If God Is Real, Why Did The Parkland Shooting Happen?
Is God real if such horrific acts happen?
If there is a God out there, then how come there are countless acts of gun violence today in the United States?
According to NPR, "The level of gun violence in the United States is completely outsized compared to what's seen in other wealthy countries. In fact, the rate of gun violence in the U.S. is higher than in many low-income countries." On Wednesday, February 14th, 2018 a mass shooting struck out at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School located in Parkland, Florida. In this mass murder, 17 innocent lives of students and staff were taken by a 19-year-old gunman. On this day you are supposed to celebrate the people that you love. Students should be thinking about what they are going to do with their significant other after school later, not if their best friend is going to get murdered in the classroom next door to them and be a part of one of the biggest mass shootings in the United States.
This is a huge act of evil that was taken place on this day. If God is real how come this happened, how come there were seventeen innocent lives taken from us, how come many had to be affected by this tragedy, and how come there is no automatic change from this?
The gunman just casually walked into the High School that he did not even attend at the moment with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle. This was a sad day that is indescribable for Broward County, Florida. Many lost their little siblings, best friends, significant other, daughters, and sons. One year later and the city of Parkland is still suffering from this tragedy that shook the nation.
Now, I am asking if we have an all mighty good God, then how come this tragic incident happened? Is God real if evil is real? My belief is that although there may be a God, he still gives us free will to do what we may want to do and yes, he may wish good upon people, but he cannot stop all of the evil happenings in this world. During this course of Philosophy, we have learned in the module "Is God real?" different perspectives of multiple philosophers. I have read all of their point of views and came across Hick's philosophy called "The Problem of Evil." His philosophy states that many believe in a higher power, God, but their main objection towards "him" is the problem of evil and how come we have evil on this Earth if there is a God.
Evil has always been a dilemma to those that believe in God. You may ask, well if God is all good and perfectly loving then how come he has not abolished evil in the world? Well, God too is imperfect and cannot stop all of the evil in this world. Even in the biblical story of Adam and Eve, God instructed them both not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The devil then entered into Eve and tempted the word of God. Eve then fell into temptation and fell for the devil's word then took fruit from the tree that God instructed them not to. God then punished them both. Even in the creation of the first set of male and female God could not stop them himself. He did warn them and tell them what was right from wrong, but in the end, it was up to them to make the right choice.
According to Augustine, the universe is good, it is created by a good God with a good purpose. There are higher and lower, greater and lesser goods in many different varieties in this world. Everything starts off as good with the creation of a good God, but it can be spoiled and corrupted along the way. In Christian thoughts evil is said to be a sense of freedom in the human mind. To be a person you have a sense of freedom in choosing between good and evil. There is no guarantee in a person willing to be genuinely moral that will never commit to sin.
The possibility or wrongdoing or sin is inevitable in the creation of a person. To say that God should have created beings that will not commit to sin is equivalent to saying he should not have created people. If God created us to be free but only do what was "right" we'd be seen as his puppets and not actually free to our own will.
