Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Since the beginning of time, bad things have happened.  They happened in nature, then Man came along and invented many more.  There are hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, droughts, volcanoes, lightening caused fires and predators hunting, frightening and killing their prey.  There is also illness, aging, terrible physical pain and death.  All these natural forces cause suffering and pain.

With human acts there are so many more varieties of bad things.  There are all of our favorite “sins” like murder, rape, theft, dishonesty, envy, jealousy, laziness, and arrogance and there are all the specific kinds ranging from individual to group to culture.  There are the people cheating on their spouse, there are the businessmen deceiving their customers, there are the adults abusing children, there are the politicians lying openly to further their limited cause and there are those who live off the work of others while contributing nothing themselves.  There are the groups and organizations which condone acts of cruelty like hazing, discriminating and  causing physical and emotional damage to others.  Then there are the cultural cruelties like bull fighting, capturing rare animals to use parts of their bodies for aphrodisiacs, boxing, tyranny, fascism, mistreatment of women, wars, corruption and injustice.

The eternal question is why?  Why is there so much suffering and loss?  If there is a G-d and if He is infinite, omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent, why does He allow this to go on?

Our Judeo-Christian teachings explain it as caused by original sin committed by Adam and Eve, our first family.  The thesis is that an angel, almost as powerful as G-d, revolted against Him and formed his own kingdom based on evil and sin.  This fallen angel convinced Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit.  She did and convinced Adam to do the same. The forbidden fruit has been assumed to be a real fruit, like an apple or orange.  It was most likely Eve herself who was the edible.  G-d had warned that if they partake, they will die.  Since they didn’t die immediately, they thought it was a false threat.  What G-d meant was that they would die, eventually, instead of being eternal.  Adam was given one of G-d’s day to live.  That equals 1,000 years in human terms.  Adam gave up 60 of these years so that the future Abraham could live longer.  Or, at least, that’s how the story goes.

So because Adam and Eve partake in their forbidden fruit, they created original sin and the mortality that came with it.  The question arises “why did they disobey G-d, their creator and provider?"  If anyone ever had free will, you would think that they had.  They were not influenced by the media (this was before T.V., radio, the Internet or even newspapers), it wasn’t peer pressure from some outside group, because there were none, it wasn’t financial considerations because there was no money and no place to spend it, it wasn’t the result of a poor upbringing because they weren’t brought up and their only father figure was G-d himself. 

And if they hadn’t disobeyed and became immortal, they would have had no offspring and there would be no you reading this and no me writing it. But there would also be no children, no culture or civilization. When Adam “chose” to create new life, he chose to have life not only begin, but also to end.


So if it wasn’t due to original sin, then why do bad things happen?  Could there be a single cause, a simple explanation?  Yes, I think so.

Entropy.

Entropy is a basic law of physics.  It is the disorganization of energy.  It is the agent of change.  Einstein realized what mystics knew for thousands of years - that all matter is energy and that it cannot be lost in the universe.  If nothing can be lost then it must be changed into different forms otherwise life would be static.  The mystics realized further that all energy is consciousness. Physics is slowly coming to this realization.

Most physicists would agree with this description of entropy but few realize its wide implications.  I asked the wife of a famous American physicist if he ever talked about the impact of entropy in everyday life. She said that he says it every time he sees his son’s messy room.  Yes, messy rooms are a perfect example of entropy - a clean and neat room can quickly become disorganized and messy.  Physicists see it in sand castles when the tide rolls in and disorganizes the structures returning them to lumps of wet sand.  But entropy is much more pervasive and ubiquitous.

I see entropy as a constant force, much like gravity, pulling at every finite thing or activity. It is the reason we age, get ill, die as well as the cause of mental disorders including Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia,and is the primary cause for machines breaking down, errors being made and everything that we think of as sin like lying, killing, stealing and even adultery.

Does this mean that humans have no free will but act only because of the effects of entropy?  I think that the answer is both yes and no.  No matter what our will is, we will grow old and die.  No matter what we do, our cells will die and be replaced by others.  No matter how hard we try, we will make mistakes and we will never be perfect.  It is because of entropy that Man has created cultures and civilizations with laws and mores reinforced by peer pressure be it social, economic, political or physical. Each culture is a different approach to dealing with the entropy that surrounds and penetrates our being, with some cultures being much more successful than others, cultural relativists notwithstanding.

Entropy causes humans and other animals to get sick and so each culture has its own system of cures and remedies. People and other creatures can harm other so each culture develops laws and enforcement policies to minimize this tendency. Societies set up systems to protect private property and personal well being from infringement.  Cars break down because of entropy so we have organizations to repair them and others to replace them with newer models.  Entropy makes us grow tired of the same thing so we produce new varieties and models.  Entropy makes one culture want to dominate or destroy another and so each country sets up defenses again being disorganized by their enemies.  Entropy causes the mind to be disorganized leading to various mental conditions.  We create different strategies for dealing with this from psychotherapy to meditation to organized religion to medications to tribal dances. Entropy causes us to die so we seek different ways of extending life and cheating death with surgery, medicine, acupuncture, homeopathy and group prayer. 

So entropy can be seen as a necessary evil that destroys in order to create. It is the cause of all our virtue as well.  If there were no entropy, there would be nothing to fear and so courage would be unnecessary; there would be no poverty and so there would be no need for compassion or charity or crime.  We could not get sick and so there would be no need for medicine, healing or even healthy food and exercise. If there were no entropy we wouldn’t age and die so there would be no need for children, sex or even physical attraction.  If there were no entropy, we would have little of use to do or be.  If there were no entropy it would be hard for us to remember anything because there would be no cause to have memories.

It’s some consolation to know that although we cannot rid the world of entropy, we must continue to battle it in all of its painful forms knowing it won’t disappear, (unless there is a messiah, savior or final Buddha to usher in the Golden Age which will be without entropy) but that our efforts will help develop us as individuals, groups and cultures.

But it is little consolation to those of us witnessing the brutality of entropy in our personal lives.  It does not relieve the parent whose grown child has been maimed or killed in some unnecessary war.  It does not comfort those of us who see an elder loved one losing his ability to hear or see or walk or think or remember.  It is of little solace to a person whose 15, almost 16, year old dog drags his hind legs as he walks now and collapses unexpectedly.  Knowing that it is entropy, life’s planned obsolescence, that will force his lifelong companion to his final rest does not diminish the heartbreaking pain.

Life is brutal because of entropy without which there would be no life at all.