Hey! Can any of you guys say "Plate tectonics."?
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'How could God let this happen?' Religions grapple with tsunami disaster
HONG KONG (AFP) - As the world tries to make sense of Asia's tsunami
disaster and its massive toll on humanity, clerics of all religions are
grappling with an age-old theological question which challenges even the
most faithful believers: How could God let this happen?
The earthquake and tsunami showed no favour, wiping out Buddhist, Hindu,
and Muslim villages in Sri Lanka, inflicting enormous casualties in
mostly Islamic Indonesia, and devastating parts of strongly Buddhist
Thailand, where Christian and Jewish tourists also perished.
"It was as if God had unleashed his anger on the people," Muslim victim
Haji Ali said the day after tsunamis destroyed his hometown Bireuen in
Indonesia's Aceh province, the area worst affected by the Indian Ocean
disaster.
But is the explanation that simple?
Last week's catastrophe has revived a debate which raged in Europe after
the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, one of the 18th century's worst natural
disasters which led many figures of the enlightenment such as Voltaire
to question the existence of a God who allowed such catastrophes.
The question then was why should Lisbon be so abominably cursed? The
question now is: Why Asia?
"Allah has his own way," said K.H. Ma'aruf, chairman of the Indonesian
Council of Ulema (MUI), the highest authority on Islam in Indonesia,
adding that as "humble humans, there is no way we can comprehend his
infinite wisdom".
"A true believer should believe that his fate and those of others are
entirely in the hands of Allah. If their loved one were killed in the
disaster and they survive, it is because of Allah's will," he said.
In the staunchly Muslim province of Aceh nobody appeared to have lost
their faith -- survivors recited holy Koranic verses while looking for
lost relatives or staying at refugee shelters.
Whatever their religion, people throughout Asia's affected areas turned
to their respective God to help them through the crisis and give praise
for "miracles".
While Muslims in Aceh attributed the survival of dozens of mosques
dotted across the wasteland to divine intervention, rather than the
mosques' sturdier architecture, Catholics in the southern Sri Lankan
town of Matara celebrated the return of a miracle statue that vanished
during the tsunamis and which believers credit with keeping the sea at
bay for 10 to 15 minutes after the first wave hit.
In India, Hindu clerics hurriedly performed religious rites for victims
whose bodies were found and comforted grieving relatives.
"People are saying this phenomenon is the annoyance of god, but it is
not so," said Hindu cleric Madambakkam Sreenivasa Bhattacharyar, chief
priest of the famous Tirupati Tirumala Temple in tsunami-scarred
southern India's Tamil Nadu state.
"It is a natural phenomenon which has manifested because of a multitude
of human mistakes on sky, earth and water. Religious law says the
natural forces change direction because of these mistakes," he said.
"This kind of disaster also happens to tell the people of the existence
of a superpower. But just like in a game of carrom when you hit a coin,
others get hit, the innocent and sinful both get affected. It is not a
test of faith," he said.
As a non-theistic religion Buddhism has no God to whom to attribute the
terrible events, but the earthquake is still viewed as a punishment
humans have brought upon themselves, a Buddhist expert said.
"We have destroyed nature, being selfish and greedy and only aiming for
more prosperity, but never realising that we and nature are one," said
Sulak Sivaraksa in Bangkok.
The tsunamis were a warning from nature that humans have been unkind to
it, he said, just as environmentalists have explained the loss of life
by saying too many properties were built at the shores' edge, urging
people to learn the lessons and to live in harmony with nature.
From Europe to Australia, the question of God's role provoked a
multi-faith debate.
In the Vatican (news - web sites) City Pope John Paul (news - web sites)
II told thousands of Roman Catholics gathered Sunday in St Peter's
Square that God had not abandoned people, calling the calamity "the most
difficult and painful of tests".
In London the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the 70-million strong
worldwide Anglican church, said it was inevitable people would question
their faith but that belief had "survived tests again and again, not
because it comforts or explains but because believers cannot deny what
has been shown or given to them."
But many Christian, Jewish and other religious leaders rejected
suggestions the earthquake was divine wrath.
Asked if the people who suffered were being punished, the Anglican
bishop of South Sydney in Australia, Robert Forsyth, said: "I think
almost certainly not."
"Even Jesus died complaining to God," he said.
The disaster raised other awkward questions for clerics.
What of the souls of those deprived a ritualistic burial? Those interred
in mass graves, buried forever under rubble, or lost at sea?
The Fatwa Commision of the Indonesia's MUI has decreed that the victims
of the disaster in Aceh were martyrs and therefore whether they were
properly buried or not was no longer important for the soul of the
deceased.
But for followers of all faiths, God's command to help others was
perhaps the easiest to understand and to follow.
"We (MUI) have sent our volunteers to Aceh along with aid in the forms
of food, medicine and clothes," said MUI chairman Ma'aruf. "We are also
trying to help efforts to gather and take care of the orphans of the
disaster."
Along the Sri Lankan coast Catholic priest Nihal Nanayakkara has worked
day and night since the tsunami struck, offering shelter and help to
victims and conducting funerals and memorial services.
"I strongly believe that God is giving us this strength," said the
sleep-deprived priest.
And around the world people of all faiths, as well of those of no
theistic faith, continued to donate staggering sums to help the many
millions the disaster affected, most without considering to which God
those victims pray.
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&ncid=1504&e=9&u=/afp
/20050104/ts_afp/asiaquakereligion_050104171157
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John Hachmann aa #1782
Intelligent Design has as much to do with science as reality
television has to do with reality. - Barry Lynn on CNN 12/25/04
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