ABOUT TSUNAMIS, HURRICANES AND SIMILAR DISASTERS

Difficulties that tragedies pose to religions.
"Tsunami-class" mass murders in the Bible.

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Difficulties that natural disasters pose to religious faith:

An article by Martin Kettle in The Guardian newspaper on 2004-DEC-28 -- two days after the South Asian Tsunami -- asked: "How can religious people explain something like this?" Referring to the massive earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal which killed more than 50,000 people in 1755 CE, Kettle writes: "Voltaire asked what kind of God could permit such a thing to occur. Did Lisbon really have so many more vices than London or Paris, he asked, that it should be punished in such a appalling and indiscriminate manner? Immanuel Kant was so amazed by what happened to Lisbon that he wrote three separate treatises on the problem of earthquakes....it is hard to think of any event in modern times that requires a more serious explanation from the forces of religion than this week's earthquake. Voltaire's 18th-century question to Christians - why Lisbon? - ought to generate a whole series of 21st-century equivalents for all the religions of the world.....A non-scientific belief system, especially one that is based on any kind of notion of a divine order, has some explaining to do, however. What God sanctions an earthquake? What God protects against it? Why does the quake strike these places and these peoples and not others? What kind of order is it that decrees that a person who went to sleep by the edge of the ocean on Christmas night should wake up the next morning engulfed by the waves, struggling for life?" ₁

Richard Dawkins, an Atheist, Oxford professor of biology, and famous author said in a letter to The Guardian newspaper that religious explanations for natural disasters range from the "loopy" (its payback time for Original Sin) through "vicious" (disasters are sent to try our faith) to "violent" (heretics were hanged after the devastating Lisbon earthquake of 1755). Referring to the existence of God, he wrote that while it is "psychologically possible to derive comfort from sincere belief in a non-existent illusion, I thought believers might be disillusioned with an omnipotent being who has just drowned 125,000 (now 145,000) innocent people, or an omniscient one who failed to warn them."

An article in the Toronto Star newspaper said: "Dawkins has little time for religious people who try to explain the tsunami disaster. He has less time for religious people who give up on trying to explain natural disasters yet remain religious." ₂

The biblical record of previous "tsunami-class" mass murders by God:

Since the vast majority of visitors to this web site are either Christians and/or were raised in a Christian environment, descriptions of mass exterminations in the Bible may be of particular importance.

The Hebrew Scriptures records a number of instances where God either committed, or ordered the ancient Hebrews to commit, mass murders or genocides against various groups. As we explain in our section titled: "Four of God's Genocides: "Show them no mercy:"

The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) of the Bible describe many events which involved major loss of life. Most were conventional wars. Four of these events would probably qualify as genocides under most current definitions of the term. They were:

There are additional mass murders involving fewer people which are also mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. These include:

In addition, the book of Revelation in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) if interpreted literally, predicts that Jesus Christ will lead a massive genocide will occur at some time in our future, in association with the war of Armageddon. This will lead to the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI). In excess of two billion humans would be exterminated if this war were to start now. The number would increase if the war is delayed. If it happens as described in the Bible, it will be the largest human genocide in history.

God therefore has either engineered or ordered others to commit mass murders in the past.  If the 2004 tsunami is was intentionally triggered by God, then he is illustrating his unchangeability over time.

Linking biblical passages to the 2004 tsunami:

The problem remains: if God caused the tsunami, was his motivation similar to those mass exterminations in the Bible?

It may be impossible to determine what God's motivation is. One could try to seek the answer from God through prayer. However, one pilot study seems to indicate that one cannot assess the will of God in this manner. In the meantime, God could use many techniques for informing the human race of his displeasure: Email, fax, telephone, radio, television, postal service, Internet, etc. But he appears to prefer to keep humanity guessing.

References used:

1. Martin Kettle, "How can religious people explain something like this?," Guardian Unlimited, 2004-DEC-28, at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/

2. Michael McAteer, "Disaster challenges belief," The Toronto Star, 2004-JAN-09, at: http://www.thestar.com/

Copyright © 2005 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally posted: 2005-JAN-01
Latest update: 2005-SEP-04
Author: B.A. Robinson