GodNatural Disasters

and Suffering

Why Natural Disasters?

• Why are there hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, floods, etc. all around the world? Why so much suffering?

• This is one fundamental argument raised by the atheist: If God is good and loving why does he create or allow evil and suffering in the world?

• We must be ready to give an answer (apologetic) for the hope within us (1 Pet. 3:15)

Richard Dawkins and the Haiti Earthquake

“We know what caused the catastrophe in Haiti. It was the bumping and grinding of the Caribbean Plate rubbing up against the North American Plate; a force of nature, sin-free and indifferent to sin, unpremeditated, unmotivated, supremely unconcerned with human affairs or human misery. The religious mind, however, hubristically appropriates the blind happenings of physics for petty moralistic purposes” (“Hear the Rumble of Christian Hypocrisy,” The Times Online, January 29, 2010; quoted in Reason and Revelation, March, 2010)

Why Natural Disasters?

• What about suffering that is the result of physical, natural forces? Free will can explain the presence of moral evil (suffering) in the world, but how do we explain the suffering that comes from natural disasters?

• All physical, natural evils (suffering) are ultimately the consequence of sin (a free-will decision of Adam and Eve): sin distorted the physical, natural world

Why Natural Disasters?

• First, there is the regularity of natural law without which there would be chaos (Gen. 1:1; 8:22)

• Second, there is the freedom of man’s will (Gen. 2-3)

• Third, there is the principle of pain leading to good (Job 23:10; Jn. 9:3)

• Fourth, there is the principle of the interdependence of life (Ex. 20:5)

Physical Suffering and Mankind

• Some physical suffering comes to us directly or indirectly from our own free choices

• Some physical suffering comes to us directly or indirectly from the free choices of others

• Some physical suffering comes to us as by-product of other good activities

Natural Disasters and Our Earth

• In the beginning, all creation was good (Gen. 1:31; Jas. 1:17)

• The earth was cursed after sin (Gen. 3:17; Rom. 8:19-20); sin was punished with a flood which in turn altered the earth (Gen. 6-7; 2 Pet. 3:6)

• Natural disasters may have started after the flood due to climate / temperature / surface changes in the earth (Gen. 7:11; Psa. 104:6-10)

Natural Disasters and Our Earth

• God created an earth to be inhabited

• First, God created an earth governed by natural laws (gravity, inertia, etc.); the same natural laws govern geological / meteorological conditions

• Second, natural disasters can be a by-product of something that itself is good (rain [flood, drown], or hot/cold [tornadoes], fire [burning], earth, [volcanoes]); natural phenomenon may have by-products that are good (lightening, volcanoes)

Natural Disasters and Our Earth

• Third, natural laws are both inviolate and non-selective: all must obey them or suffer the consequences (Lk. 13:5)

• Fourth, natural laws are not arbitrarily suspended by God because it would lead to (1) the disruption of the regularity of natural law and (2) the removal of the responsibility of human free-will choice

Natural Disasters and Our Earth

• Natural disasters, including earthquakes and volcanoes, can have a positive effect on the earth

• Some people ignore the warnings of nature and are harmed by natural disasters

• Some “acts of God” like floods and forest fires are really “acts of man”

Natural Disasters and Our Earth

• God controls nature’s elements (Deut. 11:17; Job 9:5-6; 37:11-14; 38:34-38; Psa. 42:7; 89:8-9; 107:25-26; 148:8; Isa. 50:2; Zech. 10:1; Mt. 5:45; Ac. 14:17)

• God upholds nature’s elements (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3)

• God cares about his natural world (Lk. 12:6-7)

Natural Disasters and Punishment

• Many, like Pat Robertson, get in trouble when they go on recorded saying that a particular disaster is a particular punishment from God for a particular sin

• It is true that natural disasters have been used in Bible times as punishment for sin (Mt. 24:7; Rev. 6,8-9,16)

• Miraculous “natural” disasters were used by God as punishment (Gen. 19; Ex. 7-11; Num. 16; 1 K. 17; Jonah 1)

Natural Disasters and Punishment

• Many natural disasters today may be the direct activity of God in punishing a people (Job 37:13; Jas. 5:17; Amos 4:7-8), or they may be the work of Satan (Job 1:13-19)

• Since we do not have inspired prophets to interpret today’s natural disasters as the work of God or Satan, then we must be careful in assigning these disasters to them as forms of punishment; we can say maybe, but nothing more

Natural Disasters and Humanity

• We are given an opportunity to help others (Prov. 19:17; 21:13; 28:27)

• We are given an opportunity to turn to God and become a better person (Job 23:10)

• We are reminded of the frailty and brevity of life, and that this world is not our home; there will be no suffering due to natural disasters in heaven (Heb. 11:13-16; Jas. 4:14; Rev. 21:3-4)

God, Natural Disasters and Suffering

• Those who suggest that God did not create the best possible world need to tell us how they would improve upon the world we have. Let them tell us!

• We need to remember that man’s knowledge is limited (Isa. 55:8-9; Prov. 14:12; Rom. 11:33-36)

• We need to remember that man’s conception of what is “good” is often mistaken

• God gives us the best possible world to live in