Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

III. Methods and tools
disasters are frequently called acts
Natural
God, even by insurance companies. The
of
consequences of earthquakes
devastating
volcanic eruptions posed a challenge to
and
long before science could explain
theologians
How did religious explanations account
them.
these events, and how did natural disasters
for
religious knowledge?
shape
Zelinga de Boer, professor of earth science
Jelle
co-author of Earthquakes in Human History,
and
that ancient Palestine and indeed the
notes
region now known as the Holy Land is
whole
“tectonically unstable region”, with evidence
a
frequent and substantial earthquakes
of
history (de Boer quoted in
throughout
2005).
Tippet,
lead to a frequent religious question:
Disasters
was God when nature destroyed human
where
This question is answered in different
lives?
across the range of religious and spiritual
ways
interpretations of natural disasters
Some
explain them as a form of punishment
frequently
human misconduct. These interpretations
for
evolved over time. Earlier explanations
have
not invoke an omnipotent God’s justice,
did
instead the lashing out of animal spirits
but
De Boer describes how one
underground.
tradition interprets natural disasters not
Japanese
punishments but as naturalistic phenomena
as
by, for example, a giant catfish in the
caused
set of very powerful earthquakes hit
A
USA between December 1811 and
Missouri,
1812. Following the earthquakes
January
a huge increase in participation at local
was
Some estimates suggest that 15,000
churches.
members joined the Methodist Church at
new
time. The earthquakes continued, getting
that
and weaker, for two more years.
weaker
going, so much so that the preachers
stopped
them earthquake Christians.
called
1 November (All Saints Day) 1755 a
On
earthquake struck Lisbon, Portugal,
powerful
as church services were overflowing.
just
the churches and other structures
As
30,000 people died within six
collapsed,
Fires and a tsunami caused the
minutes.
death toll to exceed 100,000 in the
total
following. John Wesley saw it as an
days
severe punishment on a sinful
especially
but that was not a belief widely
population,
by the people of Lisbon and Portugal.
shared
philosophers such as Kant
Enlightenment
Voltaire questioned what kind of God
and
permitsuch devastation and strike
would
devout families. The Lisbon
especiallythe
were mocked for attempting to recover
clergy
and other icons even as the burning
crucifixes
collapsed. The quake challenged
churches
belief in a benevolent God,
Europeans’
the power of the Catholic
weakened
in Portugal and, according to De Boer,
Church
have sent lasting reverberations through
may
as a world power (Portugal had a
Europe
empire) was destroyed overnight.
significant
1756 poem on the disaster of
Voltaire’s
ridiculed the idea of a just God and
Lisbon
the idea that “whatever is,
interrogated
There are still many people who share
isright”.
6
Case study
Natural disasters and explanations in
religious knowledge
Woe to the men on earth who dwell, nor dread th’
Almighty’s frown; when God doth all his wrath reveal,
and shower his judgments down. Lo! from their
seats the mountains leap, the mountains are not
found, transported far into the deep and in the ocean
drowned. Who then shall live and face the throne,
and face the judge severe? When heaven and earth
are ed and gone, O where shall I appear? Firm in the
all-destroying shock may view the nal scene; for lo!
the everlasting Rock is cleft to take us in.
(Christian hymn,
62nd song of John Wesley’s Collected Hymns)
traditions.
Sugami Bay that moves and causes earthquakes.
Voltaire’s philosophy today.
Eventually many of the new church members
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