God is Flooding Kentucky because the People are Evil?

[Diogenes]

Assigning moral blame for natural disasters is becoming a sort of time-honored custom in some circles of Christian fundamentalism. That's why when Pat Robertson claimed that the earthquake in Haiti was caused by its people's "pact with the devil," few were surprised. Robertson and other evangelical ministers have pinned a number of tragic, large-scale disasters on the victims.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ ... ms/341489/

Many Christian preachers claimed AIDS was God's punishment of homosexual behavior.
'...televangelist Jerry Falwell said 9/11 occurred because of pagans, abortionists, feminists, "the gays and the lesbians" and the ACLU.'
"Gay people to blame for Hurricane Harvey, say evangelical Christian leaders"
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 33026.html
Many natural disasters occur in the Bible Belt. The latest example is the horrific flooding in rural Eastern Kentucky, the heart of the Bible Belt.
Questions:
Does God hate Christians?
To be consistent and honest, shouldn't these same TV evangelists blame the people of Kentucky and other parts of the Bible Belt for invoking 'God's Wrath?'
Or are these Christian leaders just another example of a faulty 'Christian' belief system, hypocrisy, or worse?

[Tcg]

[Replying to Diogenes in post #1]
Farwell and Robertson are outliers the Christian faith. Yes, they have a devout and sizable following, but their movements makes up a miniscule percentage of the total number of Christians in the world. I’m sure they can justify their take on the recent flooding within their belief system, but it is a belief system that is rejected by most Christians.

In a certain sense every Christian could be considered an outlier in the Christian faith. It'd be hard to find even a handful who believe the same thing. More importantly, your reply doesn't address the O.P. in any way. Here are the questions for debate:

Does God hate Christians?
To be consistent and honest, shouldn't these same TV evangelists blame the people of Kentucky and other parts of the Bible Belt for invoking 'God's Wrath?'
Or are these Christian leaders just another example of a faulty 'Christian' belief system, hypocrisy, or worse?

Your reply leaves all three unanswered.


Tcg

[Diagoras]

[Replying to Diogenes in post #1]

Many natural disasters occur in the Bible Belt.

Trying to be scrupulously fair, this could be challenged as ‘poisoning the well’ a bit, since you are ascribing a natural cause to disasters which could (in some people’s eyes) be due to some god or supernatural entity.

Deciding afterwards on the reasons why such and such a flood happened or not, and why this or that person drowned - or ‘miraculously’ avoided drowning - is always going to be on a logically unsound basis, as it’s a classic case of a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

[JoeyKnothead]

Lets just leave this here.

It's kinda funny how natural disasters that hurt the "others" are God's will, but when they hurt the religious proponent, it's Satan a-doing it.

[Diogenes]

[Replying to Diogenes in post #1]

Many natural disasters occur in the Bible Belt.

Trying to be scrupulously fair, this could be challenged as ‘poisoning the well’ a bit, since you are ascribing a natural cause to disasters which could (in some people’s eyes) be due to some god or supernatural entity.

Deciding afterwards on the reasons why such and such a flood happened or not, and why this or that person drowned - or ‘miraculously’ avoided drowning - is always going to be on a logically unsound basis, as it’s a classic case of a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

Thank you for the clarification. It took me a moment, but I realize that if the sentence you quote is looked at without reference to the rest of the OP, some could conclude the OP was claiming "There are more natural disasters in the 'Bible Belt' than in other regions. This was not the intent of the OP.

I am aware of no data that suggests anything of the sort. I did not intend the implication your inference suggests. The OP is focused on the claim of a subset of evangelicals who infamously claim natural disasters are caused by God's wrath against people who disobey 'his' commandments.

However, your question raises an interesting hypothesis I hadn't thought of. If God does indeed punish those who violate 'his' laws, should we not expect fewer natural disasters in regions where more people follow 'his' will?

[The Nice Centurion]

However, your question raises an interesting hypothesis I hadn't thought of. If God does indeed punish those who violate 'his' laws, should we not expect fewer natural disasters in regions where more people follow 'his' will?

This is true, and Bible Belt evangelicals will have to explain themselves!

I mean, when was the last time a natural disaster struck Utah or the Vatican or at the very least the Statue of Baphomet at Salem Massachusetts ?