Asking the right questions: Where is God?

The contents of this post were lost while writing and I did not have the time to write them again. Unfortunately now (Jan 2012) I am unable to remember the contents. The jist of the matter was that there is far more knowledge out there than mankind throughout history can accumulate (let alone one man) and hence it is not the answers that are important per se, but the question is even more important. An interesting/intriguing/correct question is better than a thousand inconsequential answers.

Earthquakes, Spring Time and Daylight Saving

Japan, February 2011: Earthquake magnitude 9 on Richter scale followed by Tsunami and massive destruction, followed by Fukushima Nuclear Reactor radioactivity leak.

Tunisia: BenAli is overthrown.
Egypt: Mubarak is overthrown.
Libya: UN confirm no-fly zone, NATO airstrikes.

All lead to death and destruction. Natural or man-made disasters. The difference lies in the man-made disasters supposedly having a greater good in sight. Temporary destruction to relieve long-term suffering of oppressed civilians. Toleration of some deaths to prevent further deaths. Destruction of a countries infrastructure and economy to allow for future "open-markets" and "democratic" governments - as if these are absolute values to be respected.

Then how do we question the wisdom of natural disasters?
Why would God allow so many people die of an Earthquake and Tsunami?

Then there are those who question both: Why would God allow such destruction? why does the UN allow such airstrikes?

For centuries the wisdom of natural disasters and whether it proves or disproves the existence of a higher-omnipotent being has gone essentially without a convincing answer either way.

Instead, The question we should be asking is what is all of this telling us? What can we learn?

Firstly, nothing lasts.
Dictators that rule with iron fists can be toppled in a few weeks.
Power is temporary.
Glory on Earth is temporary.

Everything is perishible.
From civilians to dictators, from Lockheed martin aircraft to cities and bunkers, from civilan nuclear plants to the radioactive decay of the building blocks of matter, all are perishing before our eyes.
All that is conserved is Energy (heat, light, E=mc^2).

WE TOO ARE PERISHIBLE.
This deserves its own place as a point, as too often something that pplies for everyone somehow manages to be an exception when we apply it to ourselves. Cancer and death are examples until the befalls us.

All that will be left of us is... nothing that identifies us as uniquely us. In time even our bones will be turned to dust. We must leave behind something greater than our own selves, greater than our identities, greater than our times. Something that outlives time and is conserved. A good word. Spiritual Energy. These will grow.



Next we turn our gaze to the recent start of spring. The sunshine is back, heaters are turned down, flowers begin to bloom, trees are no longer as bare and barren as they used to be. The animals slowly leave hibernation. The Earth is once again infused with change and life.

Is it possible that everything that is perishible before our eyes, is actually eternal in another perspective? The lives lost in the Earthquakes, return to life once again?


These are the questions natural disasters should entice us to ask.

Today in the UK times were taken forward by an hour so that when we wake up we benefit from more daylight. It is in effect an attempt to keep the modern technologically dependent human in touch with his circadian rhythm. When it is daylight, we should be waking, when it become dark, we should be preparing to sleep. These light bulbs and TFT/LCD lights are interfering. When it turns dark, our time for the day has come and to it we shall submit.

When our time to die comes, to it too -willingly or unwillingly- we shall submit.


Ask the right questions, we must.
The right question is more valuable and fruitful for humanity than a million correct answers.

Let the spiritual spring, renewal and tazkiyyah begin.