The Nature of Things

Act of God: an event of nature without human cause

Discussing incredible tornado destruction some years ago a pastor, theologian and author friend characterized such events as not Acts of God but “evil in the nature of things.” That came to mind Sunday morning as we read the story from Genesis 3, with the serpent and the woman and the man and the tree with its forbidden fruit, a story in which the serpent is sometimes understood as the presence of evil in the creation that God has wrought. 

Also coming to mind was The Magician’s Nephew the sixth in the C. S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia series. TMN has a delightful creation story of Aslan the Christ figure singing creation into being. In the story the evil Jadis is already present before creation begins, evil present before the fall, brought inadvertently from outside into an as yet uncreated world which will become Narnia as it is sung into existence by Aslan the Lion. TMN is imaginative fantasy fiction, but one may appreciate Lewis’ image of evil being present already and opposing the Creator instead of evil being part of the Creator’s work or the Creator’s instrument.  

When the December 26, 2004 earthquake and tsunamis struck in the Indian Ocean, killing some 230,000 people in a dozen countries, a religious fringe element asserted it was God’s punishment of European gays who vacationed at an Indian Ocean resort that was swept away. It is not uncommon for religious extremists to see their intolerance ratified in acts of nature. Already such absurdity is stirring online about the Japan horror. But it’s the nature of things, the earth still evolving as tectonic plates press against each other with incredible force and pressure eventually giving way with earthquakes tsunamis destruction and death on a horrendous scale. 

Natural disaster is not divine intervention, God has not punished. The earth is a dangerous place for humans. Earthquake tsunami tornado hurricane rogue wave mudslide lightning volcano flood ... meteorite ...

Acts of God?

Theodicy?

Evil in the nature of things?

Natural events without moral connotation?

And where is God? 

God who has no hands but our hands is present in agape, the lovingkindness of God’s people who respond caringly and generously. 

TW+

Photo: circulated on the internet from time to time, unfortunately the picture has the negative red mark in Scopes.com.