What was God's plan?

Maybe someone can use of this concrete example to explain some religious concepts.

What was God's plan with the tsunami in the Indian Ocean? What part did free will play in the deaths of tens of thousands of people? What did they do, or fail to do to deserve what happened to them? The only thing I can think of was that most of the dead were poor, uneducated people who were not bothering anyone. Was this one of those challenges that God generously hands out, that never exceed people's ability to deal with them?

If anyone can rationalize this for me, I might just have to consider some kind of conversion. Thank you.

 

it is free will for the planets plates to shift, thus causing a tsunami.


non believers could ask this about simple earthquakes, and collapsing buildings..


i don't know the answer either papa. i just look at the planet, and the human body, and many other amazing things, and just know that it can't be an accident. there has to be a creator.


that's just me.

 

Actually, I have never fought the idea of a creator. What I have a hard time believing is the existence of a manager. And if he does, the idea that he cares. I could very easily be convinced that there was a creator who then died or went on to something else.

 

It's just a tragic act of nature. KMFEGAN will be by shortly to tell you it's because God is evil and everything I say is suitable for fertilizing your yard or something, but it was just a 3' shift in a techtonic plate that caused a lot of water to smash up against the shore. They did nothing to deserve it; terrible things happen to good and bad people all of the time indescriminantly.

If you are looking for spiritual meaning, take from it that nothing is certain in life aside from the harsh fact that it can end at any time. From a religious sense, it's can be an obvious sign that you should make yourself right with God in whichever way you keep Him at all times. Most religious minded individuals see death as part of the cycle of life; an often scary and sad part, but not then end of things. For the atheists and agnostics, I would merely take it as a reminder of life's finiteness and use it as a springboard to live my life to its fullest, to use the old cliche', and have no regrets once it is all over because there are virtually no guarantees about how it will all work itself out.

-Cheers

 

Holy Crap! For once we agree on something!



-Cheers

 

Brad/Papa -

Maybe we are trial and error. Dinosaurs didn't work. Maybe there was a previous earth that finally went "BOOM" and this is the next chance to see if harmonious existence can be sustained?

I'm one of those thinking Hippies. I understand evolution and the theory of creation and can go to bat for both. See I beleive that man certainly evolved, but that first amoeba had to come from somewhere.

 

If you're looking for it, Genesis sounds a lot like a dumbed-up version of the Big Bang theory and evolution, on a simpler level that is. As stated before, Darwin seemed to believe in, or at the very least not to have ruled out the notion of, God. So I think the Theory of Evolution and the Big Bang Theory can fit into religion just fine if you can save some room for symbolism.

I don't think we're just trial & error though. If you're Xtian, it seems like a lot of work for an Omnipresent, Omnipotent, All-Knowing God to create a world he knew wasn't going to work, destroy it, create a new one, send his son to live as a man and die a cruel, terrible death to save those who believed in Him for the sake of trial and error to an experiment He already knows the result of. But that's just a guess at best. It doesn't mean we're the only ones this is happening to; the Universe is a big place, and I enjoyed The X-Files and Star Wars too much to entirely discount the idea of other lifeforms out there.

-Cheers

 

That's an interesting theory. I've wondered if something catastrophic might happen at some point to prevent us from overpopulating the earth like lemmings. It is kind of hard to imagine the current population growth curve staying constant indefinitely.

Anybody read "The Stand"?

-Cheers

 

It did..

Aids, Cancer, (insert various other diseases here)

Tsunamis, Eartquakes, (insert various other "natural catastrophe)

Chemical spill, bio-outbreaks (insert various other stupid things man has done to control his own population)


I beleive the population control is out there, he just believe we are doing a much greater job of handling ourselves.

 

After "The Garden" scene, I believe "The Plan" is to see how we work things out.

The life, death and resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sign that no matter how bad it gets, we can have life everlasting through forgiveness

 

Re: Re: What was God's plan?

If i build a house and part of it collapses and knocks you dead, it's not just a tragic act. the fact that my house collapsed may not have meaning in itself, but my looking the other way as you suffered and died certainly would.

 

i grew up in church and by no means do i claim to be anything more than a human who tries everyday to be a positive example. with that said i'm not bible thumping, just giving you some insight...

The Bible states that there will be an increase in the number of earthquakes in the last days (Mat. 24:7). The critics state that the reason that we see more now than say 300 years or more is because we now have the equipment to measure these tremors. I guess this is a possibility so in my search for the truth, I only counted earthquakes of a magnitude of 7.0 and higher. Most other Biblical researchers use 6.0, which is a pretty good jolt, some use 6.5, which is significantly higher. Just in case you weren't aware, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake is 10 times more powerful than a 6.0, and a 6.2 is ten times more powerful than a 6.1. For this little study, that means that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake is a whopper (10*10*10*10*10*10*10*10*10*10 bigger than a 6.0). Surely something this big will be recorded and you don't need any scientific instrument to notice it! (internet)

Matthew 24:7

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

God gives warnings...we just don't heed them

 

Don't you guys read the New York Times?

The events in Asia, tragic as they are, have all been blamed on Karl Rowe and his role in the re-election of GWB.

Definitely the work of some sort of vast, right-wing conspiracy. Hillary warned us years ago.

 

Re: Re: What was God's plan?

Worldwide situation 57 million deaths per year. That’s 156,164 human beings per day.

AIDS deaths in 2001: 3 million...that's over 8,000 deaths per day

Every year 1.2 million people are killed in road crashes worldwide, and up to 50 million more are injured = 3,400 deaths per day.

One out of every 12 children dies before the age of five. 30,137 deaths per day = one death every three seconds.

Abortion, 46 million abortions per year 126,000 per day.

When you say goodbye to someone you love....mean it .

 

It was Allah's answer to Osama and the rest of those the Murder in his name....

 

Re: Re: What was God's plan?

And it was also completely outside of the teachings of Islam to kill innocent civilians, which would explain why virtually all Muslims not a part of Al Qaeda (or any of the other extremist sects currently taking in terrorist actions) found the attacks so repulsive. Allah did NOT tell Osama to murder anybody, it was Osama taking things into his own hands by audaciously misinterpreting the heart of all religions sprouting out of the Old Testament.

-Cheers

 

Re: Re: What was God's plan?

And it was also completely outside of the teachings of Islam to kill innocent civilians, which would explain why virtually all Muslims not a part of Al Qaeda (or any of the other extremist sects currently taking in terrorist actions) found the attacks so repulsive. Allah did NOT tell Osama to murder anybody, it was Osama taking things into his own hands by audaciously misinterpreting the heart of all religions sprouting out of the Old Testament.

-Cheers

 

Re: Re: What was God's plan?

You know, reading stuff like this just makes me wanna

 

Re: Re: Re: What was God's plan?

Why? It is too vague to be offensive.