Book Review: When Bad Things Happen to Good People

I clearly remember the pain on my brother's face when his father in law died of prostate cancer in the mid-nineties.

The pain was not just from the loss of a man he liked and admired, but it appeared to me, he was also angry at losing his faith. He said at the time there couldn't possibly be a God if He would, "...do stuff like this to a good man like that."

There are a lot of reasons to be an atheist, but Harold Kushner argued in this book published in 1978 that the visiting of illness and devastation on undeserving people isn't one of them.

I first read When Bad Things Happen to Good People a few years after my brother's pain, and I have briefly owned copies of it several times since. I always end up giving them away. I found one at the used bookstore on the main street in Collingwood this week and wondered if it was still relevant.

Sometimes when I re-read a piece that touched or moved me a long time ago, the book or article doesn't hold up. Bad Things refers to 'retarded' children, so there definitely is a bit of dating there, but the book remains as powerful a defence of belief as I have ever read. It talks about free will and evil and who's in charge of what. I remember asking a very faithful woman I know whether she questioned her faith after a horrible accident her husband was involved in. She seemed genuinely surprised at the question and told me she simply couldn't imagine going through what she was going through, alone.

I might send this copy of Bad Things to my brother, although I somehow think he has lost his belief in reading. Being good Presbyterians, we have never discussed whether he ever regained his faith.

UPDATE: Brother says he's not exactly an atheist, but he can't believe in any diety which would concern itself with the outcome of an NFL game.