| > There is also this commonly held notion that if you "live right" One of humanity's greatest questions is "Why do bad things happen to good people?" The inconvenient truth, of course, is that the universe is cold and uncaring, and random chance and statistics means that bad things will happen. But we humans hate that answer. We crave structure, patterns, cause and effect, order. Why did flooding destroy a city? You must have angered the gods with your sinful ways! There we go. Cause and effect. Peace of mind. Rules have been created. The universe makes sense again. Why do young people get cancer? They ate the wrong food! They didn't exercise enough! They didn't fight the cancer! They did this, they didn't that. Cause and effect. They broke the rules. And as long as I don't break the rules, bad things will not happen to me. I will never anger the gods, eat the wrong food, or forget to exercise, and those who do, they're immoral and deserve the bad things that happen to them! And that is why this is a morality play. |