As I sat and watched the devastation caused by the earthquake in L’Aquila, I was baffled by the gratitude of the survivors. They had thanked God for saving them. 294 Italians lost their lives in the earthquake. 20,000 Italians have been left homeless by this act of God, as it is called.
So why are these benign folk thanking the very cause of their misery? Wasn’t it the almighty, omniscient and omnipotent God who brought this tragedy on those poor Italians?
So why are they thanking him for killing those little children whose white coffins rested on the ones of their family members who had perished? What crime had these babies committed to deserve this? Why were the 294 victims being punished? Punished for what? Isn’t it absolutely presumptuous of those who survived to be thanking God for being rescued while others perished?
I remember the same mantra following the flooding of New Orleans. People were dragged out of the water and all they could say was “Thank God.” Well, it was the same God who had destroyed the lives and homes of thousands of inhabitants of New Orleans.
No wonder I will never understand the mysterious ways in which God apparently moves.
LiliGans.com 
I am italian
I am catholic
I survived a flood recently, so I can give you an answer: you are biased by a superstition that Jesus always denied. Specifically, no catholic here in Italy considers an earthquake or a flood a “God’s act”, there are well known scientific causes. We blame lack of protection, sometimes we can do something to protect ourselves, like building antisismic houses that were missing in Aquila town. No catholic here considers a tragedy a punishment for sins, we are not superstitious as US’ fundies, we thank GOD, our life-giver, daily, as good christians should do, not only catholics and in special occasions as the flood I survived, it is very important to remark that GOD’s given life is precious, even if we loose our children in the tragedy we survived. He knows our pain and weeps with us, as He He wept with Lazarus’ family. So that’s why we are not angry at GOD. Today another quake hit my country, but it’s not GOD’s, it’s a matter of Earth. I put all my sorrow on the shoulder of the cross-bearer and thank again my Father because I can live another day on Earth, it’s such a wonderful world, I enjoy it, even if it hurts, for the way it is makes it a living planet. PS no wonder I’ll never understand the way you think, the more I am christian, the less I do.
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I survived a flood recently, so I can give you an answer: you are biased by a superstition that Jesus always denied. Specifically, no catholic here in Italy considers an earthquake or a flood a “God’s act”, there are well known scientific causes. We blame lack of protection, sometimes we can do something to protect ourselves, like building antisismic houses that were missing in Aquila town. No catholic here considers a tragedy a punishment for sins, we are not superstitious as US’ fundies, we thank GOD, our life-giver, daily, as good christians should do, not only catholics and in special occasions as the flood I survived, it is very important to remark that GOD’s given life is precious, even if we loose our children in the tragedy we survived. He knows our pain and weeps with us, as He He wept with Lazarus’ family. So that’s why we are not angry at GOD. Today another quake hit my country, but it’s not GOD’s, it’s a matter of Earth. I put all my sorrow on the shoulder of the cross-bearer and thank again my Father because I can live another day on Earth, it’s such a wonderful world, I enjoy it, even if it hurts, for the way it is makes it a living planet. PS no wonder I’ll never understand the way you think, the more I am christian, the less I do.
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I am italian and catholic. No catholic here in Italy considers an earthquake an ACT OF GOD, we don’t believe GOD is NATURE. We blame lack of protection, instead, sometimes we can do something to protect ourselves from quakes, like building antisismic houses that were missing in Aquila town. We blame it on the bad people that made houses with bad matter to save money.
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