Natural Disasters vs. Man-made Disasters

The cold is subsiding, and I do think I've avoided the flu. I woke up this morning feeling quite a bit better, and my voice isn't so strained. So I'm grateful for having been spared from something worse, and will now march on, despite a stuffed head and a runny nose.

The closing on the house went well, by the way. The only glitch was on the settlement sheet when the sellers cost for the pest inspection showed $540. I had a receipt for $350, and the realtor swore up and down she had been assured it was going to be only $180. We got it all straightened out and after the last signature was written out, the house I lived in for 10 years transferred ownership. But they seem like a nice young couple, and I pray they enjoy a properous stay in the home.

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I recall the mass-hysteria back in 1997 when Princess Diana died. I could not for the life of me understand what all the fuss was about. We even had people here in the U.S. wailing away, stretched out face down on the pavement before some "shrine" built to Diana. I could never understand it.

It's my belief that Mother Theresa's death after a few days of the Diana madness was not coincidence -- I honestly believe that was God making a point. Few could argue that in the grand scheme of things, Mother Theresa was a far more influential servant of good than was Diana.

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Here's my theory on the response to the tsunami: in a secular age, when a disaster like that occurs people are faced with a dilemma -- either there truly is no higher power, and we are the product of pure chance; or there is a higher power, and that higher power may expect something of us.

If they dwell on the prospect that all that we see and all we experience is the result of natural, dispassionate, impersonal forces, then they find themselves facing a dreadful prospect: we are the product of chance; we have no purpose; we are born, we live a short period, we die; there is no real meaning. That's an dark, dismal, awful prospect. Most will not dwell long in this region.

On the other hand, if they dwell on the prospect that there is a higher power -- yet due to their secular upbringing they have little understanding of that higher power -- they may then wonder what that higher power may expect from us. Is there something they should do to avoid having something similar happen to them? They are likely then to slip into a behavior we've seen across all of history: attempts at appeasing the unknown, wrathful gods. My guess is this is where most western secularists end up, though I doubt many would realize it or confess to it.

Note: It's interesting to note that in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami disaster, there was a desparate attempt to find some way to blame mankind for the event. Hurricanes, heavy rains, floods, avalanches -- all can be (perhaps falsely) attributed to "global warming" caused by human consumption of hydrocarbon energy sources. But a seismic event, deep under the ocean, is simply beyond anything man can affect. That created an enormous dilemma for western secularists.

The fact that we (mankind) are utterly powerless against the sheer magnitude of natural forces such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and hurricanes simply magnifies the need to do something. But what? This is when the urge to "do good" takes effect; doing good earns mercy, or so goes the thinking. The unseen god must surely count these acts of goodness to our credit and spare us in the future.

The difference between the tsunami disaster and atrocities like Sudan or Rwanda is the source of the disaster -- some unseen god vs. man. A regional civil war in an impoverished continent that results in genocide won't affect rich, secular countries elsewhere. There's no need for appeasement -- the source isn't the frightening, misunderstood "god," but rather bad people somewhere else.

Note: and let's not kid ourselves ... the fact the genocide is occuring in Africa is very much part of the equation. There is an unspoken class system in our world. Some peoples are "worth more" than others. Africa isn't one of those places. Shameful as it is to admit that, that's how we think.

So my theory is this: in the absence of any true sense of God, western secularists are forced to either concede an utterly meaninglessness to life, or grope in the dark for some response to a disaster where in the background there is some unseen, poorly understood god. Finding the former dreadful, they opt for the latter. And in the face of some all-powerful god they don't understand, mankind reverts to what must be an innate reaction: appeasement in the hope of mercy at some future time.

Note: How then is the evangelical Christian response to the tsunami any different? We look at this disaster, have pity and compassion on those that suffered, but ultimately place our trust and hope for the future -- including eternity -- in Jesus Christ. From that sense of gratitude to God for his Grace comes giving. Of course, none of that helps explain why the disaster occurred in the first place, or whether God had a direct hand in it, or why such things happen, etc. We touched on that subject earlier. Read the book of Job. Scratch your head. Trust.