Japanese Tsumami

[Lonnie]

Lets just assume that there is a God, the God of the NewTestament, Torah and Qur'an, then what would be his/her role in this catastrophe?.

[jomifl]

The last time a tsunami inundated the low land around Sendai was about 1200 years ago with the average period between inundations being 1000 years. That is about 50 generations of habitation, so plenty of time to get ready for the next one.

[237SJ]

jomifl that doesn`t mean it`s going to be 1200 years until the next one. It could happen next week.

[jomifl]

237.. could, but not likely. The reason that there was an earthquake is that when one plate is being subducted (at 8cm per year here) the plates stick and don't slide then unstick to produce an earthquake as the stress in the rock is released. The longer the period the greater the unrelieved stress. If it happened again next year it would be about one thousandth of the recent big quake or 5.9 approximately on the richter scale.( I am open to corrections by an expert in plate tectonics).

[237SJ]

Haven`t there been aftershocks of 7 though?

[CAJ1]

I have recently started attending church, partly because I am getting married there and partly because I want to believe there is something more than this life. However I find it hard to understand like others, why, if there is a God do such bad things happen.

I do believe (just because of the way things have panned out in my life) that everything happens for a reason and there is a lesson to be learnt from everything that happens to you.

[jomifl]

CAJ..Isn't getting married enough to be getting on with..congratulations by the way :-)

[jomifl]

237SJ Yes there were but it seems thatthey mostly weren't in the plane that produced the tsunami,

[237SJ]

In my mind there is a God and I pray to him when I`m in a situation that I have no control over. Praying gives one a sense of control .

[birdie1971]

Keyplus - “I believe it is nice for majority of the people. And more importantly a bigger test for the majority of the people that how they help these people at this difficult time and even more importantly what they have learnt about this life.”

Philosophical claptrap my friend. It's always a 'test' with you religious types isn't it? God creates disaster as a 'test' - when God kills infant children who haven't even had a chance to start their lives properly, how is that a test for them? Or do they do not count in God's great scheme?

God is all knowing. So He knows precisely how each person will react when presented with almost unimaginable horror and loss – and yet knowing the result beforehand, He goes ahead and does it anyway.

If God does exist, then He could have prevented this from happening. But He didn't did He? He's so damn mysterious, anyone would think He wasn't there at all...

[sidkid]

Religion is a concept used by the powerful to control the masses. Been the same throughout history....

[jomifl]

237SJ.. Hi, I forgot to mention that as the Richter scale is logarithmic, an aftershock of 7 is nearly one hundredth the intensity of the big quake (8.9 on the Richter scale)

[CAJ1]

Thanks jomifl :)

[Huderon]

birdie, as a parent you have, within reason, to let your children do things that are risky because it's one of the ways they learn and become independent. You may know that when they fall off the chair they are jumping up and down on they'll get hurt. But it's better for them to find out for themselves by falling off the chair than by falling off the top of a building.

We live on a world where disasters, natural and man made, happen. We can do our best to prevent the man made ones, and deal with the natural ones as best we can. For the faithful such disasters are a test, as are the normal everyday troubles we all have.

God has laid down a set of rules for living well - follow them and you will get to heaven, don't follow them and you'll be sorry. So when you are faced with a disaster of some kind, it's how you behave that matters. The test in is whether you stick with God's rules or not, even when not doing so will make things a lot easier for you.

Even your own questions about how an all knowing God could have let this happen become a test of faith, in the sense that the answer is "I don't know, but I believe anyway". so, congratulations ! Even in your unbelief you are, for the faithful, doing some of God's work in the world !

[Old_Geezer]

Surely the only "role" would be to welcome the souls who have finished their earthly existence into wherever we go next ? Are you implying the disaster was a deity's will somehow ? I suspect there is far less unnecessary interference in what occurs naturally here, than some wish to claim.

[jomifl]

Huderon.. I have just coined a new word as I couldn't find a suitable ready made one, it is 'irrationisation'. Its definition is 'using an irrational argument to justify an unjustifiable conclusion or decision'. Thank you for inspiring my contribution to the English language.

[Huderon]

You're welcome jomifl

Now I guess all I have to do is work out what the irrational argument and unjustified conclusion were

[jomifl]

Correction.. the new word should have been 'irrationalisation, can't think what happened there, must have come over a bit irrational.

[jomifl]

Huderon.. in your own time :-)