Moon Phase: Last Quarter
Weather: Cloudy and 58F (warm for January!)

I've been thinking about this tsunami ever since I heard about it last week. The death toll has climbed to over 150,000 now, and I bet it'll top 200,000 very soon. Things like this really make me wonder how anyone can believe in God�I know it's an old atheist argument, but it's still valid: what sort of benevolent god would allow such a thing�and more importantly, cause it? I've never heard a satisfactory answer. All they ever say is "He works in mysterious ways", which is just evasive bullshit. People like to comfort themselves by thinking that there's some rhyme and reason for all the suffering in the world because they find that easier than admitting that there may be no reason at all. But personally, I would prefer there not to be a reason�aside from the fact that logically there can't be, I would much rather think that suffering happens for no reason, just as a result of a chaotic and constantly shifting universe, than because someone chose to cause suffering, chose to create a world where evil exists when it doesn't need to. And it wouldn't need to, if God were omnipotent�He could create any sort of world he wanted, could create humans who can appreciate good without needing to experience evil.

Humans have always invented stories to explain the things we couldn't understand, blaming the gods, whether they were callous like the Greek gods or caring like the Judeo-Christian one. But they're just stories. This tsunami didn't happen because God willed it that way; it happened for purely physical reasons and without regard for the lives it would destroy. And it might seem as callous as the Greek gods, but nature isn't unfeeling or indifferent, it just doesn't take sides. Why expect nature to choose organic life over the inevitable shifting of tectonic plates?

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't mourn. That many lives extinguished in so short a time�I like humans, and it makes me sad to think of all those people gone, all their loved ones suffering that loss. And the other life forms, too�how many plants torn out of the ground and washed away, or drowned in salt water? One nice thing, though, is that the animals mostly escaped: they felt the water coming before the humans did, and left for higher ground.