Why do bad things happen?

Taking a look around the world, sometimes I wonder why bad things happen to good people. I haven't found the answer yet but over the years I have been told various reasons.

"It is pure chance", a friend who excels in science told me.
"Bad things sometimes happen for the greater good", a friend major in history said thoughtfully.
"It is a test, to see if we are worthy", this one came to me on a Sunday morning.
"We are responsible for our actions and its results, if bad things happen to us, it is because of what we did", a tough girl told me that once.

I don't know - but now I tried to step back and see this issue from a bigger point of view, nature's point of view. Did the 4-legged mammal I ate for lunch yesterday ever wonder why good cow are killed to be fed? Why do bad things happen to good cows? Putting it this way, it might seem absurd and funny. They are cows. We eat them.

The cows didn't have an answer to that question, and neither did I. At least, I hope the cows didn't have an answer, or else we would have ate the answer so many of us are searching for - which would be ironic.

Sometimes a small voice in my head wonders maybe the original assumption is wrong, "maybe bad things don't happen to good people - maybe bad things happen to bad people. It is just that we are all bad people." I bet if we can ask the cows that are about to be killed, he would say it is not fair that his life ends this way. I bet he thinks we are murderers and maybe even claim genocide....which is non-sense of course, we will never kill his kind off. Where would we get the beef otherwise?

The point is, the cows I ate yesterday can rightly claim I am a bad person. I wouldn't argue against that. I know I would tell anyone who tries to eat me a bad person, no doubt about it.

So what can I tell the cows? Why are bad things happening to him?

"It is pure chance",
"Bad things sometimes happen for the greater good",
"It is a test, to see if we are worthy",
"We are responsible for our actions and its results, if bad things happen to us, it is because of what we did".

none of those 4 things seem to do justice, I have no answer for him. I don't know about you, faithful readers of this strange blog. But if the answer is not even good enough for the cow, it is not good enough for me.

I almost want to say. "you are meat because you are a bad cow, you ate grass - wonderful green grass that would otherwise go on living." That sounds odd too.

At the end of this train of thoughts, I am left with the same question. "Why do bad things happen to good people?"

[Thoughts]