I was recently in a "debate" with several atheist's all shouting out loud in objection to my faith. I seem to get into these elephant hurling situations and get extremely overwhelmed and unable to answer any of their belligerent questions. One of the questions I was asked was, "Where was your God during the japan tsunami?".
your answer should have been on points, God is there just like he was there when the dinosaurs died, when the Pangaea split up. when the last ice age dawned, Is it the first time this has happened?
There has been life on this planet for more than 3 billion years. all amidst the backdrop of a violent changing planet, with many species rising and becoming extinct, God himself created all these mechanisms. The planet has a mechanism designed by God and it does what it does.
You can ask the atheist that what if he built a lawn thresher and while playing his son came in front of it. would the atheist be responsible for the harm done because it was his intent or simply because he was not good enough to save the boy? i know sounds harsh, but you do see my drift. these systems doesn't give us the stance of God. God can stop them but he won't. that is just not the way he does things.
I think it does make a difference. If these natural evils did happen before man sinned, doesn't that mean they weren't caused by man's sin? If Adam and eve were in a protected garden, that just means they were protected from the disasters. I'm not sure I'm following you jlay.
These natural disasters were in place before man existed, they are our planets features, it is illogical to think that the planet was calm and steady. It was not and these natural disasters were sure to affect Eden as well. read Job's last chapters where God explains to him how he laid the foundations of the planet. I think it is pretty clear.
on a general note, there is no utopia as long as we are in a state of sin and since we are in sin, God can not always protect us as he intends to. It is not justice or vengeance or revenge, it is oil and water, God and sin cant abide. Human suffering will be here as long as "His Kingdom" shows up.
I think to God physical death matters much less than spiritual death, not to undermine healing but in the grand scheme of things. read Luke 20:37-38, the verse is in the resurrection context but the point i am making is this,
Jesus said,
"But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."
Even when a person dies in this earthly body he is alive to God in spirit either for reward or punishment but didn't Jesus said to his disciples that Lazarus sleeps, and in fact he was dead. just making a small point. even if one is to die, whatever death he has coming. still to God he is not dead.
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