On Saturday the 25th of April an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale caused widespread devastation across large parts of Nepal. To date over 7000 people are injured and over 4000 people are dead. To put this death toll in perspective, remember that the September 11 attacks resulted in 2996 deaths.
Whilst there is currently a huge international humanitarian response underway, there is also a widespread call to pray for Nepal. I’ve never understood the purpose of prayer following such disasters. I suppose, on reflection, that the purposes would range from requesting salvation of the souls of the dead to pleading that missing persons are found.
I am assuming that when prayer is offered to a deity that this is an implicit admission by the faithful that their deity has the power to control the course of future events. If this is so, then is it not also true that this deity had the power to prevent this disaster in the first place? If the answer to this question is “Yes”, then why did he (deities are traditionally male) choose instead to kill and orphan children?
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