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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=171530317-07012005>Other
religions have different responses:</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=171530317-07012005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=171530317-07012005></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><!--StartFragment --> <SPAN class=textMedium><TR><TD
class=headerBlack><STRONG>Commentary; What Was God
Thinking?</STRONG></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=textMedium></TD></TR><TR><TD class=textMedium><!--Start AUTHORS--><A
onclick='return searchSideWays("AU","Jonathan <hHl>Sacks</hHl>");'
href="javascript:void(0);"><EM><FONT color=#000000>Jonathan
<B>Sacks</B></FONT></EM></A>. <!--End AUTHORS--><!--Start PUB_TITLE--><B><A
href="http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=318&pmid=7683&TS=1105117115&clientId=58634&VType=PQD&VName=PQD&VInst=PROD"><FONT
color=#000000>Los Angeles Times</FONT></A></B><!--End PUB_TITLE-->. <!--Start PM_QUAL-->Los Angeles,
Calif.: <!--End PM_QUAL--><!--Start ISSUE_URL--><A
href="http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=572&VType=PQD&VName=PQD&VInst=PROD&pmid=7683&pcid=14410001&SrchMode=3"><FONT
color=#000000>Jan 5,
2005</FONT></A><!--End ISSUE_URL-->.<!--Start STARTPG--> pg. B.11</TD></TR></SPAN>
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial
size=2>Excerpt:</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial size=2>... Earthquakes
and tsunamis were known to the ancients. Job said: "The pillars of the heavens
quake, aghast at his rebuke; by his power he churned up the sea." David used
them as a metaphor for fear itself: "The waves of death swirled about me.... The
Earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens shook.... The valleys
of the sea were exposed, and the foundations of the Earth laid bare." In the
midst of a storm at sea, Jonah prayed: "Your wrath lies heavily upon me; you
have overwhelmed me with all your waves." Yet God taught Elijah that he, God,
was not in the earthquake or the whirlwind that destroys but in the still, small
voice that heals.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial size=2>What distinguished
the biblical prophets from their pagan predecessors was their refusal to see
natural catastrophe as an independent force of evil, proof that at least some of
the gods are hostile to mankind.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial size=2>In the ancient
Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish, for example, Tiamat, the goddess of
the oceans, declares war on the rest of creation and is defeated only after a
prolonged struggle against the younger god, Marduk. Essential to monotheism is
that conflict is not written into the fabric of the universe. That is what
redeems tragedy and creates hope.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial size=2>The simplest
explanation is that of the 12th century sage, Moses Maimonides. Natural
disasters, he said, have no explanation other than that God, by placing us in a
physical world, set life within the parameters of the physical. Planets are
formed, earthquakes occur, and sometimes innocents die.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial size=2>To wish it were
otherwise is in essence to wish that we were not physical beings at all. Then we
would not know pleasure, desire, achievement, freedom, virtue, creativity,
vulnerability and love. We would be angels -- God's computers -- programmed to
sing his praise.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial size=2>The religious
question is, therefore, not "Why did this happen?" but "What then shall we do?"
That is why, in synagogues, churches, mosques and temples, along with our
prayers for the injured and the bereaved, we are asking people to donate money
to assist the work of relief.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial size=2>The religious
response is not to seek to understand, thereby to accept. We are not God.
Instead we are the people he has called on to be his "partners in the work of
creation." The only adequate religious response is to say: "God, I do not know
why this disaster has happened, but I do know what you want of us: to help the
afflicted, comfort the bereaved, send healing to the injured and aid those who
have lost their livelihoods and homes." We cannot understand God, but we can
strive to imitate his love and care.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial size=2>That, and perhaps
one more thing. After an earlier flood, in the days of Noah, God made his first
covenant with mankind. The Bible says God had seen "a world filled with
violence" and asked Noah to institute a social order that would honor human life
as the image of God.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial size=2>Not as an
explanation of suffering but as a response to it, I will pray that in our
collective grief we renew the covenant of human solidarity. Having seen how
small and vulnerable humanity is in the face of nature, might we not also see
how small are the things that divide us, and how tragic to add grief to
grief?</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=171530317-07012005></SPAN> </DIV>
<P><FONT size=2>**********************************************<BR>Ron
Force <A
href="mailto:rforce@moscow,com">rforce@<SPAN
class=171530317-07012005>moscow,com</A></SPAN><BR>**********************************************</FONT>
</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
vision2020-bounces@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com]<B>On
Behalf Of </B>Art Deco<BR><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, January 06, 2005 4:11
PM<BR><B>To:</B> Vision 2020<BR><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] 01-05-05 Belfast
Telegraph: Attention Cult MasterWilson<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=3><FONT size=5><STRONG><SPAN class=head1>South
Asia disaster may lead more to see religion as
bunkum</SPAN><BR></STRONG></FONT><BR></FONT>
<P class=head3>By Eamonn McCann</P>06 January 2005
<P>In the Belfast Telegraph yesterday, Mary Fitzgerald and Judith Cole asked
local leaders of religious groupings how they reconciled the pitiless horror
of the tsunami with the notion of a loving god.<SPAN
class=171530317-07012005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>
<snip> </FONT></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>