I'm very curious. To all of the religious people on here, and I know that there are many, I'm wondering how you justify such terrible occurances as the Tsuamni.

Can God really be behind this? If so, why? And if not, how and why does he let it happen? What could be his reasoning? If he deliberately made the world like this, then he did a pretty bad job. If he couldn't foresee these disasters, then, as a The Almighty, I should think he should buy himself better foresight, when making worlds in the future.

All of you have doubtlessly prayed to him for the victims (as you rightfully should), but have any of you asked him for an answer as to why this stuff is allowed to happen?

Have any of you lost any faith since this (or because of anything else)?

I intend no offence. Simply curious as to how relgion affects views on these things.

Mick

I definetly lose faith in God each day, but I still believe in him. It's not a perfect world. Even if God wanted it to be, He couldn't stop every negative thing from happening. Since everyone has different opinions, people can question if there is a God with everything. Look at the Holocaust. The Germans thought that what they were doing was right and positive, while the rest of the world thought it was negative. The Germans shouted, "God put us here to do this!" The rest of the world screamed, "How could God let something like this happen?" All opinions can make people question if there is a God.

Im not a religous person,I just think it was horrible incident that we could not Predit/Stop from happening.Lets just hope that there are no more on the way.

Amen to that!

Don Cardi

Did God do this? I sort of believe that He just lets the world turn.... the storms will naturally form and do whatever... the ultimate safety net for good people is eternal life anyway so I don't think this needed to be directed by the Almighty.

Capo, I'm not the most religious person here but let me explain my view on this matter. The world is based on rules of nature which has been defined by God. From the smallest particle in this world to the biggest creatures, they act based on these rules. Humans are mortal. That's the rule of nature. Like a leaf in the beginning of spring which is being given life and it dies by fall, a resurrection begins again by next spring. But a leaf can't live forever. We can pray whatever we want but natural events or disasters are parts of this material mortal life that our souls has to endure their grief and burden and the only effective prayer we can say is that those who have left behind be given strength to start over again. These natural disasters, diseases, loss of children or wealth, is the ways that through those souls of people are being tested for faith. If you truly believe in God then, your kids, your wealth, your relatives should all go second compare to God and you should be willing to sacrifice those for God like the way of Abraham. I'm ashamed to say my computer, my family and my money has always come first. But I really like to try though it is very hard to believe in God and do not be a whiner all the time who asks only for blessings.

We are being tested by God on these matters. Did we sit and watch them starve. Did we go and took away their kids and sell their parts of bodies? (how obnoxious is that?) Or did we help them and share whatever we had to be some sort of help or relief to them? That's the test of nature and that's the test of God. People die everyday and that's the way of life, but what we do is our test.

I'm "dying" to know how exactly that works, but I suppose that's a subject for another thread.

I'm "dying" to know how exactly that works, but I suppose that's a subject for another thread. [/b][/quote]You answered your own question. You will know how that works when you die

So let's get this straight, as I was hoping for a more insightful answer; now I'm even more confused...

God decides to kill a few hundred thousand people, just to see how other people react? What makes him choose Asia over Europe? Why have an Earthquake happen there, and not here? How is he going to explain this to the victims? What happens if some of the victims weren't religious? They'll never know why they were wiped out.

If this is to test other people's faith, what happens if other people lose faith because of this disaster? Will he wipe those out too?

I know that I'd be pretty pissed off if God told me he was killing me to test the faith of some Thai living over the other side of the world. So, if we're all going to be happy in the afterlife anyway, why doesn't he wipe the whole world out? If eternal life is the goal, why didn't he make our life eternal in the first place?

I know there's more religious people on here...

Mick

I'm "dying" to know how exactly that works, but I suppose that's a subject for another thread. [/b][/quote]You answered your own question. You will know how that works when you die [/b][/quote]But if no one knows how it works until they die, how do we know that there even is such a thing as eternal life?

I lost faith a long time ago.

When my 2 year old neighbor was diagnosed with cancer.

But if no one knows how it works until they die, how do we know that there even is such a thing as eternal life?

Thats such a great question, but thats why eternal life is only granted to those... who belive in it. We have to play the game. Im not really religious, I belive there is a all knowing power out there but if its a god or another civilization i have no clue

as far as i understand, Mick questions the dogmas and theres no wrong with that. besides, the answers given by the religious people are based upon some assumptions that are very well organized. sorry if i'm too quick to comment on the sight of the discussion just by overlooking, but i here suppose that "none" of our ideas as to whether there's a God will lead us to any conclusion. cause, man's capacity to comprehend is limited. so is our knowledge. if Mick's questions are aiming to shape some kind of systematical and/or philosophical evidence to the absence of God, then i say there's no wrong with that but nor is any use in dealing with it. on the other hand, if the answers of the religious are aiming to prove that God exists, well i say i can never acknowledge the existence of anything/anybody (be it a god or something/someone else) because the way i live my life will never change. whether theres a God or not, i will go on breathing, eaitng and trying to meet my needs which i think all religions approve of. and personally i am just not interested in the problematic of a divine power. if that power will burn me in hell cause i didnt obey to his rules that he sent us through prophets and/or any kind of mediums, then so be it. i am not scared. nevertheless i cant resist saying that if theres a god who created this wonderful world, i dont think he would be such a narrow-minded character that he will send us to hell. just my opinions.

The world went from being perfect into a world of sin a long time ago with adam and eve, its our species fault it happend.

I am a pretty "religious" person by comparison to most. Capo, I can definitely see why you would question the reason for these events. My answer to you: I really do not know. One of the main points in having faith is believing even when we are in our darkest hours. This clearly is one of those moments in life. I firmly believe that God set the rules of nature, and that everything happens for a reason. And like Omnipotent Superman explained, He gave humans the powerful gift free will to do and believe what we want.

Since this is a natural disaster, fingers cannot be pointed. I firmly believe that Earth is not the final destination for humans, and that some people are called out sooner than others. There is a time for everyone to exit this world, but we never know when that will be. I'm sorry if this confuses or doesn't answer anything for you, but there's not much more that I can explain. Some things were simply not made for man to discover on this Earth.

Very well put Capo!


Don Cardi

Do you guys ever feel that God is testing us when bad things happen or when things get hard to see how we react? I get that feeling a lot. -Pat

^ Have you ever read the Book of Job?

But I think it works like I said above... he just lets the world turn and good people willgo up, bad people will go down, and that's that.

Nothing captures human interest like human tragedy. I'm catholic, although disasters like this one makes me wonder a lot how can God let this happen. But i'm sure there were Atheists among the dead over there. Life is unfair, I guess.

I'm under the opinion that God may have created the earth, and he may have created all of us, but he has very little to do with what happens to us from there. Sometimes God can come into someones life to build a foundation for something great, but after you have been started along your path to happiness or whatever it may be that you seek, God leaves you alone to achieve this goal yourself.

This is why I do not necesarily blame God or question if God had a hand in certain horrible things that happen on this earth. This tsunami is ultimately just a biproduct of our earth existing. It sometimes can just be the price we pay for living on this planet.

The earth is still forming and changing beneath us, and because of seismic plates and whatnot, these things happen often. Tsunami's have probably been crashing into beaches for millions of years, it just happened to be that there were people there this time, hundereds of thousands of them.

Some people do not believe there is a God to begin with. I don't want to go there since believing there is God and afterlife is more spiritual than argumentative, not that you can not debate it but it is not related to this thread. I think Capo is asking If you already believe in God now how you justify all these deaths and he says it is a very bad thing if God has done such a thing.

I say it really depends on how you look at it. If you are very self centered and only think about humans then it is a very bad thing that has happened. But you also have to remember that God has created the Earth and for Earth to evolve all these activities are necessary. It is like a tooth that when it falls all the germs on it die too. But a child needs this process in order to grow up.

God has created everything and he keeps balance in everything. Humans on the other hand try to break this balance to favor them and this would eventually give them trouble like all these greenhouse gases that they produce. God is not our nanny; he has given us brain to use. We now can foresee tornados. Maybe one day we are able to predict earthquakes too. You know, animals can feel it like 5 minutes or so earlier to escape from the troubled area. You have to blame yourself really and not God. If there is a God his fairness requires him to judge us based on opportunities and time and resources that we've had so we should try to do our best and not worry about the fairness of our condition.

^ If you call hell eternal life, then yeah.