Boston and Faith

As we all know, today was a horrible day.  One of my favorite events, the Boston Marathon, was overtaken by senseless violence.  It just boggles my mind how people could do such a thing and inflict so much suffering on a group of people.  I am naturally a pessimist and an introvert so these types of things really raise questions about good vs. evil and how the world ultimately works.  Same thing with the Sandy Hook shooting.

My questions went something like this: Where is God?  Why is evil allowed, it seems, to overcome good so much of the time?  Is this just one of those things that signals to "end of the world?"  Are people really getting worse?

Of course, some of these questions are the result of my upbringing, especially the stuff about the "end of the world."  I kind of have a phobia about that so best not to go there most of the time.  Anyway, as a person with a somewhat skeptical nature it just confuses me so much.  Why doesn't God intervene?  How much does free will have an effect on the world?  These are the moments where I fall into periods of doubt and uncertainty.  I don't have anymore answers than anyone else.  It is the belief of Christians everywhere that good will eventually overcome evil.  Evil doers will be punished and the world will be set right.  But sometimes, in the deep recesses of my mind, I just don't know.

I get there are evil people in the world.  I get that people make their choices and we bare the consequences.  Maybe it just seems to me that things get worse as time goes on.  I do tend to look to the negative side all too often.  All I know is that people are capable of great good and great evil.  It just seems that some people choose to follow their evil inclinations more than their good ones.

And to add a more political element, people need to stop placing blame where blame is not due.  We don't know the facts.  All we know is that an act of terrorism was committed.  I saw people blaming everyone from liberals, atheists, Obama and Muslims.  The truth is no one knows why suffering happens and why people choose evil when they had other options.  Human nature is an uncertain thing.  Now is not to the time to place blame, as appealing as that may be.  Now is not the time to say why such a tragedy happened.  Now is the time to simply grieve and think of those affected.