Belief in God and praying when natural disasters happen

[CeruleanBelt]

I'll preface this by saying I'm an atheist but id love to have a reasonable, polite discussion with some believers of any religion - as an example of what i want to talk about - with all the devastating flooding in the USA, loads of comments across social media are offering prayers.

Why would a good god who will respond to prayers in the wake of such devastation not have stopped the floods in the first place? What useful help do people (collectively) feel will be offered by god?

Or is it more about giving comfort to other religious people who are suffering to let them know that people are thinking about them in a way that matters to them?

To me it seems incongruous to offer prayers as a response to something that god should have had the power to stop. What am i missing here? (Apart from belief in god?)

I agree OP. Some people say it's Satan causing floods etc, which seems even more implausible!

I can't tell you what you're missing other than maybe having a relationship with the Lord.

Re prayer, I can't only speak from my own perspective from my belief and faith as a Christian who is a disciple of Christ Jesus. If I feel moved to pray around a natural disaster, in a nutshell, I pray that God's people will be able to come alongside those who are impacted by whatever has occurred, to bring help and comfort. If you feel that's incongruous, then I'm not going to try and persuade you otherwise.

Re the rest of your questions around 'why?' have been answered many times within the conversations on mumsnet - I'm pretty certain that that question will be answered by others who join in: I'll just grab my popcorn and watch the show.

In Sunday school we were taught that natural disasters were the Earth calling for the return of God/Jesus. I was young, but thought this was pretty far-fetched at the time.

I don't think praying does any harm, just as putting an image on Facebook doesn't do any harm, but not sure it does any good.
However there are other ways to help - donate, buy gifts from charities etc. and I'd rather do that,

The God can do the good stuff, but doesn't stop the bad stuff is a very hard concept. I was a Christian for a long time - I'm not anymore.

The problems that exist in the world are a result of the Fall of Man and being expelled from the Garden of Eden. Basically, because of Mankind's sin the world has gone to shit. This includes natural disasters, illness, death etc. Mankind has free will and is able to make the choice of doing good or doing evil according to his nature.

God loves people and wants them to have a relationship with Him by turning their backs on sin and reconciling with Christ through repentance.

God isn't a pocket magician who can be expected to conveniently solve our problems for us and we're not in a Sims Game whereby God controls us and makes things sanitised and nice. We have to expect to experience both the good and bad that life offers us otherwise we become like bloated billionaires who grow complacent and bored because they have everything laid out for them on a plate. The pain we experience on earth is temporary and if we love Christ and each other we can make it to heaven and spend eternity with The Lord.

Surface level thinking results in the belief that God doesn't make things nice for us out of cruelty and petulance or even just disinterest. Just as a young child berates its parents when a pet goldfish dies. Bad things are part of life and life is tough and nasty at times. Don't forget that The Lord Himself suffered along with us by being tortured and dying on the cross. When we're suffering, He's right there with us just as a loving parent is right there alongside their child when that child is upset.

Christians shouldn't fear death because of the belief that they'll go to heaven so can appear to adopt a fatalistic approach to life to non believers and non believers don't understand this mentality because they don't believe. This generally results in frustration to the non believers which is why Christianity is mocked and derided so much.

This sums things up.

It's typically pompous of humans to assert that natural disasters are "inflicted" on them. It's just the earth's ecosystem doing what it does. The human beings are an irrelevance.

Other planets, where there are no humans present, also have their own ecosystems, including storms, hurricane winds, etc. There is no point trying to rationalise "why this happens to humans" because it isn't "happening to humans". We're just present for it.

The concept of original sin is the single most offensive idea Christianity ever came up with. We don't punish people because their parents committed crimes, so why should we be OK with a deity doing just that?

Praying so that people feel less alone and more supported in the aftermath of disaster makes sense; it's a good way of expression your compassion, alongside actual donations of money for aid if you can afford it, of course.

Any god that can inflinct cancer, disease on small children, war, etc etc is evil so I won't pray to him.

If he's powerless to stop it, then he has no effective power and I won't pray to beg him if there is nothing he can do.

I won't disrespect people who find comfort in a higher being but I've morphed from catholic to base christian to agnostic to full blown athiest and humanist.

As a feminist I feel most religions hate and subjugate women, so as a women I cannot respect any of them.

The Roman Catholic church came up with the doctrine of original sin. The original Christian Church doesn't teach this.

God doesn't inflict cancer or anything else on people.

So are you a Roman Catholic then?

No, I'm Eastern Orthodox.

Someone ate a fucking apple… seriously!

We teach that Man is born with the inclination to sin, not that each and every person carries the guilt of Adam's original sin.

People inflict wars and suffering on others. Natural disasters and illness occur as a result of being in an imperfect world.

God isn't here to ensure we have a perfect, comfortable and pampered life. Suffering is part of life and of being in the world. Christ suffered along with us when he was tortured, beaten and then crucified. Rich, pampered people with no worries or cares are often the most selfish and cruelest people out there. Our life here is temporary.

If that's what you think it is then you couldn't be more wrong.

That doesn't even dignify a response to be honest 🤦🏻‍♀️ I'll assume it's a wind up.

Christ knew he would come back though.. unlike those who starve to death because of drought or gelt washed away in tsunamis.. Why not build a perfect world? , you have not provided an argument.

Obviously it’s not what I think, but it is what the bible teaches.

I’m a Christian. I don’t believe God inflicts these disasters on humans. They are, as the phrase goes, natural disasters eg hurricanes/tornadoes are part of normal weather systems, earthquakes are normal movements of the earths plates etc etc.
The problem is that some humans unfortunately have to live in earthquake zones, we have caused climate change, poorer countries haven’t got the infrastructure due to unequal distribution of wealth etc.

When I pray after a natural disaster, I pray for suffering to eased and for comfort to be given, courage for rescue crews, generosity from international governments, that all affected may know God’s peace should they choose to accept it, that kind of thing.
Like most Christians, I also tithe, so I try to help in practical ways as well as praying.

But you still believe that humanity is deserving of punishment because of something one mythical person did at the dawn of time, which is just as bad.

Um, you do know that there is a particular meaning behind it?

Whatever you say 😊

Anyone who thinks that this whole infinitely massive, infinitely complex universe is run by a benign intelligence who cares whether a woman wears a head scarf or someone eats fish on a Friday is .. suffering from wishful thinking at the very least.

Well no argument would suffice. I suggest you do some background reading by people more learned than I.

Of course I do. It’s about unquestioning obedience.. which always works out well.

However it is impossible to reason someone out of a mindset that they did not reason themselves into.

Interesting to observe that the rudest and most unpleasant posters on threads such as these are the atheists. I know you still have your moral compasses though.

'Pearls before swine' comes to mind, so I hope you all have a lovely rest of the week and I'll not waste my time here anymore. If you're genuinely interested then Google is your friend I'm sure.