This philosophical and religious question can be underneath many of our difficult conversations. I explain the reasons why people feel differently about this issue in an essay for the online site UpJourney. Read my contribution as well those from many others here.
I don’t want to rehash what I wrote in the piece in UpJourney, but I do want to share one quote:
“If you are the target of such comments, you have to learn not to take them personally. It isn’t really about you; it’s about them and their beliefs.”
I also want to note that one of my major influences in this Kate Bowler, a scholar of religious history, who has a podcast and book on this topic: “Everything Happens for a reason”. I highly recommend her work.
Have you had someone tell you that you were to blame for a bad thing that happened to you? What did you say?
I read a number of the responses to the question does everything happen for a reason, and Karen, I think yours was one of the best. Humans look for patterns, reasons, causes. Then, we build belief systems that explain why things happen. Even if the belief system says things happen randomly. Several other writers and you also talk about learning from what happens, and I do believe this opportunity exists in all of our experiences.