Andy Lin, Period 7, 12/12/23

In one of our various classes, we touched upon the story of Job. It was the tale of a blameless and upright man, who followed the ways of God but was still forced to suffer extreme hardships. Although he was a righteous man, he lost all of his property, his children died, and he was cursed with leprosy. Looking online to see how the masses viewed the Book of Job, there was a plethora of varied responses. Christians saw it as how God could help one overcome any adversity. They saw it as a reason to trust in God under any circumstance, no matter how unfair life was. Essentially, they believed good faith would be rewarded in the end. Atheists, however, considered it to be a story that painted God in a bad light, to say the least. It was brought up how Job’s children were killed nonsensically, and it was considered to be alright because of the new children he received. God seemed almost unconcerned with the suffering he caused. There was a lot of upset with how God, an omnipotent being, could permit such suffering so callously. Neither of these interpretations satisfied me.

I consider myself somewhat of a Christian, partly due to my mother being one and also the fact that it was the very first faith introduced to me. Yet, I still held onto a few aspects of atheism. Very frequently, the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” is asked. This question was a little unusual to me. For one, what if you aren’t as good of a person as you think you are? However, I felt as if I understood the premise behind it and rephrased it. “What did I do to deserve the misfortune that befalls me?” The answer to that question is easy. Simply nothing. You don’t deserve the bad things that happen to you. Mrs. Fusaro said something that piqued my interest, something that tied it all together. Bad things don’t happen because you’re being punished, the same way good things don’t happen because you’re being rewarded. The second part of the statement was remarkably vital to my newfound understanding. I’ve been told adversity occurs just for the sake of adversity occurring, yet good things are always a blessing. This disconnect was something that had unsettled me. When both sides were laid bare, it made me understand that good events and bad events were two sides of the same coin. If there is a God, he’s neither blessing you nor spurning you. Things occur, whether it be a cog in God’s plan or a stroke of complete randomness, things simply occur.