The Gray Monk

« Claiming the credit ... | Main | Good bye, Mr Chips »

January 03, 2005

The wrong question?

It was in evitable that sooner rather than later we would hear someone raise the question; "how can there be a God if He allows things like this to happen?" Numerous clergymen and no less a person than the Archbishop of Canterbury have been exercised in attempting to provide an answer to this and the parallel question, "Why does God allow these things to happen?"

There is probably no simple answer, but it is, in part, a result of human freewill and our need to adapt our environment, to exploit it, and to enjoy it to the full, while also disregarding some fairly basic and fundamental issues about life itself. I find it interesting that the questions posed above arise mainly in Western Christian society and not especially in the Eastern religions most affected by these natural phenomena. Those churches struggling to answer these questions among their congregations in the Tsunami hit areas are almost all Western Christian implants and several seem to be of the Evangelical tradition - that is; the simplistic "do not interpret the Bible, it is exactly what it says" tradition. Journalists love this sort of question since it gives them a golden opportunity to knock all religious faith and to cast doubt in everyone's mind. Controversy sells papers.

It is true that there is a very difficult element to be addressed here for anyone who believes in a God who loves His creation and those of us to whom He has given the freedom to choose either His perfect grace and the life of Faith in which we do not fear death, or the right to reject it and look for fulfilment in a purely secular and material sense. It is equally interesting to see that the Buddhist communities, while they mourn their dead, do not consider this the work of God, but of some unpleasant local Daemon who has temporarily broken free. Death is a part of the cycle of life and with a creed of reincarnation, the Buddhist hopes to return in a better form, perhaps moving up the scale rather than down it. Hindus also have less problems than most Western Christians with death and it goes without saying that the Muslim faith takes a very pragmatic - almost fatalistic - approach. If you die in a disaster like this, it is the will of God and not something you may or should question.

Christianity has, since the Reformation, moved from a position of accepting that death, however tragic, is a part of the cycle of life, to a position where we are desperate to cheat it. We are afraid of dying, and so, when something like this happens, we find it impossible to simply accept that overpopulation has put large communities into areas which previously would have had small groups, quite probably living in structures or in positions much less suceptible to the effects of a Tsunami. Look at traditional Thai structures, they are boat shaped with floors that are raised at each end of the structure and sit in stilts for foundations. Doors have raised sills, the walls lean inwards, and the structure is all wood. It won't collapse in an earthquake, and it will float in a tsunami! It is our arrogance and greed that drives us to build resorts on the beaches in earthquake zones - and then to build them where the nature of the ground guarantees that the effects of a wave like this will strike with maximum effect. It is the work of men, not of God, which places people in the way of harm and danger.

Similarly, our refusal to address the population pressures (which are also a cause of the extreme poverty in many parts of the world) which ensures that more and more people are forced to live in low lying areas their own ancestors would have shunned - precisely because they had seen or had heard of such events. Ever since we began to interfere in the process of natural selection, by intervening with modern drugs (which are now, through over-use, beginning to lose the war on some ancient bacteria and viral infections!), the populations of the world's poorest nations have been expanding exponentially. Even the wealthier nations are experiencing this expansion, yet, and this is a desperately difficult ethical question; we simply allow it to continue - and at the same time build town, cities, and mass housing in places subject to flooding, earthquake, and every other imaginable kind of natural phenomenon - and then blame God.

Secondly the earth is still "forming", changing, and adapting. It is evolving, even as we are still evolving. It isn't a perfect environment, all settled and perfectly safe; it is a "living" organism which has occassional hiccoughs, eruptions, and the odd twinge of arthritis! Disasters are bound to happen, particularly along the major subduction zones on the earth's crust. It isn't something our God can be expected to intervene in!

God does not "allow" these things to happen - we make it impossible for Him to stop us from creating a situation in which it will happen. God does not desire our being hurt, it is not His "will" that we be hurt, bereaved, or killed; it is His will that we should be free to choose, to live as He would have us live, in peace, in harmony, and caring one for another - but He gave us the choice to do that or to go our own arrogant way.

It is said that out of every tragedy some good arises. It is a remarkable fact that in this one we see Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu all working side by side. Sharing grief, sharing resources, sharing the work, sharing the burden of getting help to the helpless as swiftly as possible. It is at times like this that the true face of God becomes apparent, for this is what He desires for us all - peace, co-operation, and harmony.

God does work in strange and wonderful ways. Sometimes He turns our own confusion, bereavement, and despair into an opportunity in which the true and unadulerated meaning of faith and of His wonderful creation can become apparent. Yes, it is tragic that so many have died in this natural disaster. Yes, there are some hard questions to answer, and yes, there is a need to look carefully at how it can be prevented from happening again. But, perhaps we also need to look long and hard at our attitude to life and death - and to the promise of life beyond death.

The truly faithful of every religion, but particularly those of the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish professions believe emphatically in a life after death. Christians have the additional advantage of knowing that Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph, Son of the Living God, the Christ, rose from the dead and promised that we would join Him there. We cannot profess to believe this day by day and then blame God when someone dies. We cannot claim to hold this faith and blame God when we put ourselves in a place where such a natural event can and does occur.

Those who ask the question, "How can God allow this to happen?" are asking the wrong question. The real question should be "How can I grow in faith so that I may deal with the failures of this world and still hold true to the story of the Gospel?" When we can put behind us the fear of death that is so deep-rooted within Western Christianity that it blinds us to the hope of heaven - unless it
looks like what we are used to in this life - we will no longer feel a need to
blame God when something goes badly wrong. Western Christianity needs to rediscover and recapture the faith of the East, one that accepts that bad things happen, but that there is always the hope of better - if you hold firm to faith in God.

We are all affected by the Tsunami. No one alive today can fail to be moved by the tragedy that has occurred, by the lives cut short, the livelihoods destroyed, and the bereavement for those left behind. We must all continue to give all the help we can and then continue to give all the help we can to address the very serious issues which make these sorts of tragedies ever more likely and ever more disasterous. Just don't blame God!

Posted by The Gray Monk at January 3, 2005 10:22 AM

Comments

Posted by: tioedong at January 3, 2005 02:06 PM

Posted by: stephen bauer at January 3, 2005 08:33 PM