Disaster in Asia- An act of God?

[Phil Srobeighn]

From a Christian perspective, probably. Indonesia is so strongly Muslim that no other religions are legally allowed to be practiced or preached. These disasters have allowed many aide groups to give out aide packets that include Bibles.

Other religions, couldn't tell you. Most likley, barring the above, it's Cthulhu rising to bring bloodshed to the world.

[Chriemo]

i agree that most people have turned form christmas pretty much, television says happy hannukah more than merry christmas i think or thay just say happy holidays when there are 360 some odd million christians in america alone and only 1 milloin jewish in america, with christianity being the largest and judaism being second

[Deformography]

Do the people in Asia (and the parts of Africa that were affected) treat Xmas as a free day out of school? You're acting like their cultures are just like our own.

Anyways, I believe that it was an incredibly tragic event. The Earth didn't know that it was going to kill 150,000+ people when that happened. It happens, as tragic as it is. If "God" did that, he truly is heartless.

[Phoenixtale]

I think the point of disasters is this, and I'll try to be brief. God let's pain happen and God let's joy happen. Both have reasons, BOTH do good. Now this may seem so cruel to say seeing how thousands have died, but I would say the same for 9/11. It's a wake up call. A call to the Lord. Some people, after experiencing such a tragedy, realize their own mortallity and things become more clear. They'll turn to the One who is always in control, no matter how bad it's gotten. Others still don't get the message and fall into despair. Look at the story of Job. His life became turmoil and yet he still praised God. I don't see the tsunami as a punishment. In fact, I don't even see death as a punishment (unless you have not been saved). It was a wake up call for everyone. What exactly was the message? We can't know for sure. God's ways are far too complex for us to really understand or guess. Just try and take something out of it. Praise God for the good and the bad. That's the message.

[Ylloh the Dragonite]

Akira Takahashi

I've been wondering about this myself. I am a Christian, and I wonder if God really sent a tsunami to take the lives of thousands. I like to believe that everyone can change, and that you can make them see the errors in their ways without resorting to violence, and I tend to believe that God's grace is the same way. Even though we're believers, we sin all the time, and God hasn't destroyed us for it, although he has every right to.
There are also many people who persecuted Christians in the Bible who became believers afterwards; one of them even became on of Christ's desciples!
Of course, God has been willing to take the lives of non-believers before. I don't know. I believe that it is wrong for humans to judge others; the only one who can judge is God.
Regardless of who's to blame, however, we should do our best to support the victims of the tsunami. This is a tragedy, after all, and it touches all our hearts with immense pain. I have a friend in Thailand, and I hope she's all right.

Maybe it was an act of God, I mean, when there is great tradgedy nd disaster there is a great togetherness. Humans seem to do better in misery than in peace times. We do more and feel more and empathise, despite the fact that a large number of people suffer on a day-to-day basis, and fewer help goes to them.