Tsunamis are not the wrath of God

Tsunamis are not the wrath of God Paul Stenhouse, M.S.C., Ph.D. January 04, 2005

THE world is still reeling from the tsunami in the Indian Ocean that caused such loss of life and devastation on Boxing Day.

Numbness, disbelief and outrage at our powerlessness, our inability to warn the victims, or to save them, is a common reaction. As is, at times, a desire to blame someone, usually God; or at least to question his wisdom and knowledge in permitting such tragedies to occur, and to seek an explanation for what has happened.

Grief at the extent of the devastation caused by the earthquake and its tsunami, and the desire to come to grips with it in human terms have been overshadowed by comments by Sydney's Anglican dean, Phillip Jensen, who reportedly said that "disasters are part of his warning that judgment is coming", and the chief executive of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Amjad Mehboob, who reportedly said that it could not have happened unless it was God's will.

Sydney's Catholic dean, Neil Brown, differed from this view, as did Rabbi Apple of the Great Synagogue and the president of the Hindu Council of Australia, Appupillay Bala.

Christianity does not teach that God causes natural disasters; nor does it teach that God causes them in order to punish the wickedness of the victims. If Jensen meant this, he would be seriously at odds with Christian tradition.

The earthquake and tsunami do, nevertheless, raise important questions that deserve answers, as the Archbishop of Canterbury is reported as saying.

As someone who has seen more than his fair share of human suffering around the world, I can sympathise with the halting attempts people make to articulate their feelings at a moment like this: when we stand appalled and seemingly helpless before inexorable destruction and death.

Yet, for all its horror, the suffering caused by natural disasters is not comparable to the suffering that human beings inflict on one another.

Like many others I was shocked at the photo printed in British journals some years back of a 16-year-old boy from an unnamed country whose eyes had been burned out of his head with cigars and whose tongue had been ripped out with pliers. Amnesty International was much criticised for the advertisement, but it told the truth. The police had done nothing about the atrocity because they knew who did it. And apparently approved. Questions needed to be asked, and answers found.

The untold millions who died in the 20th century in wars deserve to have their deaths and their suffering taken seriously; and for the lessons to be learned.

Woolly one-liners that implied that God was indifferent to human suffering were given eager media attention in the wake of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart tragedy ["Where was God when the yachts were sinking?"] but, for all their facile topicality, they are smokescreens that lead to an ever deeper introversion and narrowness of mind. In shutting a transcendent God completely out of the picture, such pundits consign the human spirit to a hopelessness from which there is no escape.

The problem of suffering and evil is as old as mankind. Christians believe that God is all-loving and that his compassion and love reach out to all, especially to the most helpless and abandoned. As Isaiah the Hebrew prophet reminds us, God's ways are not our ways; nor are his thoughts our thoughts. This is not a cop-out, but an admission that confronted by suffering we are in the realm of mystery.

THE French existentialist philosopher Gabriel Marcel noted that the mysteries of suffering and evil are often used as arguments against the existence of a loving God. However, more people, he says, are turned towards God by suffering than away from him.

He also comments for the benefit of those of us who live in the so-called First World, that if there is one single conclusion forced on us by the history of mankind, it is that the growth of faith in God is not hindered by misfortune and suffering, but by satisfaction.

Pope John Paul II comforted the victims of the tsunami by assuring them that God had not abandoned them and added: "I am close to you all with my love and prayers, especially to the injured and the homeless, while I entrust to the divine mercy of God the countless number of people who lost their lives."

As I write this, world leaders are pledging almost $3 billion in aid for the survivors of the devastation caused by the tsunami; countries and regions are setting aside their differences and co-operating for the good of those who are suffering; the UN Secretary-General assures us that the UN is in there "for the long term".

Am I deceiving myself when I see the hand of God in this long overdue rapprochement?

Paul Stenhouse is a Catholic priest and journalist who edits the Catholic journal Annals Australasia.

The author obviously hasn't read about Noah's flood, Sodom's destruction, or the judgments in Revelation. This is a good example of why there will be no repentance during the Great Tribulation.

Why "obviously"?

What is the "good example" for which "there will be no repentence..." - the author's alleged lack of knowledge, or the actual disasters? It appears that you mean the latter - but, I am not quite sure!

In any event, I can assure you both the Fr. Paul Stenhouse, M.S.C., Ph.D. is well aware of the contents of the Bible. Please refer to Annals Australasia un-Official Home Page for evidence of this claim.

As to whether the current tsunami is evidence or not for the warning or punishment of the sinful (?) inhabitants of Indonesia, Thailand, India, Somalia, etc. - I will not make a judgement on that. If THEY are deserving of God's wrath in this natural disaster scenario - why didn't America cop a dose?

The truth is, I suggest, that the events to which you refer (the flood, sodom's destruction, etc.) are examples (not of God using "natural disasters) but God using His creations in a "supernatural" manner. He did, after all, convey His displeasure to the sinful people PRIOR to the flood and to the destruction of Sodom, did He not?

Tsunamis and earthquakes are "natural" to the fault lines on earth. God created the world - and thought that it was "good." People take their chances, do they not, when they choose to live in, what may be called, dangerous regions.

Do you remember:

1884, 27 Aug. Krakatoa in the Sunda Straits erupted with extraordinary force in what is believed to be the most violent volcanic eruption since the bronze age eruption of Thera almost 3,500 years ago. 36,000 people lost their lives in the seismic wave generated by the eruption.

1903, A typhoid epidemic in New York is traced to Mary Mellon (“Typhoid Mary”), who carries the disease but is not a victim of it; she spreads the disease by taking jobs handling food and refuses to stop. She will be confined from 1915 until her death in 1938.

1906, 18 Apr. The san Francisco earthquake at 5.13 am: two-thirds of the city is destroyed and 2,500 are killed.

1908, 28 Dec. Sicily is shaken by the most severe earthquake known in historic times: 75,000 people are killed in and near the town of Messina.

1912. Mt. Katmai in Alaska erupts violently burying Kodiak Island 161 km/100 miles away in the Aleutians beneath 1 metre/3 feet of ash.

1918. The worst pandemic to afflict the human race, with the exception of the Black Death, sweeps across Asia, Europe and North America; the so-called Spanish Influenza originates in China and kills 21,640,000 people, over 1 per cent of the world’s population.

1923, 1 Sept. The Great Kanto earthquake in Japan. The earthquake and ensuing fires destroy Tokyo and Yokohama, killing 100,000, injuring 752,000 and destroying more than 80,000 houses.

Source: “The Concise Encyclopedia of World History.”

And:

30 June 1908, a comet fragment approximately 0.05 miles in diameter entered the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded in the air above the Tunguska Valley in Siberia, Russia. The force of the explosion (approximately 10-15 megatons of TNT) knocked down millions of trees within an area of 1000 square miles.15 This comet fragment was probably a remnant of the comet Encke.

On the basis that ALL “natural disasters” are “warnings” or “punishments” from God – are we to believe that “Ooops!God missed” the target in Tunguska: if it had hit 15 seconds earlier, it would have wiped-out Tokyo!

for “natural disasters” - isn’t mankind the greatest “natural disaster” ever...? Wars, murders, crime, abortions (think of the numbers in America and China alone!)… the list goes on. Are we, ourselves, God’s warning and/or punishment?

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