Book Review: When Bad things happen to Good people

Thought provoking ideas on the eternal question - “Why me, God?”

Religious though I am, nothing ticks me off more than religious literalists – mixing the words from the sacred text with a large dose of fear of punishment and forcing it down the throat of unsuspecting and in some cases deliberately naive followers. So, it was with some trepidation that I started “When bad things happen to good people” by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner. I was in for a big surprise. Not only was the Rabbi very analytical – following the though process in a very systematic, balanced and logical fashion, he was also very compassionate; empathetic to the sorrows of the world.

Since time immemorial, people have asked the question - “Why me?” I have struggled with it from time to time. Sometimes getting resentful of the joys of others, and at other times fighting with God, arguing with Him, sulking and refusing to talk with Him. So, it was a restatement of my confusion, when the Rabbi poses the question asked by Job thousands of years ago - “If I am good, God is just and God is all powerful, then how could He allow this to happen to me?” If you believe in all three premises – you are good, God is just, God is powerful; then it's impossible to explain all the sufferings in the world. The answer will evade you unless you are willing to give up one of the three beliefs, or do you really have to?

In the remaining book, the Rabbi challenges us to think differently – why do the unfortunate acts have to be acts of God? They could be the consequence of the randomness of the world, consequence of chance and chaos of this universe. We would like to neatly divide the world into black and white, bad and good, holy and evil, rewarded and punished and use some other explanation to explain why bad things happen to good people; but the world around us refuses to be categorized, churning, mixing and chaotic. This randomness and chaos could explain a lot of ill around us.

Harold Kushner brings yet another angle for us to muse about. To think of God as an over-protective parent would be belittling His intention. If God made us in His image, He also gave us the power to make our own decisions and choices. To blame God on the choice made by a drunk teenager to drive her friends home and in the process getting herself and her friends killed would be rather unfair – don't you think?

I'm still contemplating over and considering all these angles and more brought forth in this book. However, there is no denying the fact that I'm more at peace with the world and God than I was before reading the book.