Why is God thanked for the life of a person who has died a horrible death in a 'natural' disaster?

Question

As the all powerfull, the creater of all things, the one who loves us all - he made such a mess of this planet that we get killed by all sorts of happenings that are out of our control, presumable within his, and still are permitted to happen.

Answer 1

doesnt satan have a hand in all the bad stuff that happens? then again, why did god create satan?

Answer 2

As Humans it is well within our current capacities to end ALL hunger and poverty. We CAN eradicate almost ALL diseases; and we can predict, prepare for and protect just about every single major disaster you can imagine. We dont. However, rather than recognise that fact and ask ourselves and our democratic 'representatives' why we dont - we ask why God doesn't do it;

From a Christian standpoint, the world never used to be of risk to us until the 'fall' of man - which is taugh as something we brought about ourselves; so if the question is directed at the 'believers' one answer is simply - this earth is, in effect, a punishment (or, more correctly a consequence) of our own actions, within our own powers to effect, and it is one of the many challenges and 'atonements' we can make by pulling together to do everything we can to assist, prevent and make best of such disasters.

If the question is directed at the concept of any benevolent creator, then the answer might be that earthly suffering and death is not as big a deal to him as it is to us - 0 - 150 years of potential suffering in exchange for eternity in paradise.

Hope my thoughts have some usefulness to you.

Answer 3

We are not pawns or puppets on a string. God created us with freewill. We choose how to live our lives. If he intervened every time we messed up, then we wouldn't be free, we would just be his little game pieces. In our freedom we choose to destroy the environment & sometimes nature gets her revenge with disasters. When you upset the balance of nature, there are consequences, that's just science. It's cause & effect. WE have made such a mess of the planet. Not God. Only God can make a tree. We're the ones who cut it down. We damage the ozone layer, pollute the planet, deplete resources, rape & ravage the earth in the name of progress & then wonder why she strikes back. We create global warming. Then we're surprised with floods & typhoons & droughts & God knows what. It's December & I've barely seen a snowflake in my little corner of Canada. Is that normal? What if Antarctica melts? What if all the places surrounded by water become submerged? People can watch the effects of global warming on the news on their little TVs in their trendy SUVs & talk about how cruel God is...Helloooo!!!! We are not innocent. We are culpable. (I drive an untrendy little car which is extremely gas efficient. I walk when I can. I do my part...)

You can't blame God everytime something goes wrong. He gave us life & gave us the world. It's up to us what we do with it. If we do the right things, we are rewarded. If we do evil, we are punished. Sometimes innocent people get caught in the crossfire & it's terrible & unfair. But they will be rewarded in Heaven. This life is fragile. It can end at any moment. That's what makes it so precious. That's why we must cherish it. The afterlife is eternal. Anyone who suffers hear will be rewarded a hundredfold in the afterlife. There will always be tragedies, natural disasters and great evil in the world. You can't expect God to stop all bad things from happening. Life unfolds as it should. Sometimes it may appear cruel & arbitrary but that is life. I don't want to be a puppet & have my every action controlled by another power. I make my choices. Sometimes they may involve risk. Sometimes I may get hurt. I could be struck by a drunk driver while crossing the street. But I wouldn't blame God. I would blame the driver for the choice he made. We must take responsibility for our own actions as human beings. We are more responsible than you seem to realize.

It's natural to feel anger & grief when tragedies occur, but you are misdirecting it at God. Feel your anger & grief in general, toward life's unfairness. Feel it towards those responsible & maybe try to do something constructive about it (there are a number of organizations dedicated to preserving the environment if this is a cause you're particularly passionate about. We can each do our little part to save the planet. Do you waste energy? Do you drive a gas-guzzler? Do you pollute? If each one of us made small changes, it could save the planet.)

Then let the anger go & feel at peace. Life is a cycle from birth to death & we never know how long it's going to be.

Peace out.

Answer 4

God did not create this world to be fair. That is what the next life is for. We are supposed to do our best through adverse circumstances and help people when disaster falls. If someone suffers an unlucky death like being struck by lightening it is not a bad thing in the eyes of God, indeed God does not want us to fear death on earth but to look forward to life eternal.

Anyway that is what Christianity teaches anyway. The philosophical "problem of evil" has been going a long time:
"God either wants to eliminate bad things and cannot, or can but does not want to, or neither wishes to nor can, or both wants to and can. If he wants to and cannot, he is weak -- and this does not apply to god. If he can but does not want to, then he is spiteful -- which is equally foreign to god's nature. If he neither wants to nor can, he is both weak and spiteful and so not a god. If he wants to and can, which is the only thing fitting for a god, where then do bad things come from? Or why does he not eliminate them?"- Epicurus (a Greek philosopher who died 270BC)

So who knows really? People should believe what they want to about this.

Answer 5

It sounds illogical, all right, but this is best one can do under such circumstances, as matter of fact one should do under all circumstances. The ability to feel hope and therefore thankfulness in our hearts originates from the very aspect in our mind that realises the existence of God. Could this be the reason that all this is a part of our existence, and that we were never supposed to live in a blissful ideal world full of happiness and joy? That the pain, disease and misery that we endure actually make us realise that we can transcend against all reason and logic to find the best we in us.

Answer 6

I get fed up answering these questions.

the gift of life is given, regardless of the outcome.

in a persons' life, if God does not have dominion, that person is almost at the mercy of evil. It is only by God's grace that so many survive. Many do not understand this.

It is not part of God's purpose to control peoples' lives. He simply will not do that. The gift of a free will is part of His love.

This means, sadly, that evil will endure until the end of all things.

The safest bet in the entire world is to place your trust in Him. Even if u die, u r assured of a life after this messed up planet.

God will intervene in many situations if He is asked to do so. The overall picture tho is that there are almighty battles going on between good and evil that none of us understand, nor could we. If God cannot, or will not intervene it is literally beyond our understanding as to why.

What I do know tho is that God has good plans for us and always provides an answer to those who love Him. Even if they die.

That is a great source of strength and comfort to me in a very fragile and perilous world.

i said too much and not enough !!!

Answer 7

How do we know that God does not intervene to prevent some things happening ? we don't .
Presumably this is meant to deduce that therefore there is no God ,
but we think as humans and are not privy to Gods mind . By our reckoning yes he seems to be making a right hash of everything .
This questioning of Gods ways is nothing new , the Jewish people have railed against their God or at least put him on trial .
As humans we either wring our hands at the sheer senselessness of
it and walk away from God as either mad , bad or as a figment of our imagination ,
or we face these hard facts with an appreciation of our limited knowledge of Gods ways .
If we limit our thougts to this earthly life then it is hard to argue with your observations . If life continues after death then a whole new perspective is placed on the human condition .

Answer 8

God being all powerful gave us free will. He is not the puppet master, we have control over our environment and our decisions.

Many 'natural' disasters are ultimatly our fault. Mudslides and floods occur because of our decision to overuse our natural resorces. Instead of trying to find a balance with the environment and us we have forced the world to conform to what we want it to be.

I personally believe that the attitude of 'why did he let this happen', is unhelpful and unproductive. Because he didn't 'let' anything happen, a series of our decisions caused it. I'm not saying that it's any individuals fault but rather our fault as a species.

Answer 9

well you know what this is really a difficult question and people ask this question all the time and i am in the process of learning evangilism so i think i might be able to answer this question...there are 2 answers to this in my opinion God has certain times for people to die it doesnt matter how they die but God chooses when it is thier time to go live with Him, my other reasoning is about the natural disaster thing. You have heard of Noahs ark well God did that because the people there were getting out of hand with thier ways so when people begin to get out of hand or God knows that they will get out of hand then he causes something like this to well wipe them away

Answer 10

First off I don't think Christians praise God for a disaster. Those who do are in the wrong when it comes to the bible. Second when God created this world it was perfect not destructive. God didn't mess up this world. Satan and the sin of Adam and other humans did. Also, though it is within God's power to act He typically waits for people to pray to Him about it. Then He at times averts disaster. Also God originally made us to live forever, but Adam screwed up and now we do. But there is hope to this. You see we go on living regardless of the death of our physical bodies. And because of what Adam did and our own rebellion against God, we rightfully deserve to go to heel. But that's why God sent Jesus to die on the cross for us. He took our place. John #:16 says fo God so LOVED the world that he gave His only begotten Son for us, that whosoever believes in Him (Jesus) shall not perish but have everlasting life. Also Romans 10:9 says "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
And God doesn't want people to go to hell, and they don't have to.

Answer 11

God allows us to make choices in our lives - where we go, what we do, when we do it. Even with natural disasters the people who are injured or killed had a choice to be at that place at that time - either by their own or by circumstances they chose. God wants us to love Him and serve Him and our fellow man. He gives us the power of choice and created this world that we could enjoy it and all its wonder. If there were not circumstances that removed our blessings at times, why would we appreciate them?