It is one of the oldest, most profound questions, posed by some of the most learned minds of every faith throughout the course of human history.
It was put eloquently this week by an old woman in a devastated village in southern India's Tamil Nadu state. "Why did you do this to us, God?" she wailed. "What did we do to upset you?" Perhaps no event in living memory has confronted so many of the world's great religions with such a basic test of faith as this week's tsunami, which indiscriminately slaughtered Indonesian Muslims, Indian Hindus, Thai and Sri Lankan Buddhists and tourists who were Christians and Jews.
What was the role of god and the asian earthquake disaster?
How could a benevolent god visit such horror on ordinary people?
Was the disaster an "expression of God's great ire with the world"?
Sorry, but I find it very hard to accept that morality means that whatever God says goes. An independent standard makes much much more sense.
Read this article:
Two years and a half after the events, here is my opinion. Nobody mentioned the usual phrase "God is testing us". What is He testing? Our ability to learn from our mistakes. Even though He could (theoretically) stop the catastrophe, He wants us to get smart. I do not know what causes earthquakes, maybe just tectonic shifts.
Maybe God is telling us: it may be that the seaside is pretty but you might get hurt - stay away. Maybe He is telling us "you guys watch out how you behave with the environment, it's going to strike back". Yes, lately I became an environmentalist - I do care about the future of our planet because I have children, and I want my children to have children and their children to have children and so forth, and I want them all happy. I want life on our planet, happy life - sustainable - making sure we do not destroy all our resources... all that said...
I heard this saying "God helps those who help themselves". We people should be smart and make the right choices. Now the question becomes, "Am I going to be afraid of a tsunami and stay away from seaside?" If I am to belive that God will take care of me I would take the fatalistic attitude, "if He is to strike, He will, no matter how hard I try to hide". I do belive in God, but I also know I have to take care of myself and not bother Him too much. So I guess what I am saying here is yes, stay away from seaside.
Maybe we just have to learn more about our planet, science is not fully developed. Hopefully we will learn enough about our planet so we can find out in time about a catastrophe that is about to happen and inform all the involved people in time so they can flee and be safe.
I have noted a general whine coming from many posts here and thought I'd throw in a thank God for putting me neck deep in it. I just hope that this is not my coffee break.
Micromanaging things for us would kill our free will.
