Did God Put Ancient Earthquakes On Faults?

[jackaaron]

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Since an omnipotent God can disobey any law of physics at a drop of a hat ,and since some believe he does in fact "intervene" if he sees something he dislikes, I have this question about earthquakes. It is sparked by a poster on the SMP forum named Not Ready who tries mightily to remain theistic without contradicting science. He claims that nowadays God does few if any of the big miracles like he did in biblical days. But he thinks earthquakes could be an exception. Especially given the fact that most earthquakes seem to be striking non Christian countries. (The fact that even in these cases there are undoubtedly a lot of Christian innocent victims is off this subject.)

Meanwhile Not Ready and many others claim that miracles of this sort are done by God within the laws of science. Not because he is forced to do them that way, but rather because he needs people to have faith in his existence even without irrefutable evidence. Like a major earthquake far away from a fault. (I'm assuming that never happens. If I'm wrong, please don't quibble. The general point I'm getting at still applies.)

So my question is were old time earthquakes that human science will never be able to investigate always on faults? And there is another question. Suppose there are some miscreants who deserve an earthquake now but don't live on a fault. Are we to assume thyat God used his omnipotence to forsee their sins and planned out the appropriate faults billions of years ago to punish them appropriately while still fooling the geologists?

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Slightly different angle...

Actually many of the people that reported history from ancient times had things wrong. First, yes, there is God. What they misreported, though, is that he "does things" to people. He doesn't. He's loving, and always good, all the time. When someone says, "How could God take my X from me," they are under a false assumption. He doesn't kill people, nor take them away. He loves all of us like children, since, essentially, we are all God's children. Some of us are fathers, and the good fathers amongst us don't just do evil things to our children. Good fathers certainly don't make their children get into car accidents, train wrecks, or become the victim of a school shooting. He does, however, give us free will. He would no sooner keep your marriage together than he would stop terrorists from flying planes into buildings. It's rough, but he sticks to it. We eventually will become a loving society one that never kills, and that is his goal for us.
One last thing is, he will answer prayers. Praying for money, that's obviously fruitless. Why would you even think of it? Praying that your marriage will stay together...slightly off. Perhaps you could pray for strength for your wife, for example, so she can fight through whatever feelings she has, but you can't pray that she would stay with you. Praying for someone's health. Of course. I've done it many times, and it has worked. I suppose you could debate that him giving help to our health is against our free will, but I think it would ultimately be an inconclusive debate.
Why did the ancient people create religions where God is made out to be angry, and so on? I think that answer is obvious, and most people on here probably see it when they look at what is gained by putting fear into people by a small group of people that want to gain power. I'm not anti-religion...there are many great things associated with it.

As far as Earthquakes...he created not just the Earth, but all that is seen and unseen. Beauty is often found in randomness, and I doubt that earthquakes (they are a necessary part of nature) were placed purposefully on faults. They would merely be there randomly.

(sorry for the long post, and no I won't be at any of your doors.)

[Abones]

[ QUOTE ]
Since an omnipotent God can disobey any law of physics at a drop of a hat ,and since some believe he does in fact "intervene" if he sees something he dislikes, I have this question about earthquakes. It is sparked by a poster on the SMP forum named Not Ready who tries mightily to remain theistic without contradicting science. He claims that nowadays God does few if any of the big miracles like he did in biblical days. But he thinks earthquakes could be an exception. Especially given the fact that most earthquakes seem to be striking non Christian countries. (The fact that even in these cases there are undoubtedly a lot of Christian innocent victims is off this subject.)

Meanwhile Not Ready and many others claim that miracles of this sort are done by God within the laws of science. Not because he is forced to do them that way, but rather because he needs people to have faith in his existence even without irrefutable evidence. Like a major earthquake far away from a fault. (I'm assuming that never happens. If I'm wrong, please don't quibble. The general point I'm getting at still applies.)

So my question is were old time earthquakes that human science will never be able to investigate always on faults? And there is another question. Suppose there are some miscreants who deserve an earthquake now but don't live on a fault. Are we to assume thyat God used his omnipotence to forsee their sins and planned out the appropriate faults billions of years ago to punish them appropriately while still fooling the geologists?

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Assuming there is some higher form of existence then this cannot be answered. The "higher form" would have the ability to for see and put things into motion are beyond human comprehension.

The real answer is yes David there is no god.

[WelshMackem]

God already put a fault line in the middle of the sentence "God is now here", therefore God is nowhere, so the question becomes irrelevant.

[Pudge714]

NotReady,
Care to link or type up your real position?

[David Sklansky]

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Wow, you misrepresented my positions twice in one post.

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Sorry if I did. But the post wasn't really about you anyway. It was about this whole "God uses natural means to perform miracles so you can't be sure it's him" idea. Feel free to post about it or anything else here. You might enjoy a different audience.

[NotReady]

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But the post wasn't really about you anyway.


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I thought it might not be. If you would stop using my name in your posts I would have a lot more free time.

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It was about this whole "God uses natural means to perform miracles so you can't be sure it's him" idea.


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I believe God is involved directly or indirectly in everything in some sense. I don't believe even natural law, like gravity, operates independently of God. But I do believe in the order of the universe, just that it is in some way sustained by God. So I wouldn't call "natural" events miraculous.

[NotReady]

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Care to link or type up your real position?


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About what?

[ESKiMO-SiCKNE5S]

This whole proposition seems ridiculous if i understand what you are saying at all.

natural disasters are called natural disasters because they are 'natural' and random. they are a product of the earth and can always be explained by science (fwiw i am not atheist).

[StregaChess]

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry if I did. But the post wasn't really about you anyway. It was about this whole "God uses natural means to perform miracles so you can't be sure it's him" idea. Feel free to post about it or anything else here. You might enjoy a different audience.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hides behind natural means to perform miracles, that's nothing!
How about I heard he uses this guy David Sklansky to get folks to talk about Him, now that's irony.

[KAT21]

When I was fifteen or so, I prayed for my grandfather to get better. He died. Is it possible that those you prayed for got better through other means than the prayer?

In my opinion, if there is a God, he doesn't interfere much if at all. If he does, he is very mean and not worth woshipping. He doesn't make people live or die, or get sick or get better. We do that ourselves or by luck.

I figure that the best case scenario is that there is a god, he is not all powerful, but he's fighten' like hell to regain control of this thing before we destroy ourselves. I wish him luck.