I heard this line in The Green Mile, spoken by Tom Hanks’ character, Paul Edgecomb. It stuck with me. It’s exactly what I think about God. (No offense to anyone, just my perspective.)
I know people have different takes on this. Some say suffering has a purpose, that everything happens for a reason, that justice comes eventually, if not in this life, then the next. Maybe. But that’s not what this is about. This is just me questioning things the way I see them. Or I might be just STUPID!
Everything Is God’s Plan… Or Is It?
People love saying, “Everything happens for a reason,” or “It’s all part of God’s plan.” But does it really? Or is that just something we say because we don’t have a better answer?
Is it our own convenience?
A natural disaster kills thousands, what was the reason? Who actually benefitted? A child is born with a disease so bad they suffer from day one, was that part of the plan too? Are we saying this child was a criminal in the past life and now has to suffer to balance things out? If that’s true, then what about the people who spend their entire lives waiting for justice that never comes? If karma is real, how is it fair that some people never see justice in their lifetime?
And if everything is already written, then isn’t suffering part of the plan too? If that’s the case, why do we pray for it to go away? Are we asking God to rewrite ‘His’ own script? Does that even make sense?
If Anyone Can Hurt Anyone at Any Time, Did God Just Let It Happen?
If someone decides to cheat, lie, or completely ruin another person’s life, is that ‘God allowing it’, or just them doing whatever they want?
If God is watching everything, why doesn’t He stop them? If a good person gets destroyed by a bad one, then what’s the point of being good? If morality actually mattered to God, wouldn’t there be some instant consequence? Or is He just letting people figure it out through their own version of ‘Justice’?
Or is this whole system deliberate, a way to balance good and evil? But if so, then why does good suffer at all? Shouldn’t evil be the one suffering from the start?
Does God Really Punish Bad People?
Let’s be real, does He?
Because from what I see, bad people get away with everything. If divine justice exists, why does it look exactly like random luck? And if bad people only get punished after death, like they’ll rot in hell, who even witnesses it? Who actually gets to feel satisfied that justice was served? Isn’t that just a convenient excuse?
If Justice Exists, Who Is It Really For?
Yeah, justice helps people. It gives relief, makes things right, and holds people accountable. Justice sounds noble, but let’s be honest, it does nothing for the dead.
If someone gets murdered, they’re not coming back. The pain isn’t erased. So who is justice really for? For the people left behind? Are protests and rallies really about Justice, or just about making sure we feel safe? Are we actually fighting for the victim, or are we just scared that we might be next if the criminal walks free?
If that’s the case, then isn’t justice more about revenge or security rather than fairness? And if it’s just about keeping the living safe, then aren’t we using the dead as an excuse?
If Justice Is a Human Idea, What Happens Without It?
If justice isn’t divine, if it’s just a human concept, then what happens if we remove it?
Would people do whatever they want? Probably. Maybe not all at once, but eventually, everything would fall apart. Justice doesn’t stop all crime, but it stops just enough to keep people in check. So maybe justice was never really about fairness, just about control.
If justice and fairness were always meant to exist, why do we have to enforce them ourselves? Maybe it’s because we’re just pieces on a chess board, and God, if He’s even playing, doesn’t stop to explain His moves
Maybe God Isn’t Involved at All, Are We Just Pieces on a Chessboard?
Maybe there’s no punishment, no reward. No heaven, no hell. Maybe God is just watching, not interfering.
Or maybe He’s treating life like a game of chess.
When we play chess, do we care about the individual pieces? We move them, sacrifice them, play out a strategy, but do the pieces themselves matter? Now imagine those chess pieces praying to us, thinking we are gods. Would that change our strategy? Would we stop sacrificing them?
So if we are the chess pieces and God is the player, does He actually care about us, or just about the game?
Some religious perspectives say that God does care, He watches over every move. Others argue that suffering exists because we have free will. But if God had a plan all along, then do we even have free will, or are we just part of a predetermined game?
Or maybe God isn’t even playing at all. Maybe we’re assuming He cares when He actually doesn’t.
Maybe the Problem Isn’t That God Allows Suffering, Maybe It’s That We Assume He Should Stop It
What if the world was never meant to be fair?
Look at nature, it’s brutal. The food chain isn’t fair. Things survive, things die, and that’s just how it works. What if justice was never part of the system to begin with?
When we demand justice, who are we actually asking it for? Do we really want fairness, or do we just want to believe that the world makes sense? Because if fairness was built into the system, we wouldn’t need justice at all.
But if justice is something we created, not something given to us, then what does that say about morality? About right and wrong? About everything we believe in?
That’s what I’ll explore next, probably a part 2.
Jotting down with Rishi! 