What I meant was, God could prevent anything if he so chooses. He had the option to stop the Tsunami, and he chose not to.
2. In Christian Ethics, there is a difference between objectively undesirable events in the natural world, and the subjective "evil" of human action.
Yes. That's my point as well. Just because God says he wants to allow human free will, and that's the explanation for why people are evil, that tells us nothing about why He would allow natural disasters.
3. No one has said that it was, the point is moot.
No, it's necessary to establish even simple things when logically reasoning through something.
4. I believe you are using insurance company terminology, not quoting the Bible.
Come on, the Bible is full of stuff about mountains jumping like rams, etc. God even floods the whole Earth just to commit genocide.
5. God does not "permit" what exists, He is the cause of it coming into existence.
If He is aware of it, and He could prevent it, but chooses not to, then he's tacitly permitting it.
6&7. Are a straw men based on moot or spurious points in you line of reasoning. If the premise is flawed, so then the conclusion.
Alright, I'll re-phrase them:
6) so God gave tacit approval for the Tsunami to slaughter a quarter-million human beings
7) a loving God would not allow so many people to be slaughtered for no good reason
8) There was no good reason for the slaughter (unless you think God is going back to his genocidal history... those were his Glory Days, ya know)
Just got up and have to go to work...look for response later tonight!