They say that the good die young. Does longevity come from misbehaving?

It’s a saying that people use. Maybe we dont get to die and go to heaven until we have completed a certain amount of good deeds. A friend of mine died in a car crash when he was 15. Maybe he did enough in his 15 years to get in so he was taken. That could be how it works.

Another point of view is that your friend was getting closer to admission into heaven through his good work and conduct in successive previous incarnations, and needed just those few years to get him fully qualified for entry. 

It is also said that once a person qualifies for entry before "his time is up" s/he is put into a coma to prevent them from ruining their chances during that intervening period by some deliberate or inadvertent misdeed.

Ha! Ha! Those a great perspectives.
I wonder how we could get the points of view for every kind of faith...

You could be right. The mystery of life is incredible really

I'm sorry your friend died in a crash, and I'm sorry for the grief you must have suffered.

You've asked a profound and serious question.

I wonder if it comes from lingering grief.

Or from the kind of crisis of faith that asks, "Why him? He was so good? Why did he have to die so young? Surely, he didn't deserve it!"

On this site people love funny answers, as it should because it's mostly about socializing and having fun.

But I want to answer the serious aspect of your question.


"Good" means obeying the rules.
People can often get away with bending or breaking the rules if they're not caught - but that does not mean no consequences.
The more often the rules are broken, the greater the likelihood that the cumulative effects or chance will catch up.

For Christians, "good" means obeying the 10 commandments, the two golden rules, and the laws of the land,
('Give unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar's).
The secular laws are designed to minimize risk and save lives.
A good driver doesn't break the road laws.

At the risk of being undiplomatic, your friend's accidental death fits my point. 
All fifteen-year-olds know why it's illegal to drive at that age.
Your friend probably wasn't a bad kid - probably just impulsive and bent on having a bit of fun -
but even that much bending of the rules has a high likelihood of being lethal.

I can promise you that if you look up the USA's government statistics on causes and ages of death,
you will find clear trends - violence is a major cause of premature death, as is obesity.
In fact, the majority of early deaths can be traced to some form of behavioral cause.


Don't read this if you hate sermons.
Think of the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. 
How does a simple emotion lead to an early death and/or hell?

If any of these are harbored within us, they are soon habitually expressed in speech and behavior.
They inevitably have destructive effects on the person who harbors them, and for others around them.
And at their worst, they can lead to an earlier death.

Pride - over-identification with the ego - when interpreting something as an insult the person over-reacts with anger - in the case of a sociopath, he can commit murder because of an insult. If he's in a state which has the death penalty, he dies of his pride. Or he may die when the other defends himself. 

Greed - acquiring wealth at the expense of others creates poverty for many, and poverty causes earlier deaths. One day, the social backlash is inevitable - eg the French Revolution, the American Civil war against slavery. The aristocrats lose their heads. It won't happen to all everywhere, but history shows it does happen when and how least expected.
Greed eats away on the inside and has slow, pernicious effects. It isolates the greedy from others via the need to hoard and guard, which leads to lack of trust, loneliness, and dissatisfaction. It is its own kind of hell.

Lust - We have a strain of Syphilis, Vietnam Rose, which won't respond to any antibiotic. Gonorrhea and Chlamydia make people infertile. And women who conceive unwanted babies will often choose abortion. This may not be a sin to some, but it is to others. And we've all heard the stories of how romance/sex addicts kill or commit suicide when they lose or fear the loss the object of their obsession - psychologists have done numerous studies of the crimes.

Gluttony - obesity is now the leading cause of early deaths in all western countries. 

Wrath - causes harm done to others, all the way up to murder.
And the wrathful person may incur the wrath another and be murdered because of it - consider the battered wife syndrome.
Consider gang warfare and the lives of drug lords and their lackeys.

Sloth - basically the same as gluttony, obesity and early death. Unwillingness to work or lend a hand has long-term consequences, such as no money to afford medical care.

What is not included in this list of sins is a word for lack-of-forbearance.
The person who buries him or herself in addictions is trying to medicate some form of pain that they are not willing to tolerate.
Sometimes there is a real physical cause but in the majority of cases, it is the unwillingness to face and learn from emotional pain.
Alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs are leading casues of early deaths.

I hate that this has turned into a lecture on good versus sin.

But I wanted to show that if we really think about things, the reason why "good" is good soon becomes apparent.

That which is good is that which nurtures the well-being of life.

Religions codify this basic principle in different ways so that people can live together healthily and successfully.

In some parts of the world, over 90% of babies die in their first year, and they certainly cannot be evil -
they just have the terrible misfortune of being born near drought and starvation, war, Cholera, Ebola or some other tragic circumstance -
and their goodness or otherwise has no bearing on their death.

Misfortune can happen to anyone, irrespective of their relative goodness,
so goodness is no guarantee of longevity - but it does drastically increase the probability of a long and successful life.

I don't doubt that "the good die young" is a saying somewhere.

I've just never heard it before, even on T.V. or in films, and I'm 61.

So I wonder: who says it, where, why, and what do they mean?



This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at June 6, 2018 5:25 AM MDT

Thanks for taking the time to answer. I enjoyed reading that. I’m surprised you haven’t heard the saying before. It’s mostly used to make mourners feel better. There  was an old film called that too. You’re probably right, being good is better way to live

Thanks, very much.
I felt I was taking a risk writing it.
I look forward to getting to know you better via your posts. 

Writting anything is always risky. People misinterpret all the time. Taking risks makes the reward even sweeter. I look forward to getting to know you too, and thanks again for taking the time to reply

:)

It is human to want to glorify the life of someone who meant a lot to us.  And a way we deal with the pain of the loss.  But when we start claiming that it was somehow God's work then we are on shaky ground.  No way of knowing that.  God could have just as well have wanted him to live and enjoy life.  Everything that happens is not only God's doing.  We have free will.  Which we characteristically use to protect us from the hurt we feel.