Where is a God in all the recent bad events?

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Media has a huge play in news today, much seems to be directed towards strife around the world. Most disheartening and very sad. There is also a lot of good happening everywhere, we just don’t hear it and when we do it is not often. Remember there is a lot of good people helping each other and doing good works.

I don’t believe that it is worse today than yesterday. Information comes within minutes or hours and in such information took in the past took long while to reach each corner of the world, with many going about their own business oblivious of the horrors happening many miles away.

History and human nature hasn’t changed over the centuries. It is not worse today than before. The Middle Ages had it’s own horrors, not necessarily related to hygiene.

For your Mum and Dad, they in their 70’s and are vulnerable and most likely frightened of the recent pandemic events. The news doesn’t help with damping those fears. They are no longer young, for most their freedom of movement has been limited intensifying their fears.
 
MNathaniel said:
I still don’t see how your comments contribute to this thread (in which a Catholic asked other Catholics for the Catholic perspective on how God is still holding everything (and is still good) even when circumstances seem evil.)
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The OP did not request only Catholic views. I don’t participate in threads in which the OP seeks only Catholic response or in which only Catholic responses are possible (e.g. what do you do to prepare for the sacrament of reconciliation).
 
“Where is a God in all the recent bad events?”

Right here. Your question reminds me of a true story in Night, an autobiographical account of Elie Wiesel’s time in the concentration camp. A boy was being tortured in front of the prisoners. A man asked, “Where is God now?” Elie Wiesel thought to himself, he is here, he is the one being tortured.

Jesus knows about suffering. He suffered on the cross, and he is here with us today, still suffering, and still saving. With his help, the grace he gives to us, let us live in these times with faith, hope, and love.
 
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These speeches are very frequent.

Sometimes, as I hear them do, I think:

"But when was it that God promised you to live up to a hundred years in perfect health and well-being and to have a perfect marriage and children who in turn will live up to a hundred years in perfect health, and a job fantastic and so on? "

I think that often parents, schools and other educational agents, with their endless and absurd wishful thinking, do not help our children to enter real life.

Of course, I understand that a 5-year-old cannot be said: “90% after university you will only find unhappy jobs with a deadline.”

However, that at 20 no one has yet spoken to our children about the positive and negative possibilities of life, it means that when something happens, they crash and, moreover, blame God.

It’s my idea, I don’t have to convince you.
 
FiveLinden said:
In this situation belief in god(s) has been reducing. It is increasing in areas where the old problems persist (Africa, Middle East…).

Are the two linked? I think so, but in complex ways as there are many other factors at play.
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I think theres something to this.
But I think it’s a question of lifestyle rather than particular problems.

If you look at hunter gatherer societies, they live intimately with nature, the stars, birth and death. They work hard for everything they have. They know their place in the Cosmos and are very spiritual and religious (honoring) to God or gods.

Our technological/informational society is profoundly divorced from the natural world. We have everything we want readily and hand and quickly. We don’t draw water, we can buy a snack prepared with no effort from us whatsoever, birth and death happen in hospitals neatly tucked away from our eyes.
We can’t even see the stars anymore in the big cities.

So yes, this would have a warping effect on what we think is “real” or not.

Interestingly, farmers tend to be more religious than the public at large.
Maybe from living close to nature?
 
FiveLinden said:
The OP did not request only Catholic views. I don’t participate in threads in which the OP seeks only Catholic response or in which only Catholic responses are possible (e.g. what do you do to prepare for the sacrament of reconciliation).
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An OP should not have to specifically “request only Catholic views” on a forum called “CATHOLIC Answers”. As I just said to some other atheist yesterday, this is not some kind of non-denominational discussion forum. It’s an evangelization forum where we are seeking to lead people closer to God and to the Catholic Church, not make blithe remarks about how religion is just going to disappear when we don’t need it any more.

A person who is seeking to be reassured of the existence of an involved God on a Catholic forum is not helped to grow in his faith by an atheist posting his opinions about how religion is disappearing. It’s out of place. It also sounds like you are making a conscious effort to promote atheism. If this were a thread about different perceptions of religion generally in the Non-Catholic Religions section, or even maybe in the apologetics section, or a thread you started yourself, it would be fine, but there is an unfortunate tendency for non-believers or non-Catholics on here to barge onto people’s threads that clearly call for a Catholic Answer and start going on about their non-Catholic or non-believer perspective.

We have a number of non-believers here who do not inject their perspectives denigrating religion into inappropriate threads. I’m not sure why you and some others insist on your right to do this.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
It’s an evangelization forum where we are seeking to lead people closer to God and to the Catholic Church, not make blithe remarks about how religion is just going to disappear when we don’t need it any more.
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I made no ‘blithe’ remarks. I explained my view carefully and I hope rationally and seriously without disrespecting anyone else’s.
 
Again, you seem to insist that it’s right and proper for you to make such remarks even though other Catholics have repeatedly pointed out that it’s not.

I don’t know what else I can say to you then, if you willfully refuse to see our point.
 
I really do try to stay within the rules. If I am unaware of something please point to it. Yes, I think it is right and proper that I express my views on a Frumpiest on which I have been told I am welcome as an unbeliever. It is, after all, a forum. I absolutely see your point. But I don’t agree with it and as far as I am aware neither do the CAF rules.
 
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Lee3 said:
When I was a child, I was taught an old song “he’s got the whole world in his hands”
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Yes, I remember that one, liked it, and sang it as a child in Sunday School. I also remember and was fond of ‘Jesus Loves the Little Children’, which has a line in it that says, “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world”. I still believe that God loves all races equally.

I thank you for your thread because you are verbalizing what a lot of people are thinking. I know I have been thinking about this issue, too, and have my concerns about the times we’re living in.

I think we are living in tough times with the pandemic and racial unrest. Is it tougher than other times? Perhaps not, but it definitely isn’t an easy time to live in.

In short, as a Christian, I believe God still is in control, although He allows humans to be humans and sin. He didn’t make robots.

The best I can offer are a few scripture verses that help comfort me and keep my focus on running the race of faith. I hope they help you, too.

Matthew 22:37-39
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Phillipians 1:21
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God
 
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FiveLinden said:
The OP did not request only Catholic views. I don’t participate in threads in which the OP seeks only Catholic response or in which only Catholic responses are possible (e.g. what do you do to prepare for the sacrament of reconciliation).
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They didn’t request it explicitly, but it seems to me implicit in this case.

They asked for help in seeing God’s hand in the world during this time of evil.

Your post didn’t answer their question at all. You theoretically could have (if you’re familiar with the Catholic answers to the problem of evil, and gave one of them) but in actual fact you didn’t. Your answer even contained content that could plant atheistic seeds of doubt in the heart of the OP who posted seeking answers that would help them strengthen their faith, not weaken it.

So I’m going to keep reiterating here, that’s not the same as if you posted an answer you knew even if you don’t practice personally, such as an answer to the question “what do you do to prepare for the sacrament of reconciliation”. Instead, you responded to a question someone asked clearly seeking the strengthening of their faith, with an atheistic perspective that could instead undermine their faith. That’s what I’m objecting to.
 
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Speaking of that, I have a bit of Autism and I don’t really get what all these people are talking about when they say they now have developed anxiety mental health problems due to “facing uncertainty” due to Covid.
Much of my life with Autism has everyday been uncertainty and instability anyway.
So I I probably shouldn’t feel this way but I feel abit of lack of compassion for people that are saying they are cracking up just because they have to spend a month or two inside home.
I understand if it’s an apartment or the home is old or depressing, but a lot of these people live on the wealthier coastal areas so I don’t understand.
 
But with all the material wealth has come rejection of God and also the destruction of families.
I mean beyond nuclear families. Now, instead of grandparents being the pride of our homes, they are now outsourced to aged care “facilities”.
Belief in God is now considered only for “the dumb and ignorant”.
Families rarely spend time together because they’ve become corporate slaves, slaving to make wealthy executives even wealthier and they have no time for each other & kids.
Is all the material wealth worth it?

Did Covid happen as a lesson to change the way the developed world was heading?
 
I’m the OP. I welcome discussions from all people Catholic and non-believers on this thread:)
It’s good to have various (name removed by moderator)uts.✌️
MNathaniel said:
Your answer even contained content that could plant atheistic seeds of doubt in the heart of the OP
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With all due respect, there’s an element of trying to control people or life here.
If a seed of doubt is going to happen to someone, I think it will ultimately still happen one way or the other.
 
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Yes, but often the people I hear or read about that are the most psychologically affected by Covid are not young but are people in late 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s.
People often talk about millennials being too weak and maybe they are right to some degree, but a lot of the people I’m seeing in the media taking how they are struggling are actually in 50’s!

And do you think it’s just schools or also the government sending these messages?
Where I live there’s full lockdown mandated by the government.
It’s seems to me like mixed stories- on one hand they send the message that people should expect to live life with nothing bad happening, but then in the other hand they are leaving old people locked in nursing homes together, vulnerable and dying…

Sure it would be better that all the people in nursing homes were moved out to their families or if have no family, put in a rented house with a live in nurse?

There’s so many issues today and so many poor handling of things…l
 
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It seems worse because of the information overload,it’s coming at us every which way relentlessly. My husband is reading a book on Alexander Hamilton,it’s eerily familiar what was going on then as well as currently. Same you know what,just a different era.
Pray your rosary daily for our Nation,trust the truth will out.🙏🙏🙏
 
Tommy999 said:
In short, as a Christian, I believe God still is in control, although He allows humans to be humans and sin. He didn’t make robots.
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Expanding on that, I believe the tougher times are, the louder he is screaming for us to come back to him. However devout or pious we may believe our selves to be, he’s asking for a deeper commitment from the heart.
 
Apart from Covid, does it seem also like America is becoming more polarised?
So much racial tensions, and there is now too much divide between “right” and “left” (which both extremes are imbalanced IMO?).
The right can be intolerant and closed minded, while the left believe all this nonsense now about “cultural appropriation”, gender fluidness, extreme feminism etc.
The “right” were before associated with violence, but now some of the “left” are becoming violent too!

It’s like there’s less and less harmony. And now with the advent of social media (especially Twitter), people can now preach to the choir/echo chamber of their followers, and no longer needs to have discussions with people from all different views…

Is this all just due to human nature or sin, or is God still somehow involved in all this “on a big picture”?
Is it that things have to get worse before they get better?

Just last week, on social media some very loud people from US were getting so outraged because singer Adele wore Jamaican flag bikini & braids to a Jamaican festival in England & clamping she was “culturally appropriating” etc…
Even though Jamaicans themselves were happy with it!
It’s like some people are just trying to create racial tension/victim mentality/division instead of cultivate love & cultural sharing?

Is there a way to bring God and peace to situations when so many people seem to want divisions instead?
 
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