nbcrusader said:
This is essentially what is happening here. We take this event as a snapshot of who God is, we miss that larger picture of God's love.
Speedracer raises an excellent question: how much innocent suffering is incompatible with the concept of God? Or, at what level of suffereing do we declare the suffering to be outside of God's love?
these are very good points. but i would ask you to take one more step back and ask, could an event like this be compatible with the existence of God as we (more specifically, Christians) have come to understand him? can we take a step outside of the system of faith, and question that system itself? does it hold up when events like this happen?
the best question i've seen so far, is your second one: what level of suffering is too much?
my stab at that has to do with human induced suffering vs. nature induced suffering. there are several answers:
1. human induced suffering -- it's all Free Will, which God gave us, so God cannot be held responsible for our actions, we are reponsible to God for our actions.
2. nature induced suffering -- it's part of God's plan, and we are to accept what happens as part of a greater scheme and not question, just keep the faith and know that we'll be rewarded somehow.
3. there is no God who designed nature, there is just Nature, and Nature has no responsibilities to us nor does it ask of us anything. it simply is, and we must deal with it, and shit happens and it's horrible and all we can do is all we can do.
when faced with these three options, i think the level of suffering is irrelevant. if a coconut falls off a tree and hits me in the head and i die, either God wanted that to happen (it was part of his plan) or i was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. same thing with the Tsunami, the earthquake in Bam, or way back to Pompeii. either God wants it, or there is no God, it seems to me.
as i've said, and i know this is debatable, but if a company makes a product that harms it's consumers, it is held responsible. if you hold the idea that God created the world, then God created a world rife with peril as part of his plan. one step further, it seems, then, that he's literally set booby traps for us. is this the kind of God you can put faith in?
again, these are supposed to be questions, not judgements. it strikes me as very interesting how defensive some get about God in times like these, and retreat into metaphysical "beyond human understanding" claims that hold no logical water. not to say they are incorrect, necessarily, but that they are illogical and therefore indefensible from a human standpoint.