Garth George: Why did God allow this disaster? What a silly question

The day after Christians around the world celebrated the anniversary of the birth of their Saviour, Jesus Christ, the bowels of the Earth moved and a tidal wave roared across the oceans leaving death and destruction on a vast scale in its wake.

Among those who died will have been thousands of Christians who only the day before had given heartfelt thanks to their Creator God for the gift of his Son.

Which seems to present a problem to a great number of people - ironically nearly all of them non-believers - who have been quick to ask the silly question: "Why did God allow this to happen?"

It's a silly question because mankind has been asking it since time immemorial every time something nasty happens and no one has ever been able to give a satisfactory answer.

I haven't the answer, either. A lot of far greater minds than mine have pronounced at great length on the age-old conundrum of pain and suffering, and none has ever got much further than the inevitable conclusion, "We don't know".

Still, an awful lot of people seem to be taken with this matter. When I typed "God and tsunami" into the google search engine it came up with around 800,000 hits.

Among them is a report from the Melbourne Age quoting the Anglican Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, supported by the Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsythe, saying that disasters are part of God's warning that judgment is coming.

Which, of course, is twaddle. Jesus himself told us that God "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust".

These parsons would do well to take note of their ultimate boss, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who in a rather laboured dissertation on the disaster in the Sunday Telegraph in London at least tried to make some sense of it.

"The question, 'How can you believe in a God who permits suffering on this scale?' is very much around at the moment, and it would be surprising if it weren't ... The traditional answers will get us only so far. God, we are told, is not a puppet-master in regard to either human actions or processes of the world ...

"The world has to have regular order and pattern of its own. Effects flow from causes in a way that we can chart, and so can make some attempt at coping with. So there is something odd about expecting that God will constantly step in if things are getting dangerous. How dangerous do they have to be? How many deaths would be acceptable? ...

"If some religious genius did come up with an explanation of exactly why all these deaths made sense, would we feel happier or safer or more confident in God? Wouldn't we feel something of a chill at the prospect of a God who deliberately plans a programme that involves a certain level of casualties?

"The extraordinary fact is that belief has survived such tests again and again, not because it comforts or explains but because believers cannot deny what has been shown or given to them. They have learned to see the world, and life in the world, as a freely given gift ..."

Another with a few clues is Sydney Jewish leader Rabbi Raymond Apple, who says it is impossible to understand God's motives.

"I find the words 'acts of God' very difficult and almost blasphemous," he said. "I know that they are used in legal terminology to describe something which you can't blame on human beings, but whether you can actually blame such tragedies as this on God in this sort of direct sense is highly questionable."

As for me, I know that for every man, woman or child who died in this disaster, there are dozens of others - husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters, extended families, friends, neighbours, workmates and schoolmates - who are left to mourn their loss and count the cost.

And it reinforces in me my determination to live every day as if it is my last, just one day at a time, for it has reminded me of the fragility and uncertainty of life and that it can be taken from me in the blink of an eye.

I am subject to all the afflictions and dangers that flesh is heir to and can claim no immunity just because I believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit; all I can claim is that my life will not end with death, it will simply enter a new dimension.

But I leave the final say to columnist Robert Paul Reyes writing in an obscure weekly newspaper called the Lynchburg Ledger published in rural Virginia. In an essay on God and the tsunami, he wrote:

"When we are faced with such an overwhelming catastrophe, only simpletons and the ignorant look to the heavens for an explanation. The explanation? S*** happens. The enlightened response is neither to curse the man upstairs, nor fall prostrate before him, but to roll up our sleeves and lend a helping hand.

"When disaster strikes we shouldn't be praying to the heavens for help, we should be looking to see how we can help our fellow brothers and sisters. The world's immediate and generous response to the tsunami relief effort is a picture of the good that the human community can accomplish. Humankind can perform miracles without God being in the equation at all."

I like that. I suspect God does, too.