GOOD OR BAD

Dear Cyber Rav,

I find myself avoiding television news programs and newspapers because the news is so bad. What is wrong with this world? The killing, the murders, the theft, the fraud, a crumbling economy because of the greed of mankind� If God created such a perfect world, then why is it so horrible?

Disappointed in God�s Creation

 

Dear Disappointed,

I don’t believe everything I read in the newspapers, and although we buy newspapers that print all the news that’s fit to print, sometimes I think that newspapers only print the news that fits, and everything else gets tossed.

Is the world really as terrible as you say it is?  Without denying the existence of evil, and those who perpetrate it, if you look in the right places, you’ll find tremendous good in this world.  You’ll find people helping the vulnerable, engaging in philanthropy, volunteering their time and talents to the community, counseling those who are lost, and trying to do the right thing.  Why don’t we hear about these people?  Maybe because we foolishly depend on the media for our portrait of the world.  But the media isn’t going to portray the world as it is, but only compile the aberrations that would pique our interest.   War, rape, theft and epidemics will sooner sell than girl scouts selling cookies, millions of people enjoying good health, children honoring parents, and families attending church or synagogue together.  I don’t fault the media for focusing on evil—after all, they have to succeed and success is a matter of sales and so the news they print is the news that sells.  On the other hand, we should all take care to not depend on the media for our understanding of what the world is actually like.  That’s just plain foolish.

So, my friend, cheer up.  There are millions of people who go to work each day, fulfill their responsibilities, take time out to say a kind word to another, share their talents with others, shudder and the telling of a lie, and so forth.  I think they deserve a little credit.  To dismiss their actions as insignificant, deny them the credit they deserve or remove them from the portrait of what this world is really like, is itself dishonest.  Let’s be sure to not commit the very crime that we condemn the rest of the world for committing.  There’s plenty of evil in this world, but there’s plenty of good as well.  Our God urges us to forever work toward creating greater good than evil and thus become partners with Him in creating and recreating this beautiful world that He began.

The Cyber Rav