Do you think tusumi was an act of God ?
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Do you think tusumi was an act of God ?
| Mon, 01-10-2005 - 2:12am |
Hey everyone, this is my first time posting to this board. Let me introduce myself. My name is Ila. I'm posting to this board today because I have a question that I would like to hear some of your thoughts about. It's about the earthqukes that happened over in Asia. Does anyone think this was an act of God?? the reason why I have asked this question is because a co-worker asked me about it one day. My co-worker said she has a friend that is very spirtual. And he told her during a conversation that he was suprised that religest people weren'tcoming forth and saying it was an act of God because people have been killing christians in indoneshia I looked it up on google and its true about the killings. Also, I think it's great the the U.S. is trying to help out but the one thing that bothers me is that it seems that the U.S. doesn't consern it's self with the problems that go on in that part of the world until something like this happens. Example I just finshed watching a news report about how childern over there are kiddnaped and sold as sex slaves and how after tusumi there are human trafficers who are trying to find orphaned childern to do this terriable act to. This has always went on over there, how com the U.S. has never had any news reposts asking people to help with donations and such to stop this from happening to these childern? just now? does anyone understand were I'm coming from?? non the less my thoughts, prayrs,and well wishes go out to all the victums.

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That would depend on how you are using the term 'act of God' and even how you define the nature of God.
I've seen insurance policies where the wording was such that it did not cover 'acts of God' and I believe it was referring to natural disasters. So in that sense: Yes it was.
Do I think it was orchestrated to punish someone, show a 'sign' or anything like that? Nope.
I think our planet is a living thing with myriad functions to keep itself healthy and alive. Rainstorms, wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis - all parts of the earth's functioning IMO.
I read an article that stated it was the 'christmas quake' so christians would 'wake up' and stop evangelizing in these hindu countries and how a very prominent christian place was destroyed. To me that logic doesn't make sense. One could easily say the 'christmas quake' was orchestrated to make Hindus 'wake up' and fear the 'wrath of Jesus' (I don't believe either to be the case I'm just saying).
In a case like this, I'm not worried about what the US didn't do at any given point. I'm just glad that the US (and others) ARE doing so much to help now.
The quake was caused by two tectonic plates colliding as they have been doing for billions of years, nothing more, nothing less.
I don't think the Tsunami was an act of God to punish or disipline.
I do have a funny story about it though! My father hates the fact that I live on the Gulf of Mexico. He likes to do the whole "dooms day" thing with me. It was badgered into my head with the hurricanes! After the tsunami hit, he watched so many of those prediction specials it was ridiculous(they should be banned for people like him!). He calls me up to tell me that, if an asteroid or comet fell into the Gulf, we would be dead because it would cause a 100 foot tsunami! He only lives about 20 minutes inland. I normally just let him go off, but this time I didn't have the patience. So, I said, "Well, we wouldn't know what hit us so why should we even think about it? We'd be dead in a second and never know what hit us! You have 20 minutes you have to go through of shock and panic until it hits you!"
Do I think the tsunami was an act of God? No way.
One of my coworkers is a Catholic and she was talking about this same issue right after it hit. The impression I got from her was more like "I wonder what those people did to deserve it?" She believed the tsunami was a punishing act of God for something they did that made him mad. I belive that kind of thinking is discusting. Although I don't think that is what anyone here is trying to say, I just had to voice my frusteration with the issue and thought you might be interested.
To me, if someone thinks a horrible disaster like this is an act of an angry God because of something they did "wrong," they are being extremely uncompassionate. After all, why should we help if they "deserved" it? If they brought it on themselves with thier "sinfulness"? And by helping relieve their suffering, would we be defying God and his wrath? Believing someone deserves to suffer for whatever reason only leads down a road of judgemental, narrow-minded, hate. It is not love; it is not treating your neighbor the way you would like to be treated; it is not turning the other cheek. It only adds to the "us against them" mentality - the same mentality that starts wars and inspires hate amoung the brothers and sisters on this planet.
On that note, that kind of thinking is also what inspired such tragedies of the 9/11 type. To the Muslims that carried out that horrible plan, it was also an "act of God" and the American people, in thier eyes, "deserved" it. The only difference is that thier act of God was done through people rather than mother nature. To think that the tsunami was an act of God, or that those people deserved it in any way, shape, or form, is another form of terrorism in my mind, and it is absolutely discusting. The only thing the victims of the tsunami deserve is our utmost compassion, love, and all the help we can give them, not a self-righteous attitude.
If there is anything we can be learning from this disaster, it is how we, as a global nation, can pull together in times of crisis and work for the common good of everyone on our planet. That is something we have seen far too little of in the past few years and is the only thing I would say could have been inspired by God. Its a small example of what we can do when we open our hearts and love our neighbors as ourselves.
I agree.
I agree with dustbunny! I would LOVE to see that compassion for the people that are suffering in our country too. Although I believe we need to help when such destruction occurs, it concerns me to see how little has been given to our less fortunate friends and neighbors in our country. Over the holidays, donations for Thanksgiving and Christmas alone to charity groups in our area plummetted to a record low because of the war in Iraq and the emphasis on helping them. I definitely am not saying they dont need it. Although I don't fully agree with the war, I do support our troops and the civilians there. What saddened me about our government was when, only 2 days after the tsunami, the news channels started asking about the "political" aspects of what happened. That this was our chance to "reach out to the muslim world" and show them how "wonderful" our country is and how "great" democracy is, blah blah, blah. I love the U.S.A., but I am so sick of our government making us out to be a perfect nation and that everyone should agree with our ways of thinking. We aren't perfect. There are too many people being left behind in our country and personally in the last few years, I have seen quite a bit of our freedoms taken away. I am not democrat or republican. I like to go by issues instead of affiliations. I am very concerned about many things going on right now. I have heard quite a few racist remarks in the past few weeks that have really gotten under my skin. Two of the most angering were when I overheard someone say, "If they would stop worshipping cows and eat them, maybe they wouldn't be starving over there." and "It was there fault because all they do is keep having children under nasty, dirty and impoverish conditions. They deserve what God gave to them."
If we as a country don't stop this way of thinking, we will find ourselves in a holy war. Just a few years back, before 9/11 and all, I remember thinking how great it was that our country had such a variety of opinions and choices. I see so much of a narrow minded view anymore. It seriously concerns me. If there is an "acts of destruction", either natural or artificial, it will be caused by the human race.
R
Hi everyone, I'm new here so I'm not really sure what the views and thoughts are here but I felt I wanted to reply to this one. I've heard that when a war is imminent or some other "disaster" such as the tsunami souls que up to reincarnate because of the opportunity for spiritual growth offered during that time. It occurs to me that those people who died may have been willing to do so as a selfless act of giving the rest of the an opportunity to show compassion and empathy and to assist them in any way we can helping our own spiritual growth. It also helps us to put our own lives into perspective and remind us about what is really important, which we are all to apt to forget during the stress and strain of our everyday lives.
Just my opinion, but I'd be interested to know what others think.
What a cool thought!
Hi! :) Glad you found the board. It's a neat place...hope you stick around and post! :P
I'm just getting to your thread, here, so I'll make this short and sweet. I don't believe natural disasters are an act of any deity, per se. Nature has her rhythms and purpose and process. Even what we call disasters serve a planetary purpose, I think.
JMO,
Gypsy
Blessings,
Gypsy
)O(
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