Is it an act of God???

[Lilith]

last night a friend asked me if i thought all of the natural disaters as of late was an act of god or just some fluke of nature?

My answer...

well if ya like to take a religion approch to it all..... all religions have a god weather it be alla, nature it self, or the devil himself, all honor something, so in that respect for me it is an act of god.

I personally have no idea "who's fault " it all is. I do believe that it is all a sign or clue that we the inahbitants of this world need to change some thing about the way we live. weather it be repectful to nature or just being accepting of all the diffrences the inahbitants posses or perhaps just learning to be humble who knows.

All i know is i see it as a sign of some much needed changes.

I was just wondering what all of you thought???

Harmony

[Onyx]

This world is full of pain and suffering. (Maybe because Eve couldn't leave that apple alone and lost Eden for us)?

I don't understand why things like this happen. I've gone round and round in discussions like these and it just ends up with me either losing friends or in endless arguments.

I do believe there is a higher intelligence in the universe, and I don't believe it's because my view of the world is skewed. I've had experiences, answers to prayers at times and other things that have happened in my life that confirm this belief. I have a friend who tells me it's only my altered perceptions of the events in question and the mind's tendency to see order in disorder.

I've come to the conclusion that I have to learn to live without answers, and do what I can to help when people are suffering.

Learning to live without answers is the hardest thing.

[The_Dark]

There is not a damn thing any of us could do to prevent the earth quake and the resulting tsunami in the Indian ocean. Nor can we stop the moutains from eroding or the stars from shining. This is a planet, a living one at that. There are forces at work that we cant even come close to controlling. We can marginally affect the weather over time.. hence global warming histeria... the part no one likes to talk about is that global warming happens every once in a while for no reason we understand. Ice ages happen for no reasons we can find. Earth quakes happen every day... most are so small as to not even be felt. We cant stop them.. Even if we had the power, to do so would "kill" the earth. If you really crack the books you will find that the Earths climate does a flip-flop every 30k years and we are due for such a flip-flop at any time now. No one knows for sure how long this flip-flop takes.. could be days.. could be years. Most likely years though. Global warming and all the crazy weather this year can be attributed to that as easy as anything else... except in this case there is a great deal more science to back it up.

As to if God was involved in this or not.. I dont know... Perhaps he/she did it. The areas most affected at mostly Hindu, Muslims and Buddists. Maybe, just maybe, this is a warning of whats to come if people don't repent their ways and turn to God. Just a thought.. most likely wrong.

[Fierce Critter]

The way I see God's interaction with the Earth & its inhabitants, from the viewpoint of a former Catholic, now non-denominational heathen with pagan tendencies...

I don't discount the hardcore Christian belief in the creation of the Earth and Man. But where my beliefs seem to veer off from there is I feel that, possibly, God created all this, gave it to man and said, "alrighty - I gave you all this great stuff, but now I'm hands-off. Take care of it or ruin it, it's up to you and your 'free will'."

I don't believe in a god who moves people & things (including weather) around like chess pieces, in some Milton Bradley Game of G*O*D, inflicting harm upon some, throwing a 'natural' disaster at others, etc.

I believe in a God that would respond to a prayer/spell/request from an honest, sincere person with an "assist" of some kind. But I think we bring the ugliness and badness entirely down upon ourselves. Conversely, it's in us to bring beauty & good to ourselves and those around us. OUR choice, not the movement of some higher being who gets their jollies like some playground bully.

And any geography class will explain why the earthquake and ensuing tsunami happened. The earth is a living, moving thing - tectonic plates move all the time, and this one just happened to move a LOT.

[JaneDead]

ditto critter ^^

[LuthienTheFallen]

natural selection at its finest

[SomeDanGuy]

Dark - you're right in that these cycles happen. The concern about the current one (global warming), however, is that it is happening at a much much much faster pace than usual.

I blame the earthquake on techtonic plate movement.

[The_Dark]

Compared to when?

[Troy Spiral (13)]

As my "where did it all come from" (the universe)current answer is : Don't know (unfortunately)

And my "what's the point" (the universe) current answer is : Don't know (unfortunately)

If i was forced to answer the above with a yes/no: I guess I'd be stuck with "no"