If God exists, why are so many dead in Haiti?
People die every day. Some say one person dies every six seconds with a birth every three, thus increasing the population to a now near seven billion. However, last week’s events in Haiti saw one of the largest decreases in population in the shortest amount of time. The usual questions are asked when one hears the death toll of 200,000 people and counting, of why this has all happened. Well this simple answer is, there was an earthquake of 7.0 on the Richter Scale and the buildings were not designed to withstand such force through its walls and thus collapsed which destroyed infrastructure, slowing down aid to the people who need it. The complicated answer is – God.
Never would one find a religion, cult or society that doesn’t say God is not kind or not merciful. I believe even an atheist or agnostic would not go as far and say God is not one of these characteristics. Why then are so many people dying daily, of disease, sudden death, war or, most interesting of all, natural disasters. Most causes of death we hear of today are man made e.g war, disease, health problems etc, each one can be traced back to an action one did i.e being a smoker, alcoholic, drug addict or whatever your poison may be, however natural disasters, one finds it difficult to blame someone. We cannot exactly start blaming nature for earthquakes and hurricanes, although I have lovely image in my my mind of Obama shouting at the grass and waging nuclear war against the amazon forest for bringing terror to this world.
I believe in God, that we are all creations of God and God loves all creations. However, it is difficult to grasp the concept that a natural disaster, which is what God has willed, caused such atrocity as Haiti. Why couldn’t this earthquake not cause any death, why did death have to be a result of the earthquake. Could it not have happened off land where the result would be a small tidal wave which may have reduced the death toll. All these questions obviously do not have an answer. Whilst sometimes these questions are better off not being asked. It is easy to say, yes I believe in God. For me, there are three ways of saying this. One is saying something with your lips, someone says “Repeat this” and we say it without thinking. The second is with our mind where someone, in the same way, asks us to say something and we think about it for a moment and then say it. The third is with your heart. Very rarely do people speak form the heart these days. If everyone did, no one would be a liar. So to say I believe in God from the heart means a lot more than when one says it from the lips or the mind.
The Bigger Picture
Today, the rational mind leads the way in thinking. Everything has to have a reason to why it is being done and has to be done in the most logical and practical way. The problem with this type of thinking is that everything has to become very literal and apparent. This means that, whatever one is doing, we need to see the reasons behind it straight away. It is seldom for an ‘intellectual’ to do something blindly, without seeing the cause and effect behind it. Unfortunately, this method of thinking cannot be applied to understanding God and the actions behind it. The rational mind cannot comprehend why God does what He does, and so when trying to understand it, we create these questions that have no answer. However, if one were to understand the concept of God, that He exists in interest of all sectors and not just worshipers or only people who believe in Him but rather in interests of humanitarianism too. This is where we fail to see the bigger picture and focus more on the negative that has resulted rather than the opportunity for a positive outcome.
Very interesting article particularly the part about belief by the lip, mind and heart. I would disagree with the point you made about belief from the heart meaning more than from the mind.
The reason i say this is because belief from the heart is very emotional and there is no method of authenticating a belief which is emotional. Me as a individual could say i believe that there exists a pink rabbit on jupiter which controls the natural disasters that occur on Earth. As stupid as that may seem, until me as an individual choose to look at things with thought, it cannot be proven to be a non-sensical idea.
I think this emotional direction we take in life, which is paramount in the current world we live in, has lead to a complete destruction of absolute truths. In this society, everything is relative, and things are measured according to benefit and enjoyment, a common phrase we may have all heard “would you like it if that happend to you?”
This phrase assumes that everyones likes and dislikes are the same but as the saying goes “One man’s meat is another man’s poison”
Natural disasters are only one of the arguments thrown against God in every debate on the subject that has happened. But athiests have failed to take into account that death is only one stage in a believer’s life. The length of the afterlife is infinite, and far surpasses the average life expectancy of the modern age.
From a believer’s perspective; if an innocent child dies as a result of a natural disaster then they will have been saved from potentially sinning which results in eternal damnation, and they will pass on to eternal bliss in return for that small amount of miscomfort that we call death.
I completely agree with the point that God and existence are non-rational concepts, for if they were rational then we could claim supremacy over them.
Look at the immense spirit of humanitarianism that has arisen throughout the world! Young children are voluntarily donating their spare change, many organizations are contributing, religious organizations are dedicating their services, doctors and nurses are offering their help, even actors, musicians and the rest of the entertainment elite, who are many times regarded as being the most selfish of people, are coming together and selflessly raising and donating to help the people of Haiti. Through this disaster, humanity is growing and evolving. Fighting injustice in the world involves cooperation, as well as the development of feelings of empathy and selflessness. Instead of waving a magic wand and making us all empathetic and selfless humans, God gives us the opportunity to grow by ourselves. These natural disasters, as horrific as they are, are a way for us to develop a more befitting mindset, as well as a way for us to reconsider and refine our notions of God and human nature.