Can We Really Say "God is Good?"

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ThePKCatholic

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A very persistent question keeps looming in the back of my mind, one that must be asked before the mind will be at peace. And here is the question of the hour –
It is said that “God is Good.” I realize that the argument, “If God is Good, then why do bad things happen,” has been run around the track a view to many times. But, here is my very critical twist on the question.

If God is Good, why does he not accept prayers of faithful individuals, especially in times of suffering?
Here is the best example I can give.
Suppose a child has a very painful disease. All the family and friends constantly pray, and even the child him/her self during the time. But alas, no answered prayer and the child dies many years later after suffering.

If, I ask, God is Good, why does he not grant the prayers? Why does he make a child here on Earth suffer?
Suppose a Millionaire is stopped on the street, and asked to give $10 to cure the disease of a little child, laying helplessly on a bed. If the Millionaire says No, and turns away, or answers “Perhaps later, as I see fit,” would we not say that this Millionaire is far from Good?
Yet, it seems to me that we somehow and for some reason make excuses for God in these circumstances.

Maybe I am wrong in my thinking,
But can we honestly say that “God is Good?” Or Is that hastily assigning Him a title that will make Him more prone to be worshipped?
Any responses would be greatly appreciated!
 
If God is good, why did Mary give birth to the Savior of the world in an animal manger?

If God is good, why did Joseph die prior to Jesus’ death on a cross.

If God is good, why did God allow Jesus’ to be flogged while a murderer was set free?

If God is good, why were nails driven through Jesus’ hands and feet while the corrupt Jewish priesthood profitted from his death?

If God is good, why did Mary have a sword pierce her heart as she watched a sword pierce her son’s heart?

If God is good, why were most all the Apostles matryed spreading the faith?

If God is good, why were converts to His Church killed mercilessly by the Roman Empire for 200 years.
 
The ubiquitous question of evil - why do bad things happen to good people.

Let’s start with JESUS. Why did HE allow HIMSELF to be so horribly tortured, “no man has known pain like JESUS”. Well what was the outcome of HIS suffering? It was that the gates of heaven were opened and eternal salvation was available to all who would believe and eat HIS flesh and drink HIS blood. A good from an evil.

That is the first position to take. GOD permits evil things, because HE can and will make a greater good from them. When and how, it beyond our ability to know, understand, but time and time again, this is exactly what happens.

The second position is to remember JESUS words, “if you wish to follow ME, you must take up your cross …” paraphrase. When a greater good does not come ASAP, and/or ever in our time, perhaps the “evil, disease or difficulty” we have been given is our chance to offer it back to GOD as “…our cross…” and thus receive great grace that we cannot see or know while we are alive. My sister in law struggled with breast cancer for 10 years before she lost the fight. In her final days the priest gave her great comfort in explaining to her, that GOD has been with her each moment of those 10 years, and HE knows the suffering she has endured, and HE will bless her for her perseverance in pain, suffering and faith.

And a compilation of the both of the above can be found in reading the book of Job. He had everything, he lost everything, he lost more than everything to include his health, but he never stopped blessing GOD for each suffering or grace he received.
 
Almighty God knows suffering far more than we can comprehend. Look at Christ sweating blood in the garden and his broken body on the tree.
 
I think we are supposed to learn from the suffering. It helps us become closer to God and to learn to depend on Him. Everyone has their own cross to take up.

Why doesn’t God heal everyone? Maybe it’s simply their time to die. We do not know what God’s plans for us are. Prayers are simply requests.

Re: Martyrs: they helped the message spread. Knowing people would rather die than deny what they saw and heard helps prove that they were telling the truth. Otherwise, people might have thought the resurrection was made up if people changed their minds.
 
I’m sure there are profound answers to your question, but I have just never thought that way since my Catholicism and faith in God has always been informed by the agony and suffering of our Lord on the cross, AND that we are called to carry our own crosses. What good is our faith, what glory does it give to God, after all, if our faith doesn’t remain all the more resilient in trials of darkness? :twocents:
 
The fact that God is good does not depend on what anyone says about Him.
All the evil in the world does not have the power to change God. God remains good.
Our ignorance of why bad things happen does not change God’s love for us.

Blessings,
granny

Isaiah 55: 6-9
 
Very cool guys!
That is pretty much what I came up with. I just wanted to throw it out there and get others opinions!

Blessings
PKC
 
Somebody should write a book titled:

God Is Great: How Atheism Spoils Everything! 😃
 
wanstronian said:
By what criteria is the ‘goodness’ of God to be judged?
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I don’t mean to be flip, but I can’t think of any humans capable of judging God.
About all one can do is to learn God’s revelations regarding the purpose of humans to live forever in His friendship plus what to do to achieve this blissful goal. In my humble opinion, the Catholic Church is a reliable source.
 
grannymh said:
I don’t mean to be flip, but I can’t think of any humans capable of judging God.
About all one can do is to learn God’s revelations regarding the purpose of humans to live forever in His friendship plus what to do to achieve this blissful goal. In my humble opinion, the Catholic Church is a reliable source.
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So the answer to the title question is, “No, all we can say is ‘God is in charge and you’d better just do what he wants.’” So God becomes his own moral compass; although a quick scan of the bible reveals that he hardly leads by example.

Of course, the problem then is that, despite all the bluster from theists who claim to know God’s will (but are curiously unable to explain how they know this or why God doesn’t follow his own rules), there’s no way of knowing what he wants. You guys can’t even demonstrate his existence, how are you able to preach his rules?
 
I struggle with this question myself. And all answers seem to be only partly conclusive. However, one answer that has greatly helped me is this: God cares more for our soul than for our body. So sickness and death can be good for the eternal soul, even when we don’t see it.
 
wanstronian said:
You guys can’t even demonstrate his existence,
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This is getting really tiring. Hardly anyone cares about demonstrating God’s existence, except a few stubborn atheists and a few good Christians who haven’t give up hope of getting the atheists to see the light. … :yawn:
 
Yes, God is Good beyond our understanding. A Good that has no opposite. Our problem is we view the universe of events from our limited minds and perspective. While we can see that creation is often a violent force (earth quakes, volcano’s etc) we have difficulty seeing that violence performed by humans is also part of that creative energy in the universe. Sometimes it takes a hitler or hussein to awaken our consciousness to racial or gender inequalities or those wrongful acts currently perpetrated on the unborn and homosexuals.
 
LongJohnSilver said:
This is getting really tiring. Hardly anyone cares about demonstrating God’s existence, except a few stubborn atheists and a few good Christians who haven’t give up hope of getting the atheists to see the light. … :yawn:
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Fine - I have no problem with those individuals who simply want to worship a god. They have every right to do so, I don’t need them to try to prove the existence of their God.

However, if an individual or group of individuals want to impose their religious dogmatic morals on the society to which I belong or otherwise have some stake, then I have a right to demand evidence that these morals are valid.

So the people who are spouting this particular moral code and expecting everyone else to fall in line with it may not care about proving God’s existence (although I suspect that actually they’d like nothing more than to be able to do just that), but those of us who don’t believe in the source of this dogma do care, for reasons that hopefully are obvious.
 
LongJohnSilver said:
This is getting really tiring. Hardly anyone cares about demonstrating God’s existence, except a few stubborn atheists and a few good Christians who haven’t give up hope of getting the atheists to see the light. … :yawn:
Click to expand...
Why is it tiring? Doesn’t the truth matter? The devastating effect that Marxism has had on human society in Russia and elsewhere amply demonstrates why dialectical and reductive materialism are pernicious.
 
wanstronian said:
However, if an individual or group of individuals want to impose their religious dogmatic morals on the society to which I belong or otherwise have some stake, then I have a right to demand evidence that these morals are valid.
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Well, I could ask for exactly the same thing. What evidence is there for the validness of secular humanist/atheist morals? Because it is them who are imposing their religious dogmatic morals on the society I live in.
 
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