Are earthquakes ‘Acts of God’ or ‘acts of man?’
“Some sat in gloom and darkness; they were prisoners suffering in chains. They had turned against the words of God and had refused the advice of God Most High. So he broke their pride by hard work. They stumbled, and no one helped.
In their misery they cried out to the LORD, and he saved them from their troubles. He brought them out of their gloom and darkness and broke their chains.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his love and for the miracles he does for people.” – Psalm 107:10-15
I was fascinated with the whole ‘plate tectonics’ concept when I was a child. I’d read about it in one of my mom’s encyclopedias and reread it a number of times.
The lithosphere, a puzzle of hard, brittle plates, was the surface floating on the asthenosphere, the hot gooey layer beneath.
Had a new acquaintance claim that if earthquakes weren’t ‘acts of God’ then why does He use them to kill people.
I listened for a moment until he finally took a breath, and said earthquakes weren’t “acts of God.” They were acts of man.
Suppose for a moment, in the simplest sense, one of those tectonic plates was a 10 person raft with only 4 people in it. Now, suppose you follow the instructions of the raft manufacturer and place another 4 people in the raft, retaining its stability and balance.
Suppose then, in your confidence in the raft’s stability, you toss the instruction manual in the ocean and invite two more to join you in the boat but they don’t sit where they should.
Now, suppose a number of other rafts joins you on the lake and each of their owners, likewise, toss the instructions.
Oh, and because you’ve no more instructions and have become confident in your mostly stable rafts, you invite more people into your raft than it can contain.
“Act of God” or “act of man”?
“They had turned against the words of God and had refused the advice of God Most High.”
How many of them would have attempted to blame the manufacturer of the rafts?
