Why are People Angry at God?
If you are religious, and if you have blamed God for the bad things which happened to you in your lifetime, you should know that there are many other people like you out there.
There are many people in the world who blame God for the things which happen in their life, according to an article written in the January issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. It is said that the reason why people blame God for their misfortunes is because they consider Him to be responsible for all the experiences which happen to them. Julie Exline, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University, and the lead researcher of the study, said that this does not mean that people start to hate God, or to turn their back on him. She said that people might feel angry at God for the things which happen in their life, but in the same time they still believe in Him, and they still love Him. She has conducted five different studies regarding the relationship of the people with God. In the first two studies, she asked undergraduate studies to remember about their negative experiences from their lives, and to remember the way in which they felt towards God when they had those experiences.
Some do not agree, and say that God has nothing to do with the bad things which happen in the lives of the people. They consider that blaming God for the bad things which happen in one’s life is similar to the way in which the ancient civilizations blamed their Gods for the things which happened to them. Those civilizations made sacrifices and honored their gods in order not to be punished by them. There still are many people nowadays who go to the church in order to please God, and to avoid suffering after death. The situation is very interesting, and lots of debates can be made about it. The atheists say that God does not exist because if He would exist, then He would not allow all these murders and atrocities to take place. All the religious people have something in common, and that is the fact that they believe in an after life, whatever that is. Some believe in hell and heaven, some believe in reincarnation, others believe in karma, and so on. The atheists do not believe in these things, and they believe that there is only one life; the one which we have here on this earth.
There was another study which asked people if they were ever angry at God. The last two studies asked the people who lost someone who they loved and the people with cancer if they ever blamed God for whatever happened to them. These people who participated to the studies were mostly Christians, but people of all traditions were included in the group. The survey which asked people if they were ever angry at God revealed the fact that 62 percent of them very angry at least once. The study revealed the fact that the people who were angrier at God were the young ones, the women, and the ones who had higher studies. The Jews and the Catholics were angrier at God than the Protestants were and the white people were angrier at Him than the black people were. It has been discovered that the older the people got, the less they blamed God for the things which happened to them. The same thing was noticed in the case of the people who suffered from cancer and the ones who lost a loved one. It has been discovered that all of these people had more positive feelings towards God than negative ones.
Probably the most surprising thing was the fact that the ones, who said that they do not believe in God, blamed Him for some of the things which happened to them. In fact, it has been discovered that there were cases when the atheists were angrier at God than the religious people who belonged to the same demographics. The atheists and the agnostics stated that they were often mad at God for the bad things which happened in their lifetime, back in the days when they were religious, but they admitted that they still blame Him for some of the things which happen to them. They stated that this might be a custom, as they might be used to the process. It seems that the reason why the agnostics and the atheists are angry at God is because they see him as an idea. They do not have the same concept regarding Him, as the religious people do. The religious people blame God, the one which is presented in the Bible, whereas the atheists blame an idea, a possible deity. The psychologists have stated that the reason why people blame God is because they see Him as a regular person. They blame Him for the bad things which happen in their life, and they often consider Him cruel.
They say that many of those people can not admit the fact that they might be the ones responsible for the things which have happened in their life, so they blame someone else for them. Since they can not blame a different person, they blame God. They say that the process is nothing but a passing of responsibility, and an avoidance of taking the blame for the things which they did. Of course, some of these things are not their fault. For example the death of a loved one is not the fault of the one who suffers. In this case people blame God because they feel the need to get rid of some of their negative emotions. Simply put it, the process of blaming God helps them coping with the tragedy much better. In most of the cases they stop blaming Him after a certain while, but there are also cases when they stop believing in Him. There are also many people who believe in Him even more and who love Him even more when they suffer because of a tragedy. There are many people who benefit a lot from the process of praying, from a psychological point of view. There are many people who resort to praying while they are going through difficult times, as they consider the process to be very calming. They feel that someone is listening to them, and it has been discovered that this is the most common in the case of the people who suffer from domestic violence.
They feel that when they have no one to talk to, God will listen to them. They consider the praying to be an experience similar to going to the psychologist. They feel that they can get things off their chest, and that they can tell God anything they feel. It has also been discovered that praying has helped some get rid of some negative effects. It has also been discovered that the religious people are happier than the atheists because they belong to a social group, and they do not feel lonely. They feel like a family and thanks to that they can get over things much better. Religion is a much debated topic, and the mention of God might make an atheist laugh. In the same time there are many people who seem to consider God responsible for many things that take place in their lives, not just the negative ones. It has been discovered that the majority of the Americans consider God to be involved in their daily activities, and that He helps them with all of the decisions which they take. They are convinced that God is interested in their happiness and well-being, and all the good things which happen to them, happens thanks to God. The interesting thing is the fact that the majority of these people, who consider God to be responsible for their happiness, do not blame him when they suffer.
Once again it has been discovered that the demographics and the other statuses are very important when it comes to this, as the more educated people and the ones who have higher income levels, consider that they are the ones responsible for their well-being, and not God. A survey revealed the fact that 82 percent of the people stated that God helps them with all their daily activities. 71 percent of the people stated that God does not get involved in all of their activities, but that He is responsible for the bad and good things which happen to them. They consider that they can not do anything about it, as everything belongs to God’s plan. 61 percent of the people have stated that God has a plan for them, and that their lives will develop according to this plan. 32 percent of the people have stated that they can not do anything about their lives, as God is the one who runs their lives. The cancer patients received extra attention from the researchers, as they wanted to see if their feelings towards God change over the course of time. It has been discovered that the angry towards God is increased when those people felt a higher mental distress. The higher the mental distress was, the higher the God towards God was. Once again, the reason why these people felt angry towards God was because it helped them deal with their emotions much better. However, the connection between the mental distress and the anger was not known, and Exline intends to find out why they are connected. She stated that if one experiences such feelings, he/she should not be alarmed by them as they are very common.
She said that anger is not bad, as we often get angry at various people for various reasons. However, she stated that there is a big difference between anger and grudge, and holding a grudge is not good for the health of the individual. The grudge has the ability of affecting one’s mental and physical health, and that can be a huge problem. Exline stated that she needs more information regarding the subject in order to be able to reach certain conclusions.
