Greetings Everyone, Welcome to the podcast “Close to the Bone.” I’m Carl Vreeland.

This is episode #57, it’s called, “Why Blame God?”

But before I begin the episode. . . just a reminder that if you’re enjoying the podcast, please consider supporting me by leaving a donation which will help me to continue to produce these podcast episodes and all my other free content. Just go to my website, carltvreeland.com, and go to the menu tab, Offerings, you’ll see a donation link there. Thanks in advance. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. All right, now to the new episode. . . .

So, why blame God? Well, many blame God because they’re dissatisfied with their lives. Things aren’t going their way. Their dreams aren’t coming true. They feel like they got dealt a bad hand. They wound-up divorced, they’re getting old, and their middle-aged mother is depressed because dad died. God didn’t answer their prayers. And they cry, “Why does God take the good ones, and let the wicked ones live?” And so, they turn angry, resentful, and bitter, spending their days complaining about life. Some turn to alcohol and pills, feeling as if God abandoned them.

Others blame God for all the suffering in the world. “If God’s a loving God, why all the wars, the Holocaust? The school shootings? Why let innocent children die? And some are outspoken about it. When the English actor was asked in an interview, “. . . and you walk up to the Pearly Gates, and you are confronted by God. What would Stephen Fry say to Him, or Her, or It?” He responds by saying, “Bone cancer in children? What’s that about? How dare you, how dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault? It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God, who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain.”(1) Indeed, many can relate to his anger. Worth pointing out, is that Mr. Fry’s gripe takes on a particular, perhaps more reasonable view. Namely, blaming God for “misery that is not out fault.” Yes, it is somewhat of an impersonal, more realistic, objective argument. It implies that most of the suffering in the world is our fault; suffering stemming from war, murder, rape, poverty, homelessness, starvation, and on and on. But. . . bone cancer in children? Well, one could say that the cancer came from the parent’s bad genetics, bloodline,