God-given abilities. Disparity between good and bad

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FestusHaggen

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In the news is a woman who was severely burned and disfigured by her ex-husband. She received a face transplant, but it is being rejected by her body. Why does God give people a seemingly disproportionate power to do evil, and a much more limited ability to do good? Someone had the power to destroy the woman’s face, but no one can restore it to the way it was before she was harmed. Even with a transplant, she looks disfigured and not at all like her original self. Granted, God could restore her face miraculously, but miracles like that don’t seem to happen. But that’s beside the point of my question anyhow.
 
if God why bad thing happen, electric Boogaloo
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Sigh, this world is not immune to suffering. The next one is (assuming you are apart of the Church and die without mortal sin). Again, read the book of Job. If you think that woman has it bad, just wait till you read about Job and all the suffering he had to go through.
 
In this season of hope and redemption for Jews beginning next week, Rosh Hashanah culminating in Yom Kippur, we are reminded that one person’s good deed, however small it may be, has the ability to tip the balance toward good rather than evil. We all collectively have major (name removed by moderator)ut into the triumph of love and goodness, even if we may think that evil rules the world. And if we do our share, G-d will certainly do His.
 
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  1. We live in a broken world. The evil one is the prince of this world. All else follows from that.
  2. A resurrected, glorified body. That is what we desire.
  3. In one sense, there are actually two victims here. That husband, despite his evil act, did not invent violence. He learned it. It may have been beat into him.
  4. Point: How to stop the cycle?
  5. Having my own transplant rejection issues, I know whereof I speak.
 
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FestusHaggen said:
Why does God give people a seemingly disproportionate power to do evil,
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He doesn’t. He gave us freewill. And we decide what to do - good or bad, that’s our choice to make.

There have been a lot of threads here on CAF on why does God permit evil - try using the search feature which is the symbol of a magnifying glass in the top right to the left of your username.
 
I used the word “seemingly” to allow for the possibility that I may be overlooking something. What is it that you think I’m overlooking? In the example that I gave, one man’s ability to do evil evidently did exceed anyone else’s ability to do good.
 
Then why doesn’t God give us the free will (and ability) to restore a person’s body to the way it was before someone intentionally harmed it?
 
FestusHaggen said:
God give us the free will …to restore a persons’ body to the way it was before
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Because we are His creatures. We are not God. His Will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Not as we will.

Ability - look at the leaps and strides of medicene. Somethings that were not even treatable, but now are, let alone ones that are preventable (polio) - all the geniuses and research done by the human intellect - an intellect granted by God.

There is also the temptation to think that we are God (more so than what is generally thought of as being in charge of our own destinies etc), and that God is “dead”, unnecessary etc. Perhaps not being able to do all things is in our own best interests and keeps ‘mankind’ humble and therefore dependant on Him instead of on man .
 
Yes tragically it’s difficult to witness such things.

But remember only God knows a persons true intentions of the heart.

When I see things like this and far worse deformities in a young child who is completely innocent. I used to be upset for them.

But now I know God has big plans for such folk and they can be a huge inspiration to others.

If something like that happened to me or someone close I’d be devastated. But never would I challenge our Heavenly Father.
 
Hopefully, we’ll someday understand God’s will, why He allows certain things to happen, and why He does not intervene when we think a loving God should.

The leaps and strides of medicine are wonderful, but they took thousands of years of effort to achieve. Man’s destructive ability, however, has always been easy and effective.

Understandably, God wants us to depend on Him. We don’t necessarily seek our own good, however. Oftentimes, in love, we seek what’s good for other people. But we are so limited in achieving that good. Why should goodness be limited? This probably is a question that only God can answer.
 
FestusHaggen said:
We don’t necessarily seek our own good, however. Oftentimes, in love, we seek what’s good for other people. But we are so limited in achieving that good.
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God has in mind our ultimate good - in heaven with Him for eternity. We tend to focus on this life and whilst this life is very important, our aim in this life is to do His Will in all things, love and serve Him with our aim being heaven. Sometimes getting what we want and which may be a true good, may not be what’s best in getting us to heaven.
if goodness wasn’t limited, to what would we strive for, for what reason and would the value remain the same and would we truly appreciate it when we have it?
 
FestusHaggen said:
Hopefully, we’ll someday understand God’s will, why He allows certain things to happen, and why He does not intervene when we think a loving God should.
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It should be noted that when you say “we”, some of us do not struggle with this issue nor are we driven by a great need or wish to “understand” why God does things or doesn’t do things.

Sometimes I get a flash of possible understanding regarding why God perhaps did something in my life, but in general I don’t seek to understand God. My puny mind will never fully understand him and I’m more interested in loving and serving him than in demanding explanations from him. He doesn’t owe any of us an explanation.
 
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FestusHaggen said:
one man’s ability to do evil evidently did exceed anyone else’s ability to do good.
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No, it exceeded medical capacity to fix her face. You’re defining fixing the face as the only good, and not acknowledging any other kind of good that could come out of that situation.

I suppose that what you’re really asking with that question is why is it so much easier to destroy or injure life than it is to heal it. From a purely natural point of view, I’d say it is because we need to eat…other forms of life in order for us to live. So life needs to be easy to kill, plant or animal. Theologically speaking, one could say that there is no resurrection without death first. And we cannot resurrect ourselves, God is the giver of life. We can only participate in sustaining life by also killing and dying. I hope that’s not too over the top. 😃
 
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There is nothing wrong with desiring to understand God and His ways. I certainly have not demanded explanations from Him. Granted, it’s much easier just to stop asking difficult questions and to accept things as they are. With my usage of the word “we”, I did not intend to speak for everyone.
 
Asking questions is normal. However, as much as God is described in the Bible, there are things we cannot know. The world and the people in it, are not perfect. Catholics should imitate Christ even though we can fail. He will guide us if we ask, and give us wisdom if we ask. Each of us can do small, and in some cases, large things that are good and helpful. The Holy Spirit gives us various gifts as He wills.
 
I didn’t say it was wrong.
It’s a normal question that many people have and will probably continue to have.
Just noting that this isn’t a universal concern.
 
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FestusHaggen said:
Granted, God could restore her face miraculously, but miracles like that don’t seem to happen.
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Well you seem to have answered your own question. Few people receive miracles. Sometimes God judges that the gift of healing is not for the faithless. In fact, St Augustine said that to neglect those who do not seek God is but justice. Sometimes God judges that the person is better off with some heavy cross of suffering. In any case, I do not presume to know the mind of God, but humbly accept his will.
 
It’s my understanding that the purpose of God working miracles is to increase faith.
It’s not primarily to fix the illness situation for the sick person.
Only God can decide whether a particular situation would call for a miracle to increase faith, or alternatively to let the illness continue as a way of achieving some other lesson or good result.
 
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