Sometimes I wonder

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ILoveTheLordGod

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Why are there typhoons and earthquakes?

Here in the Philippines, we just had a typhoon (hurricane, in other words) and this question sprung up in mind.

No, this is not a question about God’s existence, I’m just asking:

Is God responsible for these events? If so, then why does He allow that?

Well, one possible comparison I can make is that God still loves the world. It’s comparable to the way a child is punished by his parents for doing something wrong, but the parents still love him. It just so happens that when speaking about God, the punishments are a lot heavier, but so are the rewards.

What do you think? What’s your point of view?
 
There are typhoons and earthquakes because the only way human beings might have come about was by living on what Star Trek would call a type-M Planet. 😃 Such natural ‘disasters’ are only described as such by we sentient, moral beings. They are essential in the right-ordering of an ecosystem. Tectonic arrangements shift forever and ever, and planets shift in their orbits until they are obliterated by a dying sun. These are the facts of the laws of physics.

God is responsible indirectly, in that He created the systems in which these natural events must occur. It is a great balancing act. In a sense, without all the rules and laws behind typhoons, there could be no human life on Earth.
 
Some of these disasters are not even caused by God. Us humans are responsible for global warming and nuclear testing conducted on the earth´s surface or underground. Godbless
 
There are typhoons because of the different weather systems on earth…high and low pressure areas, and temperature differences. I don’t think God uses these things to punish people, but it is possible! However, I think most typhoons and natural disasters are just random effects of the wonderful and complicated weather system we have.

Our weather system is wonderful because it allows plants and animals to exists, it allows rains to water our crops, it allows different seasons and diverse, interesting climates. However, it is not “perfect” in that it is not like the garden of Eden, with no disasters. Sometimes its to hot, sometimes its too cold, too wet, too dry, etc. Sometimes it is a combination of too wet and too windy and typhoons and hurricanes happen. We aren’t in heaven yet, so we can’t expect the weather to be perfect!

Natural disasters exist because God made the earth diverse, beautiful, complicated, powerful, and sometimes dangerous! It is our human will and faith in God that helps us overcome such disasters and challenges.

I heard it said once: “If it were not for the raging storms in life, we would never know God’s strength [to deliver us, protect us, and help us overcome].” 🙂

Maybe disasters like this occur so God can show us He is stronger than all of them, and together we can overcome even terrible, terrible things…not just every day little problems.
 
ILoveTheLordGod said:
Why are there typhoons and earthquakes?

Here in the Philippines, we just had a typhoon (hurricane, in other words) and this question sprung up in mind.

No, this is not a question about God’s existence, I’m just asking:

Is God responsible for these events? If so, then why does He allow that?

Well, one possible comparison I can make is that God still loves the world. It’s comparable to the way a child is punished by his parents for doing something wrong, but the parents still love him. It just so happens that when speaking about God, the punishments are a lot heavier, but so are the rewards.

What do you think? What’s your point of view?
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As Glorious Order put it so well, it’s a consequence of the type of planet we live on.

Typhoons/hurricanes are neccesary for the redistribution of energy in the atmosphere. Without this, much of our planet could not support even basic life forms.

Earthquakes are a result of plate tectonics, which appear to be neccesary for a planet like ours to support life. Without plate tectonics, our planet couldn’t recycle the carbon in it’s atmosphere (not this won’t help save us from global warming!), the minerals neccesary for plants and animals would’ve been depleted long ago and the planet would be all ocean.

The planet Venus, our closest neighbour, is similar in size to Earth. It doesn’t have plate tectonics, probably because it lost all its water due to a runaway greenhouse effect. The planet has an atmosphere that presses down on the surface with 90 times that of our own planet’s. The surface temperature is hot enough to melt lead. It rains sulphuric acid. And because of the lack of plate tectonics, the heat under the planet’s crust can’t escape easily. We think that every few hundred million years, there may be a planet-wide episode of volcanic activity. The whole surface is a sea of lava. Life obviously could not survive this.

Without these things, lifeforms like ours would be impossible. So if there weren’t typhoons and earthquakes, there wouldn’t be humans.
 
What is intrinsically evil about natural disasters in particular, or pain and suffering in general?

Chuck
 
Just the natural result of lfe on a living planet that responds to temperature, atmospherics, etc. Truthfully I dunno but I’m sure an earth scientist would vouch for some positive effects of these events or fatal consequences of living on a stagnant like planet.
 
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