Why do some people need to ascribe human culpability to natural disasters?
Why do some people need to ascribe human culpability to natural disasters?For the same reason some people believe that free markets mean Evil Corporations will "get" Everything?
Well, Quasimar's not exactly human.
I heard he was once, though.
Before that weird lightning strike that seemed to come from the moon.
I believe that it's an effort to feel in control. Now, that may seem loopy because the person is changing something we can't control (tectonic plates) to something else they can't control (shadowy, evil, top secret conspiracies) but if humans did it there's some chance they can be exposed, removed, punished or (in the case of more benign stuff like globull warming) convinced to change their habits. Tectonic plates are hard to argue with and don't answer a court summons.
Plus, if one accepts that all these things happen because of natural forces, one has to accept that any day could be one's day to die, and that might involve thinking about icky things like salvation and repentance.
Lastly, there's a huge appeal to the ego when one has a chance top believe that they have it all figured out. Think about how the Truthers think we're all sheep who believe Bush's lies even after watching the evidence of an inside job on a video loop for countless hours. They think they have it figured out and we're all idiots...tell me that won't lead to feelings of superiority,and you get to have a martyr complex about the backlash, too.