If he cared he would have prevented the disaster.
Unless of course there is no god or he's a sadistic monster?
2006-07-25 08:36:43 · 16 answers · asked by Atheist 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Good question! I always wonder why people say things like "thank God for saving my child from the flood/earthquake/hurricane," while conveniently ignoring all the hundreds of other children who died. Did those children's parents not pray hard enough or something?:-)
2006-07-25 08:41:06 · answer #1 · answered by Alex 42 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
For help to deal with the effects of the disaster. To find missing people, to find the strength to carry on after losing a loved one, to get a place to live, to get food to eat, etc.
God cares. God does not prevent disasters. God lets natural consequences occur from our actions. God also gave us free will. God is not a sadistic monster. People can be sadistic, however.
2006-07-25 15:44:15 · answer #2 · answered by leo509 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Heh.... Way to slant the question. :)
A few assumptions you are making here in your comments:
1. You know everything God knows. ["If God cared, he would have..."]
2. The avoidance of suffering in any situation is the greatest long-term good as far as the human spirit goes.
3. God created the world to purposefully include disasters.
...and so on...
No, I think this stuff sucks as much as anyone else does. My heart ached after Katrina, or 911, or the earthquake overseas last year, and so on. Those things do haunt me. I know people impacted by terrible tragedy. I question God. You couldn't help but do so.
Blithely saying things like, "God's in charge, it'll be okay! Whee!" would show a real lack of understanding of the pain that people go through, and how much God suffers watching this damaged world go through its death convulsions. We all mourn when something bad happens.
I think the Christian position (as embodied in Jesus) summarized as quickly as possible is that God has chosen not to "fix things" now but suffers along with us in the midst of trial because that will result in the greatest eventual good.
A more detailed explanation could fill pages... but that's the gist of it for now.
2006-07-26 15:47:52 · answer #3 · answered by Jennywocky 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Remember what Noah did after the Flood was over and everyone got back on land? He BUILT AN ALTAR to thank God for surviving the Flood and performed a sacrifice upon it. You pray after the disaster to thank Him for allowing you to make it through and to comfort the families of those who didn't. God lets things happen for a reason. We cannot reason why, but we can be thankful when the trial is over because like the old saying goes, "whatever doesn't kill us, makes us stronger."
2006-07-25 15:42:04 · answer #4 · answered by bigvol662004 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God has His reasons for allowing disasters to happen. No one knows the mind of God. Disasters is one thing that separates the real believers (the faithful) from the other so called believers.
2006-07-25 15:41:16 · answer #5 · answered by WC 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Have you never heard a prayer of Thanks? We not only pray to ask for things, but also things we need to thank God for. We pray for help for those who need it after a disaster. Katrina had a lot of Christian people helping there, we also sent aid to the tsunami victims, we are always there at the scene, helping where we can, food, clothes, shelter, and loving care. Where were you when they needed help? We take no glory in it. God gets the glory, we get to see the results.
2006-07-25 15:45:04 · answer #6 · answered by stullerrl 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You're right, of course. You don't wait till AFTER a disaster to seek God. You start seeking Him every day.
But when He DOES offer to help, you just reject Him anyway, and never call on Him, or thank Him when good things happen, but you sure complain when bad things happen. What kind of hypocracy is that?
So, don't complain about what God isn't doing for you when you've turned your back on Him! God hasn't left YOU. YOU left Him.
2006-07-25 16:16:20 · answer #7 · answered by no1home2day 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God did not make the disaster, Satan did. You look to God for comfort and understanding. God only wants good for you, Satan is the one that will try any means to turn you away from God.
2006-07-25 15:45:05 · answer #8 · answered by Debi16 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Okay, one more time. There is no god. God is a logical absurdity. Humans are so psychotically damaged by knowing they are going to die someday, they will make up anything and force feed it down as many gullible throats as possible to validate their own psychoses. "Life after death" -- now there's an oxymoron.
2006-07-25 15:47:36 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Unfortunately death in inevitable. God will not give us more than we can handle. The prayer gives us the strength we need to get through the situation and hopefully a desire to help others who are or will go through similar things.
2006-07-25 15:42:28 · answer #10 · answered by lefty 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋