September 12, 2005 - God's Will in Disasters:
What's the weirdest thing you've eaten?

So what's happening in Louisiana right now? The death toll is nowhere close to what they originally thought, at 659 across five states (474 in Louisiana), as opposed to the 10,000 that was originally quoted. The levies were known as a problem, After 9/11 it was one predicted to be one the three next terrible disasters in the US and nothing had been done about it. The government in Louisiana is really corrupt and money that was dog-eared to fix the levies has disappeared elsewhere. There have actually been recommendations to protect New Orleans since the 90's, by fixing the levies or improving the marshland. There was a mandatory evacuation the day before the hurricane hit but a lot of people just ignored it. 30% of New Orleans lives in abject poverty with 100,000 people who have no transportation. Also a lot of people have very cavalier attitudes about weather that they are use to, just like people from Colorado driving in the snow. And they kind of were right to stay, the city did survive the hurricane, it was the storm surge that broke the levies. After the flooding, France and Germany offered pumps and filters, and Cuba even offers medicine and 1000 some doctors to help out, but a lot most of these offers be declined.

Were the people in New Orleans just asking for it, tempting God by living in a place where just such a disaster was blatantly apparent? It was going to happen it wasn't a question of if, but of when.

New Orleans wasn't in any way selected for annihilation, but where was God's presents in New Orleans or in Biloxi?

Whatever part he played in the storm, we know he was there in the aftermath, through the actions of other people.

God doesn't say he'll stop the hurricane, but he will give you strength not to fear the hurricane.

Maybe it was a test of faith?

Free will would be meaningless if God protected us from the consequences of our choices, and the consequence of living in Hurricane Alley is dealing with hurricanes, and the consequence of living 12 feet below sea level in dealing with flooding.

God can bring out something amazingly good from something evil. Maybe God's just giving us the opportunity to do something good for our fellow man.

You have to remember though that death is not necessarily an evil act. When we die hopefully we make it to heaven and that is definitely better.

Is God responsible for the hurricane? He's responsible for the mechanism that produced the hurricane.

Death and suffering are not a part of God's original plan for humans; they are both a result of original sin.

Allowing it to happening and then bringing good from it is different then the ends justify the means.

We are not the center of God's plan, God and God's Grace, is the center of God's plan.

It's dangerous to say that God wanted us to sin so that he could show us how much he loved us by dying for us.

Instead of worrying about those who died we should be trying to help those who lived through it with both physically and spiritually.

God never had to create anything, he shared the goodness of live out of love.

If God just set the equation for nature and then let them run, then God's presence in disasters is in how we respond to them and how we try to help others. But with a watchmaker god that means God also created bacteria and other natural things that kill and cause evil.

When God created everything He said it was good and that does not work with a watchmaker god.

God is not to blame for the hurricane, He is not the director of the hurricane, He is just trying to direct our reaction to the hurricane.

God doesn't inflict suffering on us because we sin, it the sin itself that causes the suffering. C. S. Lewis said "The world is full of pain because the world is enemy controlled territory."