Are Natural DisastersActs of God?

PART ONE

I find it hard to believe in God when there is so much suffering

Agree: 52%Disagree: 46%

ICM Research, UK, 2004

Volcanoes

Silversword, Haleakala Volcano, Maui

Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland

Earthquakes

Floods

Snowball Earth?

Theological issues

Scientific issues

Natural disasters

Holuhraun, Iceland, Sept 2014

Volcanic eruptions

Eyjafjallajökull

100,000 Flights cancelled

The Haze Famine, 1783-1784 Iceland

Deaths: 76% horses, 50% cows, 79% sheep & 25% of humans

Saint Pierre, Martinique: Ascension Day 190226,000-36,000 dead

Saint Pierre, Martinique: Ascension Day 190226,000-36,000 dead

‘There is nothing in the activity of Pelée that warrants a departure from St. Pierre.’

(Governor’s Commission of Inquiry, 5th May 1902)

‘The side of the volcano was ripped out, and there was hurled straight toward us a solid wall of flame. … Before the volcano burst the landings of St. Pierre were crowded with people. After the explosion not one living being was seen on land.’

(Charles Thompson, one of 25 survivors out of 68 people on the steamship Roraima offshore St. Pierre on 8th May 1902)

Saint Pierre, Martinique: Ascension Day 190226,000-36,000 dead

Earthquakes

Natural disasters

Loma Prieta, California, 18th October 1989

Magnitude 7.0

57 died

A Tale of Two Earthquakes

Haiti, 12th January 2010

Magnitude 7.0

230,000 died

99.98% of deaths

due to poor construction

and endemic corruption

Turgeau Hospital Digicel Communications

Haiti, new buildings (2009)

Turkey, 1999 Mag 7.6, 17,000 - 40,000 dead

Turkey, 1999 Mag 7.6, 17,000 - 40,000 dead

Tokyo

10-20 m slip

fault area

Caltech-JPL

Japan, 11th March 2011

Historical earthquakes above magnitude 6.5 before AD 1900 Diamonds show major cities destroyed by earthquakes.

759 BC

‘The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa—the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel’ (Amos 1:1)

200 years later:

‘On that day …You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him’ (Zechariah 14:4‒5)

759 BC magnitude 7.3 earthquake near Jerusalem

Are Natural DisastersActs of God?

END OF PART ONE