[See LETTERS – Debbie asks ““Are we doing this to ourselves?”]
That’s a very hard question to answer, Debbie – and certainly I am not qualified.
My view is that. basically, despite all of our great scientific advances, we still don’t know nearly enough about our planet to be able to predict natural disasters like this.
I cannot subscribe to the fanciful hypotheses that have been drifting around, about Mankind being punished, or whatever. Because, of course, there is no justice there … it doesn’t make sense … it’s not the people who are doing the damage that get punished – it’s normal decent people like the man you describe who lost his dog. I weep for him too … our animals are our family … that is too sad. I will pray he finds his lost doggy.
I have to add that rumours about ‘supermoons’ being the cause of this earthquake disaster are very fanciful too. There is no evidence that there is any connection. Most of all, at the time of the disaster, the Moon was not full, and it was not at perigee. So really, it’s not a theory worth giving any credence to.
I think, as the Serenity Prayer says … we have to understand what is out of our control, and accept it; and what is within our control, and do what good we can, and learn how to act accordingly with that knowledge.
This does mean we have an obligation to get on with helping those people whose lives are so sadly damaged by a disaster like this … because this IS within our control. And in my opinion, we have to keep on in our struggle to protect children, innocent people and animals from the pernicious acts of man – those people for whom cruelty is part of their lives and their actions. For this is outside Nature .. these people cause unnecessary suffering, and need to be stopped.
Well, that’s my view – in a nutshell … we must strive to be better, and minimise the pain our fellow creatures on this planet need to go through.
And bring joy. Because surely mere existence is not enough.
Cheers
Bri