Why is this world so unfair?

Ecclesiastes 3:1, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:" (ESV)

Not_By_Chance said:

I hope this is the right place to post this.
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Some people suffer much while others suffer much less.
Some people are born with terrible afflictions while others are not.
Some people have everything (looks, fame, fortune, etc) while others can barely survive, if at all.
Some people find happiness in wonderful fulfilling relationships while others have to suffer loneliness, possibly all their lives.

I was thinking about this the other day when I went to see a member of the public in her home as part of my job as a Local Government Officer. I didn’t know the lady was blind until I was inside her flat and she told me that she had been totally blind since the age of 19. I thought to myself, why does this lady have to bear such a burden and why does God allow these sorts of things to happen to people on a seemingly random basis? I suppose it’s this sort of thing that led people like Carl Sagan to declare, “For as long as there have been humans we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.” Now I understand from watching astronomy videos by Spike Psarris that our sun is anything but a "hum-drum" star and is really quite special and unusual, so obviously Carl Sagan was not entirely accurate in his statement, but I can understand his feeling that it sometimes seems that we are all alone, especially when we are faced with suffering, whether it be on an individual scale or larger scale and especially if the origin of the suffering is natural or accidental. And yet, I look at the stars in the night sky and I feel that it just could not have come about without a Divine force. I feel the same when I look at the wonder of life; even the trees and plants fill me with wonder at the way they grow and develop from little more than air, water and sunlight, then produce flowers for bees to come along and fruit for animals to eat; how do the plants know that the bees will like what they have made or the animals will like their fruit? God knows, because he made them that way, seems to be the only logical conclusion to me. But that still doesn't ease my pain when I see the suffering in this world.

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No particular reason. Good and bad things happen to good and bad people with no bias. Life just happens.

Not_By_Chance said:

I thought to myself, why does this lady have to bear such a burden and why does God allow these sorts of things to happen to people on a seemingly random basis?

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"seemingly random" is one key.

Also note, the world/ all society/ everywhere,
just
like in the days before the whole world was wiped out,

if again full of wickednesses beyond description, even beyond belief,

except for YHWH'S remnant.

So the "seemingly" strange thing is, why does YHWH care about anyone? Why is anyone saved !?
(remember, no one deserves to be)

I'll tell you what makes me sleep good at night, taking into everything you said into account. Yes, the world is unfair at times, but don't get God and the world confused. Life may be unfair at times but God is fair, even at times where it may not seem clear.

I'll give you my view on why I never look at God in a bad light even with suffering in the world. Alot of us have thought as you do, my mom always used to ask me that question "Why does God allowing suffering"

This is how I look at it and understand it, this is why I never give up hope or feel to sad about it although certain things are sad.

First you have to understand that God is all knowing, he knows everything you are about to do, if you were to change in your mind what you wanted to do God would know that as well. You have to have faith that God knows better than you do, and that there could be and most likely are reasoning for certain things in life that are for the better good of people or someone.

First lets go back from to the begging to have a better context.

God gave us humans "Free Will" God did not make us a robot forced to love and obey him, if God forced us to love and obey him it would not be love on our part or on his. It would not be true love, in order for love to be real it must be "Free". Imagine if I could press a button on a young girls neck to make her love me, would that be real love? No, it was not her free will choice to love me back.

So the first understanding you must remember is that GOD gave you "Free Will" because God wanted a real relationship with his creation. This means you have the ability to reject God and do as you please. You can choose to hate God and reject him or Love God and obey him. This your choice that God gave you.

Think about that for a second, God could have made all of us his robots but instead gave us "Free Will" to choose what we want to do with our lives.

So the reason we have horrible things in this world is because people use their "Free will" to hurt others and cause others pain. God does not approve of this.

This is why there is a "judgement day" because although we have free will, God holds us accountbale with what we do with our free will. Just like criminals on Earth have free will to choose to obey the law of the land or commit crimes, but they will be held accountable for what they choose.

Like wise God is the same way, he holds us accountable for our choices on "judgement day"

So you must always remember this first, you must remember that there will be a day where everyone will give an account of their life before God so nobody is going to get ripped off or cheated, God is fair and will give everyone justice according to what they did with their free will.

All of those innocent babies, children and people that got harmed or get harmed will have justice served on judgement day.

Second thing

You must remember, that death and pain is not the worst thing that can happen to a human when you look at the entire picture. Yes, death and pain is the worst thing in terms of just here on Earth, but the bible makes it clear that you are to live on for "eternity"

That means after you die you will live on somewhere else for "eternity" death and pain is not the end.

So in a biblical world view, when someone dies that is not the end of their story.

Those innocent people who obeyed God will be in his kingdom with him for all of eternity, that is the GOOD NEWS!!! All of those evil people who did people wrong in this life will be held accountable and be punished for all of eternity for their sins against God and his creation.

Lastly, the reason when I see a blind person or a person with a illness and I do not ultimately give up hope or get too upset, is because God can use those people to save non believers and people in general.

We are not all knowing, you and me have no clue what the effect of that blind person's life has on another life.

For example: There are stories of blind people and people without limbs who although have a disadvantage in life still LOVE God and obey God. They still have hope and still go through their days, some of them without even complaining.

Now to you and me it may seem "sad" if you are just looking at it for what it is.

But what about those who have "No hope" who complain and think their life is hard yet they have it so good and never thank God for anything in their life.

Suppose one day someone is going to take their own life and they come across a blind person and God uses this blind person to show this person "Look, here is this blind man and yet here you are complaining about your life"

Or suppose this person who is about to take thief own life sees this blind person who still loves God and it opens up their eyes to where they see how even a person with a disability has the strength to keep going through life and it may give them the strength they need to turn to God and thank him for all they have and be saved.

When looking at life through your "Earthly" eyes, then sure, it can seem sad at times

But when you look at life though "God's" eyes it makes more sense, God is the one who is all knowing, for those blind people their one life may have saved thousands of people who have walked by them and had a change of heart.

Also, those blind people will be with God and no longer be blind, the ones that obey God

So at the end of the day there is no real reason to doubt God or question God's motives, for he is in a position to see everything and we have limited minds and only see a limited perspective of life.

I trust God because God is fair, God is just and our one life on Earth isn't the end to life.

So in that sense, that is why I can lay down at night and sleep well, because I know God has a plan for those who obey him and God is just and fair and isn't going to use a blind person to send someone else to hell.

I know this true in my own life because I have seen videos of disabled people who love their life and still get up everyday and don't complain, it gives me strength to stop complaining about things I have so good and it makes me thank God even more.

What should ease your pain is knowing there is a God who is just and fair out there, who has a plan and is all knowing. You have no clue how many lives could be saved by the existence of that one blind person. It eases my mind to know those people will be in the kingdom with God, they will not be blind anymore, they will have glorified bodies as the bible says and spend life in eternity with God in his kingdom. Those of those who obeyed God and put their faith and trust in him.

If God does not exist then there is no hope for those people and then there is only despair.

That is why I thank God everyday, for my arms, my legs and my sight, I know God is good and can use those people to save lives, so do not look at those lives as useless or why did God allow them to be created, for all you know those lives have saved more people than we ever will, we just don't know.

That is why we have "faith" not faith that is blind but faith build upon evidence that God is good and just and will give everyone in the end what they deserve based upon what they did with their one life they had.

Lastly, never forget, Jesus healed the blind and ill in the bible, these people were no different then the blind people you see today, God holds the power over life and death, that is why I don't lose faith or hope, because I trust in the one that holds the power over my life and I know even if I lost it on this Earth he has the power to raise it and anything I could possibly lose in this life can be restored 1000 fold in his kingdom.

Unfairness exists in the unideal.
Whenever there is a separation between The Perfect and those who are somewhat disconnected from Him - unideal / unfair stuff happens.

The consolation is - That God is a God of compensation. And He will graciously and gloriously give comfort and consolation proportionally to those who have suffered unjustly with respect to the degree of their trials and tribulations.

See Luke 16:19-25 ( Rich man & Lazarus )

Not_By_Chance said:

Some people suffer much while others suffer much less.
Some people are born with terrible afflictions while others are not.
Some people have everything (looks, fame, fortune, etc) while others can barely survive, if at all.
Some people find happiness in wonderful fulfilling relationships while others have to suffer loneliness, possibly all their lives...But that still doesn't ease my pain when I see the suffering in this world.

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Heroin will ease that pain and more.
The problem being that as the dose
increases and the pain fades, you get
closer to not breathing. So pain has
an upside.

Not_By_Chance said:

Some people find happiness in wonderful fulfilling relationships while others have to suffer loneliness, possibly all their lives.

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Well, it's not really like that for very long, past the infatuation phase... most married people have gone through the crucible with each other, and then either divorce or emerge from the other side having given up some of their preferences, which can be youthful wishes, but sometimes could be a better way of being they could have done. Few marriages are mostly good, most are very mixed, and the remainder rely on the people being very forgiving and overlooking.

One thing that does help is for the 2 people to idealize each other -- paying attention to what they like, and trying hard to ignore and live with, and forget, when they can, all that they don't. Better yet, is if they both rely on the transforming power of doing what Christ said, and that so utterly changes people, when they do what He said, that then their marriages become actually pretty good.

So, it's trial by fire, most often.

It's not lucky to be rich and not have learned virtues like humility and forgivingness and obedience to what is good, as taught through Christ to us. It's a path to death.

It's also not that great to be all attractive, and then just have people try to use you.

The much bigger question though is suffering -- do some do a lot more than others? That's not so easy to say. For instance, I do surely know my own experience, and I know I suffered a lot when young, and now I suffer very little. Which is the reality? Both.

Because we are all in mortal bodies, with longings that mostly cannot be perfectly met, we all suffer, and will suffer, and it takes suffering to get from being healthy to being dead physically. More broadly though --

We will each and all lose everything here that is merely of the world, status, adventures, all that is 'good' by the values of the world. All lost. Gone. Over.


But there is another world waiting, with Life that is sublimely wonderful, and not cut short!

Don't miss out on the ONLY GOOD THING....

You can get a taste now though, in this body, here, by doing what Christ said is the "greatest commandment" and doing it with all of your might, all you've got...
Then you find out what happens, and get a small taste of what is to come.

The longer I live, the more I'm convinced it's down to common flaws in humans. People are simply self-centered and ignorant by nature, and do not know the value of love and compassion.

Its through our sufferings that God perfects us. I have come to realize that it is through my struggles and bad, negative and uncomfortable seasons of my life that I have learned and grew and matured. I have hardly learned anything from my good times.

Not_By_Chance said:

Thanks to everyone for their replies to my questions.

I realise that this is getting more into theology, but I wanted to ask it here because it is relevant to what we have said so far. What I am trying to fathom out in my own mind is this:-

Bad things happen to living things – we all have experience of that, but I want to keep with the situation as it affects humans, because delving into the animal world would need a new topic and I don’t want to go there, at least not at the moment.

So we have natural disasters and suffering (floods, lightning strikes, droughts, etc), illness, birth defects causing lifelong disability, accidents (especially motor vehicles, but others too), disasters where man has had some direct involvement (the recent Grenfell Tower fire in London being a shocking example) and probably many others which I haven’t mentioned. So, for suffering caused by things over which we have no control or influence, I can only think of a few possibilities:-

1. They just happen at random, because God has withdrawn some of His sustaining control over our planet/the universe as a consequence of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, so it’s just bad luck if you happen to take a hit.

2. God deliberately inflicts these things for purposes only known to Himself.

3. God deliberately allows these things, again for purposes only known to Himself, but He doesn’t actually cause them to happen.

4. Satan is behind all this and causes these things to happen.

5. If 4 is true, then it raises a question – is the devil targeting anyone randomly or is there more to it than that?

My own feeling is that it's a combination of 1 & 4.

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That God created all that is implies He creates the laws of nature -- physics, and that physics works. That nature then works, without tending. Thus #1 makes sense with some more parts added --

We are under nature, the laws of nature, mortal, subject to the vagaries of nature, and death of the body, subject to nature as the laws of physics in action. But...

...but we can pray, with faith, and if the prayer is with faith, and according to the ways He taught us to pray, the prayer will be answered (my experience confirms, over and over), and this can provide relief here and now. We are still mortal, limited in time here. Yet....

Yet...we can also pray proscriptively. We can pray for aid ahead of time, for the day. We are protected already by Christ's prayer already against direct attack from the enemy. But there is more that we need. He told us how to pray this way --

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

We can pray this to God the Father, alone as Christ taught, with faith, because it is the prayer Christ taught us to pray, and gives us things we each need each day in ways that are deeper than we usually understand. We should forgive anyone we have anything against as we are praying, as Christ said to do as we pray. We can ask these things in Jesus's name. I found this strongly alters the normal day to the better.

Another life awaits.

Not_By_Chance said:

Some people suffer much while others suffer much less.

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Children who die during birth suffer much less than others who live to old age.
How do you plan to even-up this injustice?

Not_By_Chance said:

Thanks to everyone for their replies to my questions.

I realise that this is getting more into theology, but I wanted to ask it here because it is relevant to what we have said so far. What I am trying to fathom out in my own mind is this:-

Bad things happen to living things – we all have experience of that, but I want to keep with the situation as it affects humans, because delving into the animal world would need a new topic and I don’t want to go there, at least not at the moment.

So we have natural disasters and suffering (floods, lightning strikes, droughts, etc), illness, birth defects causing lifelong disability, accidents (especially motor vehicles, but others too), disasters where man has had some direct involvement (the recent Grenfell Tower fire in London being a shocking example) and probably many others which I haven’t mentioned. So, for suffering caused by things over which we have no control or influence, I can only think of a few possibilities:-

1. They just happen at random, because God has withdrawn some of His sustaining control over our planet/the universe as a consequence of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, so it’s just bad luck if you happen to take a hit.

2. God deliberately inflicts these things for purposes only known to Himself.

3. God deliberately allows these things, again for purposes only known to Himself, but He doesn’t actually cause them to happen.

4. Satan is behind all this and causes these things to happen.

5. If 4 is true, then it raises a question – is the devil targeting anyone randomly or is there more to it than that?

My own feeling is that it's a combination of 1 & 4.

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My feeling is that it is all five of these possibilities you've listed, all working in tandem.

... and as to the devil, I would think that he is intelligent enough to imitate God and knows how to affect humanity in a comprehensive manner, one which also somehow 'screws into us' on a personal level. Just thinking about it makes me feel a little ....

Not_By_Chance said:

But who knows how much a child born deaf and blind suffers? That would seem to be a worst nightmare scenario - having feelings but having no idea who or what you are and being in total silence and darkness for your entire life.

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To learn more about what that's like I'd like to finally read Helen Keller, who became quite articulate. Should be interesting. I don't think we can simply presume suffering, even for losing hearing and sight after having had them long enough to rely on them -- until 19 months old -- having had a significant sense of having, and then losing, even then. My sense from talking to people of all sorts is that all have suffered. People often have told me things which they say "I've never told anyone this before" just in conversation, after 30 minutes or an hour, and I can relay to you that everyone has suffered significantly that I've known. No one got through without some major suffering.

Not_By_Chance said:

But who knows how much a child born deaf and blind suffers? That would seem to be a worst nightmare scenario - having feelings but having no idea who or what you are and being in total silence and darkness for your entire life.

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Children who die
during birth
suffer much less than
others who live to old age.

To be fair, all should die very young and healthy to minimize pain. .