Why do bad things happen to good people?

nicenycdick

Sexy Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2007
Posts
1,785
Media
1
Likes
45
Points
133
Location
New York, NY
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
The only reason we take special notice when bad things happen to good people is that we want to believe that the reward for good behaviour is that life will bless us with good things. And when bad things happen to bad people, we feel they deserve it. We are always disappointed when we realize life is absurdly serendipitous.
 

bigbull29

Worshipped Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2006
Posts
7,577
Media
52
Likes
14,090
Points
343
Location
State College (Pennsylvania, United States)
Sexuality
Pansexual
Gender
Male
I had a cop boyfriend who would go out of his way to give tickets to people with Jesus fish sign bumper stickers or anything religious on their car.

That is wrong, morally and professionally! Although personal prejudices sometimes trump a law enforcement officer's objectivity (as in all professions), one must not make a habit out of it. It warrants being fired.
 

petite

Expert Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Posts
7,199
Media
2
Likes
146
Points
208
Sexuality
No Response
Gender
Female
The only reason we take special notice when bad things happen to good people is that we want to believe that the reward for good behaviour is that life will bless us with good things. And when bad things happen to bad people, we feel they deserve it. We are always disappointed when we realize life is absurdly serendipitous.

The sad part is that that rarely happens unless something terrible happens to that person himself. You just described the Just World Fallacy whereupon people justify that people must deserve their lot in life. It's the reason why some people resist helping the poor, for example. They're certain those people must be lazy or drug users or done something else to deserve their own poverty. It's a depressingly common fallacy and it prevents people from addressing actual injustices and fixing them.

Just-world hypothesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karma and the Just World Fallacy