Natural disasters/suffering in light of God's sovereignty
Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 8:48 pm
I was thinking about this recently and wondered if I'd be able to give a good reason to a nonbeliever if they asked this question:
If God knows the future and has power to refrain natural disasters from occurring, why does He allow them to occur in the first place?
The Calvinist could simply say that God in His meticulous sovereignty caused natural disasters to occur because it was His will for them to occur. Non-Calvinists would say that God simply allowed natural disasters to occur but didn't purposely cause them to occur. How is this view any different than meticulous sovereignty? If God had the power to refrain from allowing droves of people from dying (as in the case of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami), how is His passive onlooking any different than Him causing it to occur in the first place? If He desired for those people to not suffer, He could have refrained from allowing it to occur.
I remember listening to a debate on theism vs. atheism where the topic of gratuitous suffering was a major issue. William Lane Craig argued that gratuitous suffering was a mere illusion but that God could work all suffering out for good in eternity somehow. How is this the case if most people in natural disasters end up in an eternally lost condition with no future opportunity for redemption?
If God knows the future and has power to refrain natural disasters from occurring, why does He allow them to occur in the first place?
The Calvinist could simply say that God in His meticulous sovereignty caused natural disasters to occur because it was His will for them to occur. Non-Calvinists would say that God simply allowed natural disasters to occur but didn't purposely cause them to occur. How is this view any different than meticulous sovereignty? If God had the power to refrain from allowing droves of people from dying (as in the case of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami), how is His passive onlooking any different than Him causing it to occur in the first place? If He desired for those people to not suffer, He could have refrained from allowing it to occur.
I remember listening to a debate on theism vs. atheism where the topic of gratuitous suffering was a major issue. William Lane Craig argued that gratuitous suffering was a mere illusion but that God could work all suffering out for good in eternity somehow. How is this the case if most people in natural disasters end up in an eternally lost condition with no future opportunity for redemption?