There is definitely no loving God. Fact.

Grey the OP did refer to a man-made victim but that was answered with the usual men have free will and so it's not god's fault, which I fully understand and agree with; but then I went on to ask about earthquakes, which certainly can't be blamed on man.

I'm genuinely curious as to how believers can love and worship a god who sends such destruction.

Who's to say he 'sent' it though? Presumably if God created the universe, including the earth, the planets, stars etc. he designed them to all have their own natural but unpredictable climates and eco-structure and just let 'em get on with it...we have to cope as best we can!

I will give an answer to earthquakes etc, - I don't know , but my knowledge of movements around continents is nil sorry

I certainly don't think , God gets bored so sends an earthquake to brighten his day

If you were wanting God to control everything it would do away with any free choice.
There is also 'where do you draw the line'? It makes it all black and white whereas there are lots of shades of grey.
How do you save someone from a disease when a cure hasn't been discovered? If you say the disease shouldn't be there does that mean that people's lifestyle doesn't have consequences? Does God not allow a person to be an alcoholic and destroy their liver or does he just magic away the consequences?
If someone decides to do extreme skiing does God make sure that life isn't at risk? Or is it OK if someone dies because they were a racing car driver but not if they were crossing a road when the green man was showing?
I could go on and on. It opens more questions than it would answer.
I prefer free choice, with all the flaws.

But a loving God could look kindly on terrified children and find a way to help them. That's all.

We can have free choice with or without a god, or a loving god as the questioner has posed.

I certainly don't think , God gets bored so sends an earthquake to brighten his day

Did anyone suggest such a silly thing?

Any more takers on the earthquake question?

The reason I ask this is, there is surely no greater natural catastrophe that can hit communities ..... and they were documented long before nuclear experiments, space travel, global warming, or any other man-made interference with the elements that it could possibly be blamed on.

Well you did say

I'm genuinely curious as to how believers can love and worship a god who sends such destruction.

Perhaps those who believe in God don't believe he 'sends' natural disasters, that's all. They just are what they are - natural disasters. Not all believers blame God for everything that happens in the world.

Earthquakes, tsunamis, viruses, volcano eruptions, bacteria, predation - all natural, all grim from humanity's point of view, and not our fault. Part of the design of the world - what might the "designer" have had in mind I wonder?

It is very hard to imagine a LOVING god watching these children suffer and deciding not to use his/her/its omnipotence to intervene. What a puzzle.

Ana you can nit-pick my words but I was really seeking a philosophical answer as to how a god who made the earth, which would be a fantastic thing to do, has no control over such disasters.

It seems that believers don't blame god for anything bad that happens in the world, but sing his praises for good events.

Earthquakes and tsunamis are a natural result of the way the earth is constructed. The continents on the earth's crust are not completely fixed in position over the molten centre, they move very slightly and plates slide over each other and buckle like putting folded linen into the middle of a pile in the airing cupboard. eventually the pressure of bending and folded plates is too much for the top layers, and they break open.

Volcanoes form where cracks let the molten core rise up until it is trapped by the rocks above it, then it continues to press until it breaks through.

Tsunamis are caused by an earthquake or landslide under deep water, pushing a big wave that runs faster as it reaches shallower water.

None of these are God suddenly deciding that it is time to teach those pesky humans a lesson, but if you believe that he created it all in one go, you might wonder why he didn't choose a design that was a bit more stable and doesn't crack up from time to time.

The way I see it, God gave man the power to intervene and help suffering people. We have the choice.
There's also the concept of life after death, that this world is only "a sleep and a forgetting" (Wordsworth.)

Nit picking has nothing to do with it, Riverwalk, I gave you my understanding of the position in my post of 17.39 but you chose not to acknowledge it.

It was in fact remarkable similar to Elegran's, but she puts it a lot better, I'll admit!

No indeed not; but that same god had the choice to order the world in a way that would not result in these disasters. If you were planning a world, I bet that's what you would do.. You would want people not to have to suffer. This is the being who is defined by many as loving.

Well if he didn't want human beings to suffer he shouldn't have given them free will, should he? You can't have it both ways...

It is all very difficult- it cuts out extremes of weather, no strong winds, hurricanes , heavy rain etc.
I really can't see how it works unless we all kept safe in a padded cell- which is no life.
If you are just going to save children where is the cut off point? Why are some children born with deformities, in poverty etc?

Since we don't know what comes after possibly those who die young like my first DH ( who should have been saved according to OP) are the lucky ones and those who have to struggle on to extreme old age, like my mother, are the unlucky ones. Since we don't know the purpose/plan, if there is one, who can say? We are thinking in very human terms- the only way we can.

I agree with OP. Why did he do miracles in the Bible and not now. Why no miracles to help the poor refugees including small children who are going to try and somehow survive thorough the winter a Miracle PLEASE!. Religion is man made so agree man must take responsibility!

Quite so Elegran, a sensible answer to natural disasters, not the hand of a mighty being. Tectonic plates moving cause earthquakes.

On the earth quake and other disasters. Was earth a mistake? Otherwise he would( god that is)have a made perfect world with out any 'cracks' in or on it!

We know that natural disasters are the result of e.g tectonic plates - but it begs the question as to why have tectonic plates in the first place.

It is necessary to "think out of the box" with these things. We are so used to the world as it is, that we cannot imagine that a creator could have decided to create it totally differently.

If you believe in an omnipotent creator then it is necessary to assume that this creator could have made very different decisions about the nature of the world, and of physics, and chemistry, and biology etc.

There is no need for a "padded cell" life, but just for a loving creator to have made something more charitable than what we are faced with.

Hence my agnosticism on the existence of god and my absolute certainty about the absence of "loving."

I hope, if the outside chance should turn out to be right, and there is some sort of a God, I hope he is really angry today. At those evils beings in those countries. And I hope the little lad's spirit is in a better place.

You never know.

I may have missed someone else saying this, but if God does exist than surely Satan does too? Isn't the Devil mentioned on the odd occasion in the bible? Black and white. Good and evil. Yin and yang. God and the Devil.