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Why do Natural Disasters happen?

An argument against God’s existence?

For many people, the suffering that takes place when a natural disaster strikes seems to be a reason to doubt whether God exists.

How can it be that earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes and floods take so many lives and leave so many more people homeless if this is a planet that was made by a Creator who cares about human life?

Professor Bob White is a Professor of Geophysics at Cambridge University. He is also a Christian. Here is what he said to students from St Bede’s School about how he tries to make sense of natural disasters.

Professor Bob White identifies that for Christians, ensuring you are ‘right with God’ is more important than how long you live. The idea that anything could be more important than staying alive for as long as possible might seem challenging when you first see it. What do you think about this idea?

A response by Dr Rowan Williams

As Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, was the senior bishop of the Church of England. Here is how, as archbishop, he addressed the question of why Natural Disasters happen.

© 2011 LASAR (Learning about Science and Religion)