Buying into myths and restating them as reasonable responses has nothing to do with the existence of God. Furthermore, the logically deduced conclusion of an intelligently designed universe only introduces the conceivability of a divine "matter facilitator". After the realization of some of the world's most brilliant minds - including many well known physicists - consider the profound, inexplicably complex nature of all symbiotic systems required to sustain even one organic life-form a justification for belief in a supremely intelligent, coordinating intellect. Famous scientist, Francis Crick (father of DNA and devout atheist) has the answer to resoundingly perplexing enigma: space aliens and ray-guns!

I have always considered that phrase ignorant just like "it was all part of god's plan". Sigh. If some god existed I am sure he would have shown himself by now instead of having humans do their bidding. No real god would let innocent children suffer.

It's just a fall back on the puddle argument. Oh look, I'm a puddle of water, and this hole is the perfect size for me to be a puddle exactly like this....must have been designed. People survive and move on, or they die. Shit doesn't work out, at first but did later, it isn't b/c some imaginary friend deemed it, it's b/c you got off you ass and went to plan b, c, d, ....etc. It's all relative to your point of view on how you interpret events.

Your interlocutor confuses intention with causality. everything has a cause. that's not the same as having a reason. if you do not believe in a supreme being, then you do not believe the causality is the result of intention, and you do not believe in the possibility of such an intention at any rate. and even if everything DID happen for a reason, how would that justify everything that happened? i am surprised she couldn't answer you, though. i would've thought she'd fall back on the tired old cop-out "god works in mysterious ways." the while universe works in ways that are still, to us, largely mysterious, and whether or not we ever understand it all, or even most of it, the universe will chug along. it doesn't demand our belief, our faith, our understanding, our deliberate ignorance or any other thing. it isn't as sentient entity and it doesn't need to be prayed too, nor does it demand acceptance, so if we can change bits of it for (what we consider to be) the better, we're not betraying some sacred "reason." ask that confused person: "if everything happens for a reason, then we have brains and hands and willpower for a reason. with these tools we can change things for the better. we have this ability for a reason. you are defying your god's will by lazily ignoring his gifts." (sometimes you have to address folks from within their chosen reality, regardless of how well you know it's fantasy.)

g

I have gotten the "Gawd has a better plan for them" in regards to the death of children. To which I counter if Gawds plan is to destroy families, then he is a sick, sorry, son of a bitch who doesn't deserve any worship!

Shit happens and then you die. No reason in that, is there?

I always tend to correct them and say, "You can find meaning in and give purpose to everything."

“Everything happens for a reason.” Whenever someone says that to me, it pisses me off. What reason? Is there one reason that everything happens, or are there different reasons for every different thing that happens? Who or what makes these reasons? I may be just a little more sensitive than usual to that statement right now because my 37 year old friend just passed away 10 days ago after a three year fight with cancer. And if there was a reason this beautiful person had to die so young, I’d like to know what it is. I’d like to know how anything was made better by her suffering, or her death. As to the statement that “suffering builds character”, does anyone on here believe that?

Some time ago I had a conversation which revealed that the church goer that I was talking to thought that Jews were Christians. He reasoned that,
"Jesus was a Jew wasn't he?"
I'm quite amazed at how little the religious seem to know about their own religions and so often can't answer simple challenges. Could it be that the stock answer of
"God moves in mysterious ways".
was starting to wear thin in the mind of your acquaintance. One hopes so.

Everything does happen for a reason, but that is not what they mean. The reason children die from starvation are to do with geopolitics, not because it is some god's will, which is what people usually mean when they say that. When someone close to you dies, or you fail to get the job you want, those things also happens for various reasons, just not the reason that that platitude has in mind.

Bullshit.

I see no reason to believe that.

It’s nonsense.

Balderdash comes to mind.

Some things happen for a reason...like a person is a total dumbass.

Things don't happen for a reason. They happen because things are always happening. People who say "there is no such thing as coincidence" are wrong. I don't believe there is some invisible guiding hand dictating and choreographing events that will impact your life. You go where you go and get where you are usually as a result of choices. Even going nowhere is a choice. We are subject to the laws of coincidence in which we interact with other humans purely at random in many cases and we respond from there. Things happen because things happen. There is no divine intervention or unearthly force guiding the events of your life that were laid out in some grand plan somewhere in the great beyond.

Of course everything happens for a reason, god just is never the reason.

I agree with you especially on the horrors that go one daily throughout the world and right here at home. School shootings, cancer, deportation, rape, and the list goes on. What is the reason for that? It always sounds like a programmed social nicety like "have a nice day" when there is no thought to communication with others.

I was raised as a christian and very active in the church growing up until age 14 when I was given the choice. After that it was strictly xmas and easter.
When my 12 year old daughter was hit by a truck, in a coma and then died, I received all the platitudes. I didn't want to hear it. At that moment I was done with god and all the bullshit.

Like how the fuck do they know that?

I think its a lazy laymen term. "everything happens for a reason is a bull**** excuse. along with "its gods will"
at this point I have started assuming people that say these things are religious fanatics and I avoid them like the plague

Yup. The average agnostic/atheist has a higher IQ than religious people, or even Conservative ones. Link-Survey: Racists And Conservatives Have A Low IQ. Surprise, Surprise! [wp.me]

What a great question. People say this a lot!
You really put it in perspective & I commend you for asking that person. It sounds like a load of crap privileged people would say, not thinking of others.

Choices give us humans on earth endless opportunities!! Only thing is some choices you make cannot be undone and they change you forever!!

When people say this, they usually do it as a form of consolation, to offer an assurance that the "reason" is some sort of nebulous better future. You're supposed to take comfort from the notion that "it is necessary to suffer now in order to prosper later."

I'm not at all convinced this is even remotely true. Sometimes things work out for the best. Sometimes, though, they just keep on being awful.

And technically, everything does happen for a reason. The reason sucks sometimes, though. Why are there starving children in Yemen and Somalia? Because local warlords monopolize the food supplies as a way of forcing the population to obey them. Also because global climate change has accelerated and exacerbated weather events inducing droughts, soil salinization, and erosion of arable farmland. And also because some nations have governments that have failed to manage economic conditions and infrastructure, resulting in massive shortages of food and other vital supplies.

Those are reasons. They aren't supernatural and they give zero hints that they are somehow necessary pre-conditions for something much better to happen in the future. If we want to change those reasons, we humans must act and change them ourselves.