Tsunami was Gods Retribution?

Post by **Alatar** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 1:43 pm

Note: I am not posting this to mock anyone, I just find this pretty bizarre and worthy of discussion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iagLg45lAc

I guess the problem is, if you believe in a God who answers prayers etc, you have to sort of accept the corollary.

Post by **yovargas** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 2:38 pm

I can't watch youtube vids at work but assuming it's somebody saying the catastrophe was god's punishment for something or the other - pretty much any time any big tragic event happens there's somebody out there claiming it was god's doing. Usually just laugh, roll my eyes, and move on...

Post by **axordil** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 2:53 pm

I guess the problem is, if you believe in a God who answers prayers etc, you have to sort of accept the corollary.

Not necessarily. It's also possible whoever made the video is just a hateful, nasty excuse for a human being who happens to think they're Christian.

Whenever something awful happens to believers, or rather, believers of the same stripe (because everyone else is a heretic) it's "God works in mysterious ways." When something happens to non-believers God's ways are suddenly straightforward and obvious.

So yovargas's response is probably best after all.

Post by **Alatar** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 3:35 pm

Its none of those things. Its a Fox News report on a Religious poll.

Post by **axordil** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:24 pm

Huh--I saw the link and thought it was one I'd seen last week, where a clueless young thing was blaming the Tsunami on the atheists in Japan. Sorry for the mixup.

Doesn't change what I said, though, really.

Post by **vison** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:49 pm

Well, I think it's bally well time the other versions of god smote the people who think any god smote Japan.

For the luvva pete.

Why is the world so full of morons?

Post by **nerdanel** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 7:03 pm

I'm not sure how many people who are commenting here actually watched the video link, which is only 1:46 long, but the poll essentially reported on three survey questions. The first said that a significant minority of Americans believed that the tsunami was a "sign from God." The second said that a minority of Americans believe that God can smite nations to punish them (but that question did not seem linked specifically to the Japanese). The final question said that a slight majority of Americans believe that God has control over all things.

It is impossible to tell from the juxtaposition of those three questions how many people believe that the earthquake/tsunami specifically was evidence of "smiting." Something can be a "sign" without being "retribution." But yes, some minority of Americans are apparently arrogant enough to believe that they can discern which natural disasters are intended as divine retribution.

I was reading the other day that the odds were 98.5%+ that Northern California will be hit with a major (~7+) magnitude earthquake during the next thirty years. What is even more certain than that earthquake is its aftermath: we will be advised repeatedly by the likes of Phelps, Falwell, and Robertson - or whomever has replaced them - that the earthquake was Divine punishment for San Francisco's social liberalism and "sexual deviancy." To set the stage for this punishment, I hear that this divinity has been implementing a "San Andreas fault" directly under the people to be disciplined via natural disaster.

Post by **yovargas** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 7:20 pm

Just saw it. Gotta say I'm dubious that that can be right. More than 1 in 3 believe the tsunami was a "sign from God"? I don't buy it.

Post by **Túrin Turambar** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:25 pm

Something like 40% of Americans take the Bible literally, so the idea that 1 in 3 see natural disasters as a sign from God doesn't seem too implausible to me. Of course, polls like this are subject to major sampling errors anyway.

Post by **Frelga** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:48 pm

Was the poll of "Americans" or "Fox News viewers"?

Post by **Holbytla** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 11:17 pm

I've heard about these polls and judgments for a couple of weeks now, and as cynical as I am, I'm not surprised. I am also willing to bet that there is a significant portion of the Japanese population that feels the same way.

I don't know for a fact who is right or wrong, but I would think that dealing with the people in need would be more of a priority that assigning blame.

Post by **halplm** » Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:29 am

100% of people surveyed in this poll who answered the questions presented to them feel their opinions should be considered in all studies that are actually interested in the answers to the questions presented to them. All other inquiries should just shut up and go away.

Post by **Impenitent** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 12:57 am

?

Don't understand your statement, Hal.

And I agree with L_M

Post by **Alatar** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:44 am

I didn't understand it either. Regarding sampling errors, I think they were stated to be in the order of 3% either way

Post by **Ethelwynn** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 1:59 am

I feel sorry for God, considering how much he gets blamed for that really isn't his doing. Where did we lose the idea that sometimes nasty stuff just happens, and we need to pick up the pieces and get on with life?

Post by **Lidless** » Thu May 12, 2011 9:08 am

Every (natural) disaster has some religious type saying it's God's judgement on an immoral society. It's a worldwide thing - even in the UK.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... shops.html

Post by **Dave_LF** » Thu May 12, 2011 1:47 pm

There seems to be an near-universal human tendency to claim that random calamities are punishment for society's hedonistic ways and that the only way to regain the gods' favor is by making sacrifices to appease them. I even catch a whiff of this from progressive types from time to time when they talk about global climate change.

Post by **yovargas** » Thu May 12, 2011 2:19 pm

Dave_LF wrote:I even catch a whiff of this from progressive types from time to time when they talk about global climate change.

Indeed. I get a strong sense of pseudo-deification of "Mother Nature" amongst many leftists and environmentalists. I'm not particularly fond of the mindset.

Post by **Frelga** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:35 pm

I want to make two things clear - I don't believe that God communicates with us through indiscriminate destruction, and I am hoping and praying for the safety of everyone in the path of recent and coming tornados.

That said.

I find myself wishing that the same, supposedly god fearing, folks who cry God's wrath every time we in California get a tremor, applied this sort of thinking to their own behavior.

Post by **narya** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:47 pm

It's quite possible that those in California that think God needs to apply a little wrath hereabouts are assuming the worst of other people's behavior, not their own.

I agree that indiscriminate destruction is an obtuse way to motivate people.