It's easy to consider tsunamis to be accidents, uncontrolled events if you were not there to see it exist in its actual form. However if you were there, had it recorded for posterity in your memory, prehaps having lost family members, well then you may see it differently, and if you were a beliver in God, you may view him differently, if at all.
What is the purpose of life?
by slimboyfat 583 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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prologos
T R: "--it's easy to consider tsunamis to be accidents, uncontrolled events if you were not there to see it exist in its actual form. However if you were there, had it recorded
Earthquakes, Tsunamis are accidents waiting to happen, accidents without which we would not be here. To expect a creator also to be involved now, perhaps have trumpet sounds to clear the beaches, making him omnipotently involved now, negates our observation of reality. Beautiful, powerful images emerged from the last two tsunamis, but will there be lessons learned? Life's purpose is learning lessons, that are recorded in the genes by the emerging,- fitter, better adapted species.
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cofty
To expect a creator also to be involved now, perhaps have trumpet sounds to clear the beaches, making him omnipotently involved now, negates our observation of reality - Prologos
The god of Jesus created the world complete with moving and sticking tectonic plates. We know that continents have been on the move for millions of years. The omniscient god of Jesus knew about the growing pressures under the Indian Ocean during the centuries prior to the disaster. On the morning of the event he observed the Indo-Australian break free and begin to rebound. The omnipotent god of Jesus could have effortlessly dampened the rebound - he chose not to. He watched the wave of less than a metre rise to the surface. The god of Jesus who calmed the storm on Galilee could have quelled the wave and nobody would have known anything about it. No free will would have been infringed in any way. He failed to do so.
The god of Jesus knew that the wave would kill a quarter of a million people and cause suffering and harm millions more. He did nothing.
The god of Jesus did not permit the suffering of the Asian Tsunami - he caused it. He murdered them wilfully, deliberately and with malice aforethought. He made a world that was perfectly designed to kill its inhabitants and passively observed the consequences.
Beautiful, powerful images emerged from the last two tsunamis
Perhaps the most callous words I have ever read.
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prologos
Perhaps the most callous words I have ever read.
after viewing your link I apologise for my blanc statement. I never saw any of them, I was referring to the images taking from the air of the incoming waves. I was of course not talking of the Father/ Son team of god's as the cause of this. Tsunamis are a fact of life in that general region. ( During the Krakatau eruption for example) . Has a lesson been learned? These are natural laws taking their course. successful survivors have never ignored the laws. and deep sorrow for the loss.
PS: If survival is one of the purpose of you and your family's life, you would not set up residence in a zone where a wipe-out is guaranteed every overlapping generation, I live 100 meters above a major Earthquake and tsunami - prone coastline, (there were tsunami death less than 100 km near),-- even then, they can slosh higher.
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cofty
Blaming the tsunami victims is like driving a fleet of trucks into a crowd of men women and children and then saying that they only died because they were too stupid to get out the way fast enough.
You are a deist. This is not a debate for you.
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prologos
You are a deist. This is not a debate for you.
Thank you Simon for providing this platform, I thought deists would provide a unique angle to the " purpose of life" debate, because they, in their minds, are given by an uninvolved creator, this unconditional gift of life, no demands, no threats, to use it as they see fit. I understand your anger cofty, but victims bear responsibility, not blame, if they build in areas where disasters are guaranteed to happen, like very close to railroad tracks, road sides, as the very poor are forced to do in some countries, and as is in the low coastal, low cost case, in Banda Aceh and similar local where the poor have the Oceanfront Properties. As a deist I admire and respect the works I live in, accept my lot of having used up 86 % of my allotted time, hoping to stay out of the way of speeding trucks, not nice.
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John_Mann
Maybe we don't need to find life inherently absurd.
Absurdism is inevitable.
Every sincere thinker will reach Absurdism. But it's a crossing line not a stop.
Nihilism and Existencialism are the next steps after Absurdism.
Both theists and atheists are existencialists.
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John_Mann
Blaming the tsunami victims is like driving a fleet of trucks into a crowd of men women and children and then saying that they only died because they were too stupid to get out the way fast enough.
I agree with that.
This view is called retribution and I don't accept that too.
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John_Mann
No one was choosing to die in the tsunami.
True.
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prologos
No one was choosing to die in the tsunami.
nobody sane would normally choose to die , if she could avoid it.-- period. But a tsunami is not unleashed by a trigger happy deity, it is triggered by geological events. Blaming the creator, assigning direct responsibility to him, is blaming him for your destiny, to die. it comes with the package. Parents used to bring children into the world knowing full well that only half would reach puberty, and they had children driven by hormones, and to have security in their old age, that rarely came.
JM: "This view is called retribution and I don't accept that too.
Particularly the view by the sick religionist that pointed out what kind denomination of believers suffered most.