Why doesn't God prevent disasters?

Question

Just so you know before answering, i am making a book of opinions based upon God for Theology class so if you do not wish to be included then do state so, thanks .

Answer 1

because there is something called believe on fate and destiny
offcourse being a muslim i believe on that
The sixth and final article of Islamic belief, as detailed by a famous prophetic Tradition,1 is belief in destiny, its good and evil. The Arabic word for destiny, qadar, implies the measuring out of something or fixing a limit to it

Early Muslims would simply define destiny as knowledge that what hits you was not going to miss you, and that what misses you was not going to hit you

The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) has explained some of the practical implications of this belief in his saying, “If something befalls you, don’t say: If only I would have done such and such, rather say: Allah foreordained this, and whatever He wishes, He does; for verily the phrase ‘if only I would have’ makes way for the work of Satan” (reported by Muslim).



The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) asked one of his Companions, “Shall I not guide you to words that are a treasure from the treasures of Paradise?” He said, “Of course, O Messenger of Allah!” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “There is no ability or power except through Allah” (reported by Bukhari and Muslim). The reality of these words is the crux of a full and proper understanding of qadar

Answer 2

This is a common question and seems to be often used to show that "there is no God" or to say that He is something that He is not.

Have you not read the scriptures? In the garden the world was perfect... no famine, no shame, no sin... This is the world that God created and wanted for us. But "we had a better idea."

Adam figured that he was pretty smart and knew better than God. So Adam ate the fruit. He willfully disobeyed God and sin entered in, not just to Adam, but into the whole world bringing with it it's decaying, rotting, destroying nature with it.

So what we are witnessing is the results of a man's rebellion. But as terrible as the disasters are, the way that people take advantage and abuse others in the face of these disasters are, well, the real disasters. We have a choice to help each other but, too often, people stand around shaking their fist at God and say, "Why did you let this happen?" Then they go on their way w/o giving the tragedy a second thought.

Case in point: Katrina. The hurricane was terrible but it wasn't the hurricane that caused the disaster. The levees were in such poor condition that they couldn't take on the water that Katrina poured down. Who's responsibility was it to keep the levees in good condition? God's? No, it was the politicians. But instead of doing that they elected to divert funds into other projects (their own pockets maybe?) and the disaster was just waiting to happen.

Then look at what happened after the floods came. The murder, raping and looting that took place was disgusting. Or what about the people who fraudulantly took the money designated to help those who experienced great losses.

So stand there and shake your fist at God and talk about how "cruel" He is but I think that they anger and accusations are greatly misplaced.

And when things go well what do we say? "Oh how lucky I am." How convenient....

Answer 3

The world is the way it is because sin exists in the world. When Eve took a bite of that apple all those years ago it was the epicenter to a ripple effect that effected all creation through out all the ages of the Earth. Don't blame God for natural disasters, blame yourself. It's people's sinful nature that is the root cause for pain and suffering.

But God is working even in the state the world is in. He uses these seemingly pointless tragedies to promote righteousness and Truth. After 9/11 we saw an unprecedented number of people returning to the church. God does not cause disaster. He doesn't prevent it because He doesn't interfere with free will. He takes a bad situation and heals it with whatever good He can make of it.

Answer 4

Ok here are a collection of thoughts. If you are looking for a Biblical based answer, turn to the book of Job. In that God recruits the services of Satan to visit disaster on Job. So possible reasons:

- well the obvious, imaginary beings can't prevent disasters (only cause them).

- what makes you suppose God's interests are those of humanity - disaster to us might be planned reconstruction to God

- its all a test of faith

- there a god (or maybe a bunch of them) ie beings with powers vastly beyond our own, but they aren't really that interested in what happens to humans, other than possibly for amusement.

- disasters have traditionally caused superstitious humans to seek divine help, so they are basically part of a protection racket.

- its a reminder that the universe isn't here to keep humans happy

- its to destroy the wicked (and god happens to know which infants drowned, burned, and blighted were going to be wicked)

- God made the world, lost interest and is now paying attention to another planet

- He's upset since we stopped making burned offerings (especially human sacrifices)

- He is wiping out the unbelievers. Since he seems to wipe out people with little regard to faith, that would imply that all religions are currently wrong.

- He is a she.

- He's lonely and wants more souls in heaven.

- Its just a foul up, and the paperwork never reach the bunch of angels who were supposed to divert the hurricane, stop the lava flow, and prevent the disaster. What? You think he's infallible?

Answer 5

God gave us the ability and opportunity to prevent almost all possible disasters from becoming disasters by using our intelligence and effort.

Most natural disasters are location based, yet people choose to live there and ignore the risk, or take sensible precautions. New Orleans, was largely below sea level and the decision was made not to spend money on improving the sea defences and was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Much of the southeastern coastline of the USA gets battered by hurricanes each year, yet people ignore the risk until it's too late and suffer for their choice.

Human created disasters like the Space Shuttle Challenger, Titanic or the Hindenburg are down to factors like human error and lack of care or maintenance.

"Religious" and other wars are fuelled more by human greed, intolerance and hatred than the "religion" or noble-sounding "ideals" used to justify the war.

If God steps in each time to save us from our mistakes what is the point of having free will?

Answer 6

Why did my father let me ruin my car engine because I refused to check and or change the oil when I was suppose to?

My dad had taught be from before I ever had my driver's license that changing the oil in my car was very, very important.

He would always run a spot check to discover that I was either running on mud or gravel. He was always "saving me" and my car from certain disaster and therefore I never learned to take care of things the way I should have. I didnt' do as I was told!

My Father was nice the first few times. Then he scolded me, made me do it myself, watched me do it to make sure I knew how, etc... But still, I never kept up with it on my own.

Then one day the car stopped in the middle of nowhere!

As a teenager who now had no wheels of her own and didn't have the money to fix the engine that she just destroyed...

Guess what? Now that I am an adult, with children and I pay my own car payments... I CHECK AND CHANGE MY OIL REGULARLY!

Our Father in heaven ALLOWS us to suffer consequences for our actions (Or lack of) so that we can become humbled and learn from our mistakes that we might not continue to take for granted all our blessings and become better people, the people that God has longed for us to be since all Creation.

The fact that some consequences are so incredibly horrible and terrorizing, even, is an indication to how sinful a people we are and to how stubborn we are that we don't DO AS GOD HAS TOLD US TO DO IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Answer 7

confident, He might have. Jeremiah 18:7-10; Jonah 3:10 "Then, it will boost the question of why he could answer some prayers and not others, given the incontrovertible fact that, being God, he ought to have been able to give up the concern interior the 1st place." Prayers purely have a small element in His selection. Repentance impacts the result on the grounds that while God sees genuine repentance, He can replace His suggestions some disaster.

Answer 8

Because there would be no point to the Garden of Eden. The world would be all good and there would be no tests or tragedies. What would be the point to good and evil? Satan works through people to create tragedies (ex. 9/11), and although God has the power to stop things whenever he wants--then we would never have anything bad happen ever-and that's not scriptural. The world is going to get increasingly worse as time goes by. We just need to have our hearts right with God and living a life for Him, so there is no fear of tragedy or death.

Answer 9

Natural evil comes without a moral agent. A tower falls, an earthquake shakes, a tornado destroys, a hurricane ravages, a spider bites, a disease debilitates and kills. The world is filled with wonders mixed with dangers. Gravity can save you or gravity can kill you. When a tower falls, it kills.
- http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1348437.html

Religions that claim to be speaking for God have it all wrong. They begin with the premise that God is working through all these different religions in the world. Most in the West focus on the Christian religion. If God is trying to save us through mainstream Christianity, then why are we getting further and further away from Him? The correct conclusion is that we ought to take a good look at ourselves rather than always examining God.

The truth is that a lot of our beliefs about God are our own concoctions. Mankind as a whole is insisting on doing what "seems right" to us (see Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). So God, allowing us to learn from our mistakes, permits us to do what we want. But doing our own thing is a road that won't take us to the vision prophesied in the Bible of a world of unimaginable blessings from God—a world without natural or man-made catastrophes.

God has told us through Jesus Christ's prophecies that He will yet come to our rescue and establish the utopian world that we all, when we were young, hoped would be out there.
- http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn57/disasters.htm

Answer 10

I'd say He does indeed prevent many disasters. Those He does not, he allows because of free will or because they will provide a means for someone's improvement. Some disasters are blessings in disguise. We simply don't have the knowledge to judge what is really good or bad for us.