I got in “trouble” in another thread for saying that I believe that sometimes nature just happens and God doesn’t always
cause things like natural disasters (one person even questioned my faith in God).
I believe that God certainly can cause natural disasters and diseases, but that most of the time these bad things are just the course of nature. Basically, I don’t believe God micromanages the universe (well, unless He feels like it on any given day. I attribute all good things to Him, but think that some things, like the earthquake in Haiti, is not the “work” of God (although I concede that God can cause natural disasters if he wants to). Is it official Catholic teaching that God is ALWAYS directing every bad event on Earth?
Also, doesn’t God sometimes allow Satan to make bad things happen?
Ultimately He’s responsible since He designed the whole thing. If a flood happens in Pakistan such as we’ve just seen, or there is a tsumani which kills 300,000 people in a few hours, then in the long run He is responsible. In that respect, it is an “Act of God”.
We may be responsible to some extent for “global warming” due to enormously wasteful burning of fossil fuel. But at the same time He has so directed history that we now live in a super industrial age (in the West anyway).
I also think He uses or predestines some natural disasters to serve a purpose. Was the storm which destroyed the Spanish Armada an “Act of God” with a purpose, or was it a merely lucky coincidence from the British point of view? Some of the areas hit by the tsumani were subject to endemic warfare and terrorism - Aceh, sri Lanka for example (yet others were not eg. Thailand). it was noticeable that the terror waned for a while, and in Aceh seemed to leave a salutary effect. Was God teaching all parties a lesson?
In Victoria in Australia, legislation was passed basically allowing open slather for abortion in October 2008 (I thnk) and at the end of 2008, only a few weeks later, they had the worst bushfires in their history, killing nearly 200 people? Co-incidence or a warning?
I think God can be pretty ruthless at times. For example at Akita, on the anniversary of the completion of the apparitions at Fatima, Our Lady once again spoke to Agnes with these prophetic words, “As I told you , if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible chastisement on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one has never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.”
Let’s assume that’s a real warning. If so, how is God going to carry out such a punishment? Will it be self inflicted by us through, for example, climate change, economic collapse and the inevitable wars which follow, nuclear war? Or will it be a very widespread natural disaster? And it’s Biblical - it is the Father who is going to send these things. it was the Father to whom Christ appealed to forgive his persecuters.
Ultimately, since God set up the system, He’s responsible. Unfortunately the poor usually suffer the most, since the rich find a way to insulate themselves to some extent. In a flood prone area, they’ll buy the high land. In earthquake areas, they’ll ensure their own structures are firmly anchored. If a mid Western town is subject to tornadoes, the absentee farm landlords will live miles away, while others actually do the work.
Most of the time the disasters are the result of natural forces, simply set up by Him, But sometimes I think He schedules such events as a warning or judgment. By the sound of it He’s got something up His sleeve even now. I remember my old Protesant pastor saying (and he was not given to Last Days stuff much), that he thought “I think He’s doing something to the sun.” The sun has gone very quiet lately, and some scientists are expecting an ultra violent sun storm sometime in 2012. Whether that will be part of it, or just a stronger than usual solar flare, I don’t know. But I do know the old pastor was usually right in what he said. If he “thought” something was going to happen, it usually did. Basically he wasn’t really “thinking” it. I believe God was actually telling him, in a subtle spiritual way. And he was holy enough that he usually got it right.
