FAITH IN RELIGION, FAITH IN G-D, ALL VIABLE QUESTIONS .

As I think about events in the world, events in my personal life and watching friends and relatives experience personal traumas it begs the question about G-d. If He existed why is this all happening? I know that many scholars have written on the subject i.e. “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People.” These are more intense thinkers than me and they have spent their lives asking these type of questions. My questioning is a little more recent – basically the past 20 years or so. 

A few years back I took a class at the local Kabbalah Center. They posed the question if there is a 

G- d why did the Holocaust happen? Many people struggled with the answer and but no one came up with the any appropriate or satisfying answer. There is good and bad in all of us and circumstances can bring out either the good or the bad or even the evil in us all.  

I didn’t buy that at all. I have heard about mothers who weigh 100 pounds lift a car off of their child – circumstance generated adrenaline, but only for the moment. It wasn’t sustainable. Very plain men and women in uniform do heroic acts to save their commrades. They will tell you that they did what they had to do at the moment. They are heroes but for the moment – and that was enough. The good in them was inherent. It surfaced with ferocity when it had to. They didn’t think about what they are about to do, they just did it.  

Rawanda, South Africa and the Holocaust were well thought out by people who can justify their evil. The evil was inherent in their psyche. Opportunity brought it out. Opportunity gave them all they needed to reek havoc on innocent people. If there is a G-d why did He allow it to happen? Why are some religious zealots using the name of G-d to create tortuous laws and penalties, kill innocent people, destroy societies – why?  

Writer’s note: I am capitalizing the names of G-d because if there is such a being then I am not going to offend Him. I will continue to respect His name. Now I am confident that you have some viable questions of me. Hopefully, I will answer them! Maybe not! 

I will get to the Kabbalah’s answer to Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. But first, why I believe in religion – my religion! You may have similar reasons of your own or different reasons for your religion, they are personal and they are all valid.

Religion creates culture and a set of rules that we should live by. There are 613 commandments in the Bible including the ten we are all familiar with. If these are deigned by G-d why are they not inherent in our psyches. He made us, He gave us life, He gave us brains, He gave us DNA so why not instill a set of rules that will dictate that we will all do G-d’s work? 

That is my question. It is a fairly simple idea, you build something to the best of your ability and if you are G-d the ability is endless. GM won’t build a car without a steering wheel, but appears that G-d left that part out of our being. We have no G-d given steering wheel. Why is that? G-d gave us FREE WILL! G-d gave us the ability to be G-d. We create our own steering wheel for navigating through life. 

I love the beauty of religion. The time to pray as a community, observe beautiful and meaningful rituals, come together in similar beliefs, to do good things for the community and even parts of the world that need help,  all benefit from religion.  Big generalization here, I know you are thinking of some things that are just the opposite as people are being killed or maimed in the name of some religions. If G-d gave them free will, too, then they are doing their G-d like work as they see it. So, with that in mind, is there a true G-d? When we go to a movie and see the actors play out their parts do we pray to the producer? The producer creating opportunity to present the story, the characters, the scenes in which they act and the message that they are trying convey. One could argue the producer, the writer or the director is the G-d of that situation, so who do you pray to? Do you worship them?  (There is a potential for some interesting answers her.) 

My point is if we are all G-d like why is there a G-d? If we are all G-d like why are some of us good and some of us evil. Remember, it is said that G-d gave us free will. That would even allow for us not to believe in a G-d! That ability is G-d given. 

That is my take, you decide.