Natural Disasters

One of the most common arguments against the existence of God is the presence of pain and suffering. Can God not do anything about it? Or does he just not care?

To the extent that pain and suffering is caused by human agency, the easy and readily apparent answer is free will. God allows people to choose whether they will be good or evil, kind or cruel, loving or hateful, careful or careless, because he doesn’t want robots. And what is more important, free will allows us to choose or reject him. In his estimation, the people who choose God and all that he stands for are worth enduring the people who choose otherwise.  

But what about natural disasters, like hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, etc.? Why does he allow natural disasters that take lives and cause devastation, pain, and suffering? As a partial answer to this question, below is an excerpt from what I wrote on this topic in Chapter 3 of my first book, Beyond Blind Faith, entitled “Why Do Bad Things Happen (to Me)?” (copyright 2017, 2019):[1]

When things are going well for us, our natural inclination is to ignore God. We pretend we don’t need Him. His Truth—and even His existence—become trivial matters, unworthy of our attention, because we believe we are doing just fine without Him. I was once such a person.

This attitude is often defeated by pain, suffering, or fear of death. Calamities force us to recognize how fragile and helpless each of us truly is. We are at the mercy of powerful forces all around us. And when we finally understand our own weakness, we are ready to turn back to God.^[2]

This also explains why He does not prevent the deaths of young people. If He guaranteed each of us at least thirty years of life, far too many of us would delay making a decision about Him until we got close to our thirtieth birthday. Fear of death started me on the path that eventually led me to God.

For a fuller discussion about why “bad” things happen, click here to see my prior blog entry on that topic. And for an even fuller discussion of the topic, read Chapter 3 of my first book, Beyond Blind Faith, entitled “Why Do Bad Things Happen (to Me)?” (copyright 2017, 2019)

But what if one of these “bad” things happens to you or to someone you love? Click here to read more on that topic.

If you would like more information about any of my books, including descriptions, a list of contents, and excerpts from each book, you can click here or click on “Don’s Books” at the top of this web page.

[1]. This is not, and is not intended to be, a complete answer to the question of why God allows natural disasters or other sources of pain and suffering, such as disease. For a much more complete and detailed discussion of this topic, please see Chapter 3 of Beyond Blind Faith.

[2]. Perhaps nowhere is this principle better illustrated than in the Old Testament book of Judges. Time after time, the Israelites fall away from God and begin practicing evil, and each time they are brought to repentance through suffering. See Judges 3:5-9, 3:12-15, 4:1-3, 6:1-6, and 10:6-10. See also Exodus 2:23. And see Chapter 7, “Is Yahweh an Ogre?”