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January 10, 2005

God and Natural Disasters

I continue to hear news coverage about how various religions, particularly, but not exclusively, Protestants, are in a quandry over how to understand the recent Tsunami. Just this morning as I drove to work I listened to NPR devote a segment to the subject... again. So, I thought I'd bring the subject up again here.

The sticking point seems to be over the implications of "omnipotence." To my way of looking at it, those who are blaming this on God are relying upon a logical fallacy. Why does omnipotence have to imply that God micromanages everything? It just doesn't make sense. An omnipotent being doesn't have to micromanage in order to maintain it's status as an omnipotent being. Omnipotence merely means that it can do anything, not that it has to do everything.

Here's the way I see it, as a Protestant Christian... An omnipotent God created everything and set into motion the various aspects which are commonly referred to as the "laws of nature" such as gravity. Being an omnipotent being, God isn't required to personally administer those laws 24/7. They exist and operate on their own. Plate tectonics and weather patterns are ultimately governed by laws of nature. Which means that God didn't have to deliberately reach out and smite humanity via this Tsunami. It just happened according to the interaction of the various laws of nature. I'm sure a vulcanologist can explain it thoroughly for those who need to know all of the particulars.

Interestingly... given the name of our blog... on the NPR segment this morning they had a Hindu postulating that those who died in the Tsunami were paying for sins of previous lives - Karma.

What do you think? How do you reconcile an omnipotent being with the disasters that befall humanity?

Posted by Kevin at January 10, 2005 11:10 AM