Religious Leaders Strive to Explain Tsunami

[E_Powers]

"You knew this was a tsunami-prone area, and yet you built houses and developments and hotels and recreational areas along the shore. What exactly were you thinking when you built all of this by a seashore knowing a tsunami could happen? I gave you people brains, intelligence and common sense: I expect you to use them!"

the problem is the coastal areas are the best places for humans to live. and a majority of us do live near the coasts of the world. the problem lies in that a Tsunamiu can hit any coastline

 

[UberLutheran]

my ferverant belief is not that god does not cause disasters but he does remove his protective hand.

explain with science how a church chior whose members are hardly ever late all find them selves late to chior practice. the very day their church blows up from a gass leak and all arive at the same time to find nobody paraished?

I know it rains on saints and sinners alike.

I also know that the houses of conservative Christians and non-believers alike were destroyed when four major hurricanes hit Florida.

I don't go around asking why God did this or whyGod did that, or why God removed His protective hand -- first, because God may not have had anything to do with a gas leak, or an earthquake, or a hurricane; second, because asking "Why?" and a dollar will get me a cup of coffee (but probably no definite answers); third, because I find the Work of God occurring not in "Why" questions but in "So that..." answers.

 

[UberLutheran]

the problem is the coastal areas are the best places for humans to live. and a majority of us do live near the coasts of the world. the problem lies in that a Tsunamiu can hit any coastline

...or hurricane prone areas, or tornado prone areas -- and tsunamis and hurricanes and tornadoes DO occur (and then we ask God why a tsunami or a hurricane or a tornado happened).

We pay our money -- we take our chances.

 

[E_Powers]

I know it rains on saints and sinners alike.

I also know that the houses of conservative Christians and non-believers alike were destroyed when four major hurricanes hit Florida.

I don't go around asking why God did this or whyGod did that, or why God removed His protective hand -- first, because God may not have had anything to do with a gas leak, or an earthquake, or a hurricane; second, because asking "Why?" and a dollar will get me a cup of coffee (but probably no definite answers); third, because I find the Work of God occurring not in "Why" questions but in "So that..." answers.

it just goes to show you you enter this world with nothing and you exit with nothing. save for one thing a good or a bad relationship with god and the people around you and

i am not the one saying god had any thing to do with the cause of the quake that resulted in the the tragic loss.

 

[setzie]

a warning system would've been a waste of money. The last time a tsunami happened in the Indian Ocean was in the mid-1500's. Most of that region can't afford to spend millions warning about something that happens once in a millennium. And Sumatra, Malaysia and the tip of Thailand are so narrow that everything's near the ocean.

Trying to explain whether or why God did or allowed this is like trying to explain the same thing to a parent who has lost a child: useless and rude.

It's not always the best idea to weigh money and lives.

 

[jameseb]

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[John16:2]

Faiths ask 'Why God?'

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&ncid=570&e=2&u=/nm/20041230/sc_nm/quake_religion_dc

Why is a loaded question. Perhaps it's because corruption rules the govs of the world, with their diplomatic immunity from prosecution, or national security protections. Perhaps it's because organized crime gangs have free reign in the world, or because the "synagogue of Satan"-Freemasonry are the "rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in HIGH PLACES"-Ephesians 6:12. "upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; THE SEA AND WAVES ROARING"-Luke 21:25

 

[USincognito]

Sometimes things happen.

You got into a car wreck because the other guy had been drinking or was on his cell phone. Not because your guardian angel was slacking off.
Your house burned down because of a fault in the wiring, not as some punishment.
The earthquake victim in Malaysia died when her house collapsed on her due to the tremblor, not because of Kismet.
The drowning vicitm in Sri Lanka was killed by a tsunami generated by an undersea earthquake, not for cosmic Karmic reasons.
My father died of lung cancer because he smoked for 50 years, not because he and his congregation didn't pray hard enough.

Tectonic activity, faulty wiring, drunk drivers and smoking are just facts of life in this world and sometimes they will result in death or destruction.

 

[D. Scarlatti]

Religious leaders? Wouldn't you ask a geologist or an oceanographer?

 

[jameseb]

Religious leaders? Wouldn't you ask a geologist or an oceanographer?

You'll simply have to forgive some of us for being religious... after all, it is a Christian site. Having said that, I don't believe it was an act of God. How we live our lives, what we do in the time we are given is more important to Him than when and how we die.

 

[night2day]

"You knew this was a tsunami-prone area, and yet you built houses and developments and hotels and recreational areas along the shore. What exactly were you thinking when you built all of this by a seashore knowing a tsunami could happen? I gave you people brains, intelligence and common sense: I expect you to use them!"

Well, regardless of just where one lives on this Earth there will always be a natural threat of some kind to contend with.

 

[Rochir]

God had nothing to do with this.... and he will be with those who now suffer and have lost loved ones!

 

[ClaireZ]

Religious leaders? Wouldn't you ask a geologist or an oceanographer?

You would if you wanted the natural explanation. However, if you were seeking a philosophical reason, a religious leader, one who might give comfort would be a good choice.

Somehow I feel like those closest to what happened are looking more at the moral implications, and what this shows of the nature of God, and our place in the universe as human beings to be the more interesting question at this moment.

The Problem of Suffering, and the Problem of Evil are both problems that people have been trying to address for centuries. Your worldview, the extent of your questioning and your comfort level, all have a huge bearing on the answer you arrive at.

Personally, for myself, there is no answer that I can arrive at, that is answer enough for the evils that occur. The best I can do is to try to help those who suffer to the best of my ablility.

(Btw, I am very glad we do have scientists and others who do work on the natural causes of disasters such as this, and ways to possibly lessen the amount of human suffering, and ecological damage that they cause.)

 

[rahma]

God had nothing to do with this.... and he will be with those who now suffer and have lost loved ones!

For some reason, this just doesn't sit with me. God had to have had something to do with this. He allowed it to happen, didn't He? If he was simply absent, I find that much more disturbing then Him allowing it to happen.

 

[E_Powers]

Religious leaders? Wouldn't you ask a geologist or an oceanographer?

he created you, me the sun and the stars, the moon and the earth, regeardless how and howlon he did it in god knew how the events will unfold since he said let there be light. he knew adam and eve would be kicked out of the garden before they were made.


the question should not be if god had a hand in the disaster or if he lifted his protection. the question is how should we learn from the disaster both spiritually and phyisically. if we do nothing, we dishonor God and the victims and if we do not seek god we dishonor him. but in doing just that god will protect us either directly or imparting wisdom to protect ourselves.

 

[BobbieDog]

For some reason, this just doesn't sit with me. God had to have had something to do with this. He allowed it to happen, didn't He? If he was simply absent, I find that much more disturbing then Him allowing it to happen.

God resides in us. God is tool and resource of our human project. We can still what in us is taken by the world project; through God, through this self crafted tool.

When we so still ourselves: then might we hear the voice of God, feel the breath of God, be in living waters that are of God; but none of what we would there understand, and strive to take away, would ever be anything other than message.

The message is always, and never more than: that we should strive to return to where we might hear the voice of God; the voice of Allah.

How can such God ever be absent?

God is present in how we have in past contributed to the circumstance in which the people affected found themselves: something vast, spanning centuries; as well as dealing with the most modern elements of how we live.

God is present in how prepared we were to respond. God is present in how we do respond. God is present in the questions we ask ourselves about what this all signified.

God is present, perhaps only to chide, in the wars that we fight: the wars that so affect what was the circumstances of some who suffered; that so qualifies how we respond.

 

[InnerPhyre]

For some reason, this just doesn't sit with me. God had to have had something to do with this. He allowed it to happen, didn't He? If he was simply absent, I find that much more disturbing then Him allowing it to happen.

Agreed. All that happens happens with God's permission.

 

[BobbieDog]

Agreed. All that happens happens with God's permission.

I wonder.

I wonder if the understanding you so clearly and usefully express: does not, in truth, begin to attach the Caesar project to God; where I would remain more spiritually comfortable with the status that Jesus seemed to be giving to God.

The inheritance that Jesus seemed to be promising the meek and poor, seemed to pivot in the human heart.

Jesus did seem to be saying: take back the heaven and earth you have given yourself, that sees you rich in earthly possession and power, yet unable to enter that heaven; and re-deem that heaven and earth, in a renewal of them in a God informed pure heart, of neighbour loving.

The power that God wields for us, is the power of and over faith: and in the exercise of that power, mountains yield; to be displaced by vistas of the infinite forgiveness that is God.

The things of nature can be tracked by what we have in God: but perhaps it is a mistake of focus, to imagine that God has some control over such events; or that our cleaving to God might see any intercession in them by God.

 

[Im_a_theist]

If god is both omnipotent and omniscient, then not only does he create everything but understand the ramification of every aspect of his "creation" as it were before he even creates it. Even if You do see yourself with free will,he created you to want what you do. Thus meaning that every action is direct effect of god's will. So you must ask yourself why this god would want all of these people to die. BTW, a tsunami is a very rare occurance so moving away from a coast because of them would be unlogical

 

[rahma]

So you must ask yourself why this god would want all of these people to die.

Allahu Alem, only God knows. However, as I stated earlier, God tests humanity from time to time. How we react in the face of this tragedy shows God how we are as a human race.