theophiles.org - Disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan prompt questions of faith

Disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan prompt questions of faith

Written by holmegm

Thursday, 24 March 2011 11:14

From the LA Times:

If there is a God, and if He (for the sake of convention) is all-powerful, what in God's name was He thinking?

This is perhaps the oldest of theological questions — the one that may, in fact, explain the nearly universal human yearning for faith, what evolutionary psychologist Jesse Bering calls "the belief instinct." How can we explain the inexplicable? How can we make sense of suffering?

Comments

PerpetualAgnostic - Is evolutionary pyschology a complete crock?

|2011-03-24 18:21:01

Is it just me, or does evolutionary psychology seem like a complete load of BS?

Every time I hear one of these people interviewed, they're espousing theories about how some long-ago evolutionary pressure may have led to current human psychology.

But their theories always sound to me like so insanely speculative as to be useless at best. They seem to make assumptions about what life was like for the majority of people over tens of thousands of years, and then make a huge additional set of assumptions about how that leads to current human psychology.

I can't see how their theories could ever be refuted or validated, or why we should care even if they were.

My overwhelming impression is that there's a broad project in academia to form a complete mythology of human origin in Darwinian terms, even if some aspects of it (like evolutionary psychology) are so far from science that they don't belong anywhere near a publicly funded institution, let alone one that takes science seriously.

Am I missing something?

patronpeter

|2011-03-27 15:45:47

I have to agree a little. It's hard to compare many principles of science to a faith-based question like, "Why does God do this?" Besides, why are we blaming a god anyway, these are natural disasters, they happen, how can anyone, omnipresent or not, be blamed for their occurrence. By the way bma, good response.

emperorbma

|2011-03-25 00:44:14

TFA wrote:

If there is a God, and if He (for the sake of convention) is all-powerful, what in God's name was He thinking?

1. His thoughts are not our thoughts. (cf Isaiah 55:8)
2. He created and is maintaining the forces of nature that are necessary to sustain all things the way that they should be. (i.e. the same forces [plate tectonics] that caused the earthquakes are a part of God's design for the earth and are, demonstrably, necessary for life on earth...)
3. It probably has nothing to do with a special judgment against Japan. They are certainly not any more or less sinful than anyone else. (cf. Luke 13:1-5)
4. We can and should study His Word and seek understanding from His Spirit.
5. There is, in fact, an overarching message behind everything that happens: "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15)

In that vein, we see the overarching message in Isaiah 55, because it also says "let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon." Indeed, it is also in Luke 13:1-5 where Jesus says "but unless you repent, you too will all perish."

The theme is simple. We may not comprehend the reason God has the particular forces of nature acting in the way He does, but we do know that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

PerpetualAgnostic - Could be argued as result of sin

|2011-03-25 07:18:58

I think this is one of those cases where "natural evil" is more appropriately chalked up to the fruits of human foolishness and greed.

The Japanese government knew they were low-balling the earthquake risk to give the power company an easy time of it. The power company intentionally covered up their use of a damaged reactor vessel. The Japanese people collectively chose to build their houses and buildings and roads as they did, despite knowing that tsunamis happen, and on rare occasions huge ones happen.

I can see asking "where was God?" after out-of-the-blue natural disasters, but not in this case.

emperorbma

|2011-03-25 10:56:43

Well, I would actually agree more with the general effects of living in a world warped by sin than I would specific individual acts in this case based on what I know. First of all, nowhere on earth is completely safe from the possibility of a disaster. No matter where anyone lives, there is going to be a calculated risk from from floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, typhoons, meteors, Gamma Ray Bursts, &c.

For what it's worth, Japan actually fared far better than the Indian Ocean did in 2004, (Comparison based on magnitude of the earthquake) even considering the fact that it has major metropolitan cities within 200 miles of the epicenter where the worst effects of an earthquake could be expected. It is far from the worst case scenario, despite still being a major disaster, and I think that evidence suggests that Japan was far better equipped for the scenario.

As far as the nuclear aspect is concerned, I think it is a hard case to suggest that they should have been better prepared than they were. Obviously the contingencies were insufficient in hindsight, but could they have known that the water pumps would have failed given that they have rode out other earthquakes for at least 40 years with the same strategy? The disaster here is rather unprecedented and as far as I am aware no nuclear plant has ever been designed with a 9.0 scale earthquake and subsequent tsunami in mind. It actually would have survived the earthquake had it not been for the effect of the tsunami cutting off the pumps suggesting that, for the most part, it scaled quite reasonably to the task.

Even if this risk had been anticipated, retrofitting these plants would have meant that the customer would have to pay much greater costs for electricity. However, there is no way that they could have been and it is a hard thing to convince people to throw away money on hypotheticals. At any rate, this is a far cry from the canonical "worst case scenario" of nuclear power where many actual, well-known issues were completely ignored.

As it stands, I'm convinced that they were probably as well prepared as was feasibly possible given the circumstances. The "natural evil" case simply seems more reasonable to me...

PineHall - Natural Evil

|2011-03-29 10:49:54

So how does "natural evil" fit into the big picture? Most suffering happens because of human sinfulness, but there is this "natural evil". Is it an "act of God" or not? Does God micromanage? Could it still be a result, an indirect result, of our sinfulness? We briefly talked about an aspect of God punishing people from the Haitian Earthquake a year ago (http://theophiles.org/index.php?option=com_cont...). Is God using 'natural evil" to punish us? (Or is the answer we don't know?)

emperorbma

|2011-03-29 14:18:03

Well, we do know a few things on the basis of Scripture:
1. Anything that happens is the result of God allowing it to happen or directly causing it to happen. (e.g. Isaiah)
2. God sometimes judges people through disasters. (e.g. The Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, etc.)
3. Not all disasters are the result God punishing sin. (Luke 13:1-5) In fact, Christ also specifically rebuked the Apostles for desiring to call down disasters simply because people refused to accept Christ. (Luke 9:51-56)
4. Some tragedies exist simply so that God may be glorified by resolving them or using them to bring better circumstances. (e.g. Joseph, Lazarus)

Short of a direct inspired revelation, however, it is hard to make a ruling either way. In fact, it is probably a little of both. First, God intends to keep us mindful of the state of our relationship with Him through tragedies. Second, they are a necessary part of the created order that He established.

laika - re: Natural Evil

|2011-03-30 11:53:06

PineHall wrote:

So how does "natural evil" fit into the big picture? Most suffering happens because of human sinfulness, but there is this "natural evil".

Maybe this Natural Evil is just a by-product of life post-Fall. Arguing that suffering is a result of human sinfulness would fall under that; it all goes back to original sin.

Beyond that, though, people tend to forget that earth - as it is - and its atmosphere are dynamic, sometimes with more activity, and sometimes with less. Is that reason to read much into the tea leaves? I don't know, but as empy points out, disaster and tragedy do serve to make us mindful of the fragility and limitations of our existence and power over our fates, and serve to remind our reliance on God.

holmegm - re: re: Natural Evil

|2011-03-31 09:28:14

laika wrote:

but as empy points out, disaster and tragedy do serve to make us mindful of the fragility and limitations of our existence and power over our fates, and serve to remind our reliance on God.

Yes, they do!

"Jesherun waxed fat ..."

We'd have a better "argument" against God in all this if we didn't keep repeatedly proving that we do tend to reject God and forget about him when we are fat, dumb, and happy.

PineHall - Song of Moses

|2011-04-02 11:06:44

holmegm wrote:

"Jesherun waxed fat ..."

Holmegm - I never would have expected a relevant quote from the Song of Moses, yet you seem to find quotes like this and have them in proper context. Way to go! (I see I need to explore some more of the richness of the Old Testament.)

PineHall - Thank You

|2011-04-02 10:56:24

Thank you EmperorBMA, Laika, and Holmegm! You all have very good replies to my question. My question is part of a bigger question of how much does God use his sovereign will and how much does He let our "free" will run rampant? And it looks like there may not be a good and complete answer to the question this side of heaven. But that is okay, because the big thing I got out of your answers is that these disasters should bring us back to God and our reliance on Him. That is what is important.

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Our valuable member holmegm has been with us since Thursday, 03 April 2008.

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