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| Are disasters punishments from God? |
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| Q |
Does God punish us? Was Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 and the tsunami a way to punish the people who were victims? |
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- Very Confused |
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| A |
God does not send natural disasters to punish us! Nor is He to blame for man-made tragedies like 9-11! Nature is imperfect - and thus natural disasters occur - because at the very beginning humanity chose to turn away from God (Original Sin). God brought order out of chaos; Original Sin opened wide the door again to chaos. Individual events, such as Hurricane Katrina, aren't punishments sent by God to punish particular people in a particular place at a particular time. Rather, they are the natural consequences of the chaos the human race invited in at the beginning. However, in Jesus we have the promise that God will be victorious and in the end his glorious order will be restored once and for all. As for evils such as 9-11, they result solely from the free will of human beings, a gift we have all received. And a gift that God must respect no matter what, else we are not truly free. |
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- fr bob |
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