There's only a couple of letters difference between theodicy and theo-idiocy.

How could someone in such a high position have such a fundamentally flawed concept of who God is and what life is about?

What a execrable, dumbfounding hatred of Christianity this man exhibits. He sounds like a mewling adolescent sneering at the irrationality of belief in God. Anyone who wonders whether Anglicanism is a Christian sect should carefully examine this man's pouting desire to be done with all the religious pretense so e can ground his reality on something more helpful than the artifact formerly known as "God."

There is an alternative explanation, of course.

The God you worship is not the God that is.

Jeff:

An explanation of what?

How many Christians live in these countries or were killed?

An episode of 'Yes, Prime Minister' from about 2 decades ago got a lot of mileage out of the notion that a belief in Christianity was a disqualifier for someone to be appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Williams shows us why.

Dr. Williams should have gotten out of the ministry back in 1976, when an earthquake in the Hopeh province of northern China reportedly left over 650,000 people dead.

Losing your religion due to the advancment of satellite and mobile video technology to show us these tragedies is not something you would think the Church of England wants in a leader, but maybe he can go about selling some of the Church's key properties for use as mosques or something, and donate the funds to tsunami releif or to prop up the National Health Care system in order to make himself feel better about the world in general.

The formal disestablishment of the Church of England along with allowing the dottier royals like Crown Price Nudnik(ahem, Charles) to formally become a Muslim, a druid, a tree-hugger or whatever this weeks's flavor is would go a lot further to preserving Christian England than just about anything.

Peter:

Oh, say, the difference between random suffering and:

Psalm 145:9. The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

James 5:11. The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.

1 Chron. 16:34. For his mercy endureth forever.

1 John 4:16. God is love.

Apostles Creed. I believe in God, the Father Almighty ...

Does not that beg comparision between the God described above with the one on display last week?

My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?

Jeff - Once you include the verses about how God binds up the wounds of the dead and restores them to eternal life, it becomes obvious that there's nothing cruel about bringing the victims to bliss a little sooner.

Peter - Rather than a death wish, it appears he has a wish for paralysis and helplessness. Perhaps a wish to return to infancy, or the comfort of the womb.

The Episcopal Church is well known for the theological and biblical illiteracy of its hierarchy: it was set up as an "established church" and has been antidisestablishmentarian in its main impulse ever since. If it bothers the government, it's a problem. If the government doesn't like it, it's bad. If it supports the government, it's good. And that, pretty much has been refined to mean supporting those who would like to be the government -- those who believe that politics is the source of moral values. Given the confusion outlined, he's remarkably good about presenting it, even if it is pathetic to contemplate how miseducated he has been.

Jeff;

My, but you must wonder why anyone in this vale of tears believes or ever did. Cherry-picking through scripture is loads of fun, but if, after so long here, you think that believers think G-d is bound by notions of human justice, guarantees nice things and arranges temporal rewards for good behaviour, you haven't been listening. This issue is as old as the hills and you know it. Read Job.

There were those victims of the Holocaust who concluded there was no G-d because they couldn't see how a benevolent deity allow such horrors. Others concluded there had to be, otherwise their unimaginable suffering had no meaning. Your choice, pal.

Bob, Aceh, the center of the destruction, is the Christian region of Indonesia.

Fewer Christians live there now than did a few decades ago when the Muslims began a campaign of extermination.

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. (Isaiah 45:7, KJV)

For my thoughts [are] not
your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. ... [Isaiah 55:8]

"Those who say, 'I cannot believe in God when I see all the horrors in this world' fail to understand that the one who sees the horror most clearly is God himself, and that he suffers from all the evil and all the suffering of humanity." (Paul Tournier) God isn't some distand figure or a disinterested bystander. God is passionate in his love for humanity. The destruction and suffering unleashed by last week's Tsunami is staggering and horrific. That devistating power is however, is cancelled out when those smacked in the face by it ask to be carried through the devestation in the palm of God's hand. By the hand of God comes healing, hope, strength, courage and resolve.

PS 148:7-14

Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:

Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:

Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:

Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:

Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:

Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD.

He made the natural order of the world, beautiful and dangerous, fulfilling his word. Sometimes we get in the way and we get hurt. His compassion for us is unlimited, but we bear the responsibility for our mistakes. We bury our dead and move on, next time we build on higher ground.

Jeff, aren't you an ex-episcopalian? No wonder you lost/dismissed your faith. Too bad you weren't raised Methodist or congregationalist. Perhaps then you wouldn't have come to view your faith as a grand illusion.

Peter:

Obviously I cherry-picked. How else to question whether those words have any meaning whatsoever?

The thought that the suffering of the Holocaust had no meaning at all is appalling. But just because a notion appalls us does not make it wrong.

Similarly with the tsunami, or Lou Gehrig's disease, or infant mortality due to diarrhea. That the human toll such things extract has no more pattern or meaning than the random shapes of clouds is terrible to consider.

Why is it wrong to conclude all the pretty words cited above, by Jim, Dave, Robert, and me, are nothing more than desperate attempts to vitiate the obvious?

Phil:
Yes. But any faith stronger than deism runs head on into this wall.

Without suffering, mercy is meaningless; indeed, it doesn't even exist.

Yes. But just because suffering does not necessarily mean mercy.

Judd, so you are saying that Heaven is meaningless?

I think that more people become atheists as a result of these kinds of tragedies then are converted to faith by them. Which shows that religious faith is a very fragile thing. Contrary to Ernie Pyle, foxholes are breeding grounds for atheists. Why else do you think Europe has given up on God?

It is one thing to cite Job, it is another thing to accept in your heart that God won't protect you from random disaster. For most people, if worshiping God won't protect them, then it is a waste of time. Scratch the surface of your average Christian, and you'll find a person who expects some reward for their devotion. We are all Salieri.

Robert:

I certainly don't accept in my heart that God will always protect me from drunk drivers or drug-crazed murderers. Why should I expect protection from natural disasters?

Robert: There will be a new heaven and a new earth.

Unless of course, God is absent/dead/ignorant/impotent/unconcious/distracted etc.

Anyone of which, on the face of it, is far more plausible.

Just because you don't like the answer doesn't make it wrong.

Jeff, just because you've come to a "more plausable" conclusion about God, doesn't make it the correct one.

God just may be, as I learned in confirmation class, "infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth."

Dave:

St. Augustine said we could learn of God through nature.

Jeff, what have you learned about God through nature?

Dave W:

That God is either:

dead
impotent
ignorant
malevolent
oblivious
or has less ethical competence than your garden variety ten year old boy.

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury has a point.

1) If God exists, then God is omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect.
2) If God is omnipotent, then God has the power to eliminate all evil.
3)If God is omniscient, then God knows when evil exists.
4) If God is morally perfect, then God has the desire to eliminate all evil.
Evil exists.
5)If evil exists and God exists, then either God doesn't have the power to eliminate all evil, or doesn't know when evil exists, or doesn't have the desire to eliminate all evil.
Therefore, God doesn't exist.