SkepticsCall.com

In the overview of this topic, we discussed the merits of the question, 'Why do bad things happen to good people?' We discovered that the question is misleading in its approach but acknowledged there is a legtimate question of: 'If God is love, why do bad things happen at all?'

In the free will section of this topic, we discovered that our own choices are really what is to blame, not God. But this is an incomplete answer because no one chooses to get cancer or chooses to get into an accident (which is why they call it an 'accident' instead of an 'on purpose'). So now we must ask the question about bad things that happen seemingly at random, or at least, not due to anyone's direct decision-making.

Sin - Unwanted Results

There is a child's game where the players stack up little blocks into a tower. Each player takes turns pulling out one of the blocks. The objective is to not be the person that pulls out the block that makes the whole tower fall down. Unfortunately, sin is a lot like pulling out that last block: the player can plan all they want and choose which block to pull and how to do it, but they cannot control the falling of the tower or where all the pieces will land. (If you recall from the last section, one is free to make a choice but one is not free to choose the consequences.) Almost always, the consequences of sin spread way beyond what was anticipated and we are left wondering what happened. There is a quote in the Christian community that says:

      "Sin will take you farther
       than you want to go,
         keep you longer
         than you want to stay,
            and cost you more
            than you want to pay."

That is the very nature of sin. And "sin, when it is fully grown, will bring forth death." (James 1:15)

Effect of Sin

In the day that Adam and Eve disobeyed, they died.¹ The intimacy they had known with their Creator was broken. Pain² and sorrow³ were introduced into their lives for the first time. Anguish⁴ and murder⁵ soon followed. Eventually, their bodies finally succumbed to the death that began years earlier.⁶

But as we discussed earlier, they were not the only ones affected by their sin. An animal was sacrificed by God to clothe Adam and Eve.⁷ And the ground itself was cursed, so in addition to the necessary plants the ground produced, it now also produces thorns and thistles.³ As a matter of fact, it seems that the whole creation is affected by sin because Paul tells us in