I have family in Texas. My thoughts are with them and I would gladly offer anything I have to assist them as they work to rebuild their lives. Thoughts and a willingness to help set aside for a moment, I see no meaningful or practical reason to pray for them. A group of Texans who, shortly before Ike made landfall, fervently prayed that God would direct Ike away from Texas, shattered all illusions that God was even remotely interested as the 600 mile-wide storm angrily plowed ahead. If God couldn't bothered to intercede before Ike kicked the hell out of Texas, what would serve as his motivation to provide comfort now, as people pick through piles of garbage searching for precious mementos of a former life?

A particularly heart-breaking image was that of a women, convulsed with anguish, hands buried in her hands, standing in front of what 24 hours earlier had been her home.

She has nowhere to go and little left of of what used to be her life. She could do little to conceal her depression and deep shock. Standing in front of a pile of what might generously be called kindling, some commented in the larger part of the story that at least God had seen fit--replete with loving kindness--to spare her life. Presumably those people (like me) are writing from a warm home that is still standing.

It is absurd to suggest that because one is left alive but in a state of incomprehensible loss that God has illustrated the very best evidence of his love. If I were to destroy things very dear and important to you, would your anger be assuaged if I argued that hope should be found, and in fact, that thanks should be offered me because I left you with your life? Can you honestly imagine a more grotesque line of reasoning or a more sadistic pathology?

So where does this leave not only the good people of Texas but the rest of us? Viewed traditionally, we are left to search for some type of meaning. We are left to discover and then to deploy in defense of a loving god, reasons in justification of "lessons" god is presumably attempting to teach us. The spiritual gymnastics it takes to wrap the mind and heart around such destruction as god purchased a front row ticket for the show, is nearly impossible.

There is however, a more substantial way to view Ike, Texas, and the search for meaning. Is it not possible that Ike was not created by or directed by god? Could it be that Ike formed as a result of a tropical depression off the west coast of Africa and that after forming, simply traveled according oceanic currents and meteorological mechanisms?

That idea is far more comforting to me than to justify a loving creator ignoring the very people who prayed for reprieve. It is more comforting to me to know that storms happen as part of complex climate implications and not because god was bored and looked to "teach" people to be thankful for life as the remnants of their homes washed out to sea with each rising tide.

God can be neither thanked or held in contempt for things if one simply concludes that physics, and not ignored prayers and pleas drive such catastrophic events.

To view Ike as created, as "allowed" and as pre-determined, forces a person to grapple with the worst part of faith and scarier still, the worst part of a god, who, outside of promising to protect, once again has failed to answer the very prayers those who believe on his name, offered, with both sincerity and hope.

-Drew

god does answer all prayers




usually her answer is , NO

God always answers our prayers...but sometimes He simply says No.

I don't believe that God has any (or much) control over lives or the world. I do believe, however, that God can give us strength, courage, wisdom and whatever else we need to find solutions for our troubles and to keep going through our life despite adversity.

Nice article Drew. And good points.

Disasters can be viewed as 'disaster' and you can curse God for them if they took your house or someone you love, or you can thank God for sparing your baby and you life, that is, if you believe in a God at all....

But they are going to happen. We aren't living in a Utopian heaven here, we are on the earth. It is promised to be a place of life and death and lots of joy and sorrow. How you handle it and how you help your fellow man and your attitude towards the challenges of of life are what really counts.

Life itself is a challenge and a test of the spirit or the person. You can go through life with an angry and fearful attitude and curse God and your neighbors if you choose but that kind of attitude will likely attract unwanted experiences into your life.

My niece's town was hit by a tornado that demolished her mobile home and the high school near her. She was a very well liked and helpful person in the community and a lady literally gave her a new mobile home that was larger than the one she had been living in, and a furniture store gave her carpet and furnishings. The red cross was there offering food and water for everyone.

These types of experiences can sometimes bring out the best and sometimes the worst in people. They do test the human spirit.

JB

Drew:

There is however, a more substantial way to view Ike, Texas, and the search for meaning. Is it not possible that Ike was not created by or directed by god? Could it be that Ike formed as a result of a tropical depression off the west coast of Africa and that after forming, simply traveled according oceanic currents and meteorological mechanisms?

That idea is far more comforting to me than to justify a loving creator ignoring the very people who prayed for reprieve. It is more comforting to me to know that storms happen as part of complex climate implications and not because god was bored and looked to "teach" people to be thankful for life as the remnants of their homes washed out to sea with each rising tide.


if you had not written the above^^, i would have.

We have choices just like i did as to where we live [at least as adults] and i chose to live in south Florida off and on for over 30 yrs. in 04, and 05, i lost my apartment and business those 2 years in a row, the lesson? if you live in a area that has hurricanes you may loose your homes, life, etc.. the answer MOVE!! are their any "SAFE" places? well not really - but some are much safer than others. I think of those in california that know they are living in an earthquake zone or high risk fire areas and yet they "choose" to live their?? Now for those who are unable to relocate for various reasons my heart goes out to all, but those who know the dangers and choose to live there anyway - it does not. Sorry, that's not gods fault or anyone Else's but their own.I'm not hard hearted, just against those who think that god is going to protect them from what common sense and logic that he supposedly gave them tells them is not a very smart thing to do - sooner or later disasters that happen yearly will catch anyone even me if the obvious signs are not heeded.


happy in "OHIO" - tribo

Warnings are allways ignored by humans.

Build your houses not upon the sand.

Ain't none of this the doing of god.

Knowing that a volcano is hot we build houses on its sides... then blame god when they burn.

Knowing that storms clense our beaches and purifiy waterfronts we build houses in their paths and blame god when those houses become nothing.

Knowing that in this place the earth moves from time to time we build houses upon the cracks and dare the earth to bring them down.

Which it will as sure as the clock that runs this closed cycle machine that is our planet strikes that time.

How can any of that be gods fault.

Free will and knowledge.

then one we use the other we ignore.

God didn't cause Ike, its just bad weather.

I love the gulf coast and the east coast, but if you live there, your going to eventually get a hurricane, storm surge, all that nasty stuff we have had to deal with.

When God fails me he fails everyone.

I agree with adventurebegins, warning are always given but often people dont adhere becoz they got so absorded into materialism. People are very weak in the spiritual realm.

Becoz of peoples greed in materialism, we have choose to destroy a innocent life supporting world our good Lord had created. Basically we choose to destroy our own habitation.

Humanity has been contending with the forces of nature and natural disaster as far back as our origins and attempts at comprehending the environment that surrounds us. Well before recorded history. Destruction of this magnitude is going to occur and will continue to happen. The truth of the matter is that Gaea (Mother Earth) could shake us all off like fleas on a dog and begin again.Yet another illusion man has created for himself is the false sense of security and control over the elements

Drew - my best wishes to your family members as they start anew ....

...there is this piece of me that sees the wonderous possibilities of re-creating life amid what appears to be chaos. An opportunity to keep what fits, to let go of that which is no longer comfortable and to make room for something new ...

The resilience of the human spirit leaves me breathless...

I love that analogy, shake us off like fleas on a dog.

What amazes me about the "lessons in loss" argument is that no one wants to endure it. Some people justify suffering (when a god is in the picture) as a test, something to make us appreciate more, all we have. But if that is so, then why don't people simply impose the lesson without prompting?

If anyone really believes that having your home reduced to splinters of wood is character building then Home Depot should have a sudden rush on large hammers as people seek to experience the same. But that goes against everything we truly believe as it relates to self-preservation instincts.

It's easier to conclude that weather happens, that tropical depressions simply occur as part of larger global patterns and events. When a god is injected into the situation so is the morality of the event. It does not help at all that we name storms. But it is even less help to believe that in some small (or large) way, we are being taught a lesson.

What lesson?

-Drew

Any lesson learned in those situations is a personal one. There is no "specific" lesson to be learned. I could give some examples but what would be the point? If you have an experience and you don't learn anything at all from it, according to what I believe, (Karma and the Law of Attraction etc.) then the chances are very high that you will experience something similar again. So it would behoove people to learn something from every experience.

On the other hand, they could just feel sorry for themselves and curse God and the weather and be angry about it for the rest of their lives. Yeh, they could do that.

JB

I don't believe in the notion of 'being taught a lesson' here ... nor in some deity who says yes to some and no to others 'for their own good'...

That does not mean, however, that we cannot learn very valuable things about ourselves when faced with great and small loss or adversity. In such circumstances, we do indeed, find out what we are capable of.

I hope that no one took from my last post that lessons cannot be learned through adversity. That is not at all what I meant. What I did mean was that if a moral agent of some sort is infused into the situation then the "lesson" becomes very subjective. I don't see that as a lesson in the traditional sense. I do see rising above circumstances in an effort to reconstruct not so much a lesson as a hard-wired "drive". We all react biologically to events. If someone throws something at you, you don't think about moving, you move. We overcome a lot in life because our survival (literally) depends upon doing so.

But when a tornado or a hurricane destroy half of a state I don't believe there is a god of any sort imposing lessons for the purposes of edification. I do understand that when something powerful, something that cannot be stopped, visits us, there is, at times, a wish that allows people to reach for something even more powerful. But that is also where the problems start because to hold that line of thinking it would appear (at least along the TX coast) like Ike won.

Just my thoughts.

-Drew