One of the problems I've always had is how people justify the actions of their particular gods. A winning quarterback will be sure to thank god for allowing his team to win (rather than acknowledge that they simply played better than the other team) or for his 'god-given' talent (because there's no way that genetics and 20+ years of athletic training had anything to do with it, right?). Likewise, when believers are unable to answer why their god would allow someone to shoot 15 children at a playground, they usually drop the old standard "God works in mysterious ways" Really? Did your god hate the losing football team? Did he somehow know ('omniscient', remember...) that every one of those 15 dead children would have grown up to be awful people, and that he just decided to let a gunman take them out early? People who defend an unknowable god are like the co-dependent families of alcoholics. God's actions don't appear to be any more than a coin flip, and there's always an unfortunate loser. The adherents will always be there to excuse away the coin flips when the results can't be attributed to his 'glory'....

It's nonsense. Ask them to walk down a children's cancer ward and explain their reason for that happening. Not to mention 2 year olds getting raped. Oh, I don't respect anyone who believes that "god works in mysterious ways".

I have asked someone using this argument "what would be the reason for me calmly punching them in the nose?"
After discussing it they were decided that whatever reason they assigned to the event it probably wasn't gods will!

the reason is humans decisions. Many believe this world has limited resources, the fact is this world has adequate resources for everyone. we just need to decide to be smarter.

if 'everything happens for a reason' is equated to 'cause/effect', okay....if everybody on the planet was fed and lived a full and long life...well, none of us would live very long...the population explosion would destroy us all...suffering is a natural state as is joy....survive one so you can have the other...but this does not mean don't help people...because I guarantee no matter how many people you try to help, death will find a way...

If anything happens for a reason, that reason is Physics.

Yeah, they tell me the same thing. I guess when a child is stricken with cancer or a child gets sexually abused and that abuse leave a mark on their life, such as hem having a severe mental illness, that happens for a reason, too. The nerve some of these people have. Just a desperate way to hold onto their delusions and empty promises.

Carried to logical absurdity, the statement is true. Everything does happen for a reason. The problem occurs because the reasons never coincide with their beliefs. I can explain if you'd like.

Things happen and we assign a reason to them. If we can't explain or understand it, then "everything happens for a reason" explains the unexplainable. Kind of like "What ever!"

Yes, everything happens for a reason, but not in the way religious nut jobs believe.

Maybe god is satan? And we have it all backwards? ( no caps for these made up fictional beings and Caps are for good things, like Santa Clause ) With all the terrible stuff going on in the world, it makes more sense. As many of you may know that in third world countries, lots of people die during times of so called natural events from Mother nature in church's. Why? Because the church collapses on them while they are praying to god to save them. Many churches are very old and can't withstand heavy wind rain and such. Sounds like something a guy like satan would do?

What the reason? Give me the reason.

I look at any situation as having a cause and if we can identify the cause we can prevent suffering from the same cause by understanding it and changing it. The "everything happens for a reason" excuse is a catchall phrase for "I don't know and I am not going to help fix it." In any situation we try to find or make a reason because that is how most people cope with events that are in and out of our control, "if we can find a reason for it then we can accept it with less effort". So, I feel like "everything happens for a reason." is a total shrug off of any responsibility or effort to change what we are capable of changing.

I don't know that's a good question. It also kind of raises the question if you do good and be a good person good things will happen to you (or will it)But the saying good guys finish last was made for a reason. Sometimes it seems like things happen for a reason but most of the time it seems like just luck of the draw smh

I agree with you completely. I have a sister-in-law who told me that she lost her book and she prayed to saint (fill in the blank) and she found it.
I asked her why Her god can send out old St.Bul--hit for her book but he can't help starving and tortured children.

I have always wondered why evolution made us the way we are. We may be getting too smart for our own good. We are the only animal on earth that can manipulate things for our own benefit or to do great harm to this earth. Now we are starting to threaten our own survival and the survival of many other species. Human beings need to learn how to limit our population to a reasonable number so there is room for other species to live we just can't keep taking more and more.

I'm surprised you didn't get that nebulous favorite"It's God's will".

It just makes me want to headbutt people in the face at this point. Every conversation I've had isn't worth it. Maybe in a sense they're trying to comfort themselves. Not you. I'm already asking "why..." So if you don't actually know the reason stop suggesting there is one.

In a way, I subscribe to this theory as well, but in a wholly different way. Things that people have control over...yes, I got that job because I worked very hard to get the qualifications. Yes, I was able to make that purchase because I sacrificed and saved. Yet, many of the good things in my life happened because I was fortunate enough to be born into the family I was born into, in the country I was born into, and that set me up for some success, and not everyone is that fortunate. Sometimes, the "reason" things happen are beyond your control. Sometimes, they are within your control and so whatever happens is because you brought about the reason. And still other times, SHIT JUST HAPPENS. "Life is as random as it is deliberate, as funny as it is tragic."

There is almost always a reason, hunger, poverty, oppression, almost always the result of government. sometimes power crazed individuals or just plain apathy.

Something bad happens, you make the best of it, then something good happens & you make a correlation. Religious, "magical" thinking at its' best!

I believe that everything has a "cause" or "reason" that can be explained by science or social science. People may be starving while others are wasting or tossing food, so it's maybe borders or political barriers. The world population explosion is not helping either, thanks to some narrow minded approaches to birth control.

I think everything happens for a reason also, just has nothing to do with religion, god, church, etc. We are the captain of our ship, responsible for everything that occurs in our life, creators of our own reality. Our mind is the creative force that drives the body, we are not separate from that force. The idea is learn the lesson and accept the gift, pay particular attention when the shit happens. Just my take on it.

I would not ask a believer any questions to open discussion about their magical beings and how they dictate their lack of reasoning, but reply that you like to see some things as cause and effect and give a small example., if you have the opportunity. Even if you find them having outrageous ides, be kind and if you have the mental energy, redirect their attention to small facts as an exchange of ideas and knowledge between you. No one needs to proven anything, unless they are standing in front of a judge, accused of a crime. Lighten up - be compassionate. Lead by example.

It is all " according to legend bollocks", no fact or logic, miracles blah blah, religion rules only applies to middle east culture, another way of crowd control, in this ageing planet how real it l can be to try the explain everything with man orientated/sexist book, how come some females of this world can go along with this beyond my belief.
If anybody was able to transform water to wine would you realy kill him? No way.
We share this planet with some unbeliavable people and they believe earth is flat, they even have society for it.