is so loving, why did he make me marry a horrible person and then get divorced?”. Why are so many people drawn to conspiracy theories in times of crisis? I had always been caref… When we act kindly, it also gives meaning to our own life, as we see that we matter to others. However, when we enter the realm of metaphysics, then everyone’s opinion is on equal footing. My experience is that some opinions are well thought out. All those bad things happened later after humans corrupted this world with sin in Genesis 3. Dust cover is intact; pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. What makes matters even more confusing is that the Bible also teaches us that God is all loving. Once that unambiguous conclusion from science is fully grasped, then the mystery of why bad things happen to good people simply evaporates. What Jesus accomplished in the gospel is the final solution. I also assure them that I will pass on the lessons I am learning from them to other patients as well as to my students. Here is some sage advice about why everything happens for a reason: 1. origin question is moot (the idea of a multiverse was not invented with the Who are we trusting when those things happen to us? Not that we were really surprised to be facing such a crisis: neither of us had illusions of immunity to the kinds of adversity we had all too often seen hit others. Whatever name we give this source is subject to different interpretations and definitions. This belief is a double-edged sword: it can be reassuring and comforting but can also lead to disillusionment, anguish, and feelings of abandonment by God, under conditions of cruel adversity. One day God will make a new heaven and a new earth. Imagine being … There are multiple converging lines of more detailed evidence very clearly demonstrating that the Bible's authors were very human and that they had a pitifully limited and flawed Iron Age understanding of the world. We have to account for how these disjointed pieces harmonize together to create life. It was 430 pages, 200 pages lesser than my latest version! 2. ), is what science is actually all about. Perhaps something bad happens in this life that results in your entering paradise in the hereafter. (16 Signs), 3 Signs God Is Revealing a Hidden Gem to You, God Is Getting You Ready to Experience His Goodness If…, When God Is Not in a Relationship, This Will Happen…, God Is Telling You to Take a NEW Path If…, 4 Reasons God Is Not Taking Away Your Desire for Sex, 5 Signs God Is Asking You to Refocus on Him, 5 Signs God Is Saying, “Your Feelings Are Misleading You!”, 3 Reasons Jesus’ Incarnation Is Needed for a Godly Relationship, 5 Subtle Signs God Is Saving You from a Bad Relationship. Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (New York: Schocken Books, 1981). This experience confirmed our faith in people. Red Forman: Son, you don’t have bad luck. For example, Paul Davies has suggested "a notion of laws as emergent with the universe rather than stamped on it from without like a maker’s mark.” Lee Smolin has proposed a model of cosmological natural selection in which the laws of nature are consequently progressively refined in successive generations of universes birthed through black hole singularities. We will understand our role and the reasons for everything—the purpose of it all. I had seen how these get deployed by people facing serious threat and uncertainty—all the more so when those people's fates are being arbitrarily determined by random and trivial factors that seem to mock the significance of their lives. But the solution found in the gospel will only be received by those who put their faith in Jesus, repent of sin, and receive God’s grace. So that's what AGW is all about! Karin and I had experienced adversity and big life challenges before, but nothing like this. God has sovereignly created a world where people’s choices matter and his ultimate plan will still come to pass. [CLICK 'MORE' TO VIEW FOOTNOTE #4, WHICH SUMMARIZES SOME OF THE DEEPEST RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES THAT CAN HELP TRUE BELIEVERS WISHING TO RECONCILE THEIR FAITH WITH THE PROBLEM OF EVIL]. 3. Also, God can allow bad things to happen to good people in order to teach them lessons, to discipline them, to improve their character, to encourage them to depend on him, etc. Our brains are not satisfied with randomness. . We have no idea about the “how.” In terms of plausibility, I find the arguments of Biologist James Tour to be “fully plausible.”. Because metaphysical issues cannot be empirically disproven. Terrible things do not happen for reasons we can understand, or … You see it in articles and blog posts after the bombardment of an entire village: “What kind of God would allow these things to happen? But how do we explain its origins? The implication is that we would naturally find ourselves in such a universe, rather than in any of the myriad other universes with randomly differing laws of physics not conducive to our existence. I try to express gratitude to them for sharing their life experience with me and for teaching me profound lessons about the human condition. 1. There are also, as you no doubt know, a number of other theories that propose an eternal multiverse spawning an infinite number of individual universes, each with randomly differing laws of nature. “Bad things can happen, and often do--but they only take up a few pages of your story; and anyone … One way is to say, yes, everything happens for a reason and often times that reason is that we are stupid people who make bad … His fallible logic follows this line of reasoning: According to quantum mechanics…wait, stop! … Humans often want it both ways. This is an assertion that is easy to disprove in multiple ways -- such as the fact that the Old Testament was clearly written many centuries later than it claims to have been written, contradicting the Torah's origin story of Moses and Mount Sinai. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself. And God of the Gaps. He summarizes how science has come to view the universe and absolutely everything in it as the product of entirely spontaneous, unguided processes, and why this is actually a highly motivating realization for humankind. Consequently, Faith has repeatedly had to pull up its stakes and relocate, as its former tenets have become undermined or blatantly contradicted by science's expanding knowledge. What we must remember is that God takes the long view. To be clear, this is not my own worldview, but I offer it here to help my religious readers, like my religious patients, to reconcile the faith that is so important to them, with the deeply troubling problem of evil. When needed, I offer consoling religious ideas to help patients whose faith has been shaken by cruel adversity and who are asking "Why did this terrible thing happen to me when I've tried so hard to be a good person?" To Mould Us into Christ-likeness. “What did I do to deserve this? You wrote that you wish bad things would happen to you and you purposefully put yourself in dangerous situations. Why do bad things happen? It's all free! I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilised by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself Paperback. Why? 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