Bad Things Happening to Good People: What Was Kushner's Answer?

[tsunamisurfer]

Wasn’t it Rabbi Herald Kushner who wrote the best seller, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”?

As I don’t have the time presently to read his work, I was wondering how he answered that vexing question.

Any ideas?

[JS_Princeton]

Kushner said that if he had to choose between an all-loving and an all-powerful God he’d chose an all-loving one. Basically he solved the trilemma “God makes all, God all good, whence evil?” by saying God is not the maker of all (is not all-powerful or omnipotent).

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

<< goes and gets yellowing paperback from bookshelf >>
<< blows dust off of it >>

Geez, this is a blast from the past. Wonder if I remember it correctly, if it’s really as worthless as it seemed back in 1981.

<< turns to last page >>

Is there an answer to the question of why bad things happen to good people? That depends on what we mean by “answer”. If we mean “Is there an explanation which will make sense of it all?”…–then there is probably no satisfying answer. We can offer learned explanations, but in the end, when we have covered all the squares on the game board and are feeling very proud of our cleverness, the pain and the anguish and the sense of unfairness will still be there.

But the word “answer” can mean “response” as well as “explanation”, and in that sense, there may well be a satisfying answer to the tragedies in our lives. The response would be…to forgive the world for not being perfect, to forgive God for not making a better world, to reach out to the people around us, and to go on living despite it all.

There’s more, but you get the general impression. Pure talk-show glurge–superficial, ultimately unhelpful. “The answer is that–there is no answer. But it can be a learning experience…” :rolleyes:

I didn’t know the word “glurge” back then.

But I surely do know it now.

<< puts yellowing paperback on bookshelf >>

I don’t miss the Eighties at all.

[lucwarm]

*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose *
**

I didn’t know the word “glurge” back then.

But I surely do know it now.

<< puts yellowing paperback on bookshelf >>

I don’t miss the Eighties at all. **

Here’s my assignment for you: Go to a bookstore, find the bestsellers aisle, and read Who moved my cheese. (It should take about 10 minutes.) Then tell me if you feel the same way

[muppeteer]

Bad things happen to “good” people because they try too hard to impose their conception of morality on the universe which can have adverse results for others.

[Racer1]

Look, it’s really very simple…

Bad things must happen to good people or else the A-Team/Superman/McGuyver/etc… would be out of a job!

See?