I've already been asked this today since severe storms and 68 tornados ravaged the South, which I am in the thick of living in Memphis. My thesis I am writing deals with this question, although in light of evil done by humans, not nature (or God as some see it). I'm by no means trying to "solve" this existential problem like it is an equation; it's not an equation. This is real, it is personal.
A Professor of mine likes to tell a certain Chassidic story about two Jewish men. If I remember correctly, one is just a man who is at the Synagogue to confess his numerous sins, and the other man is a Rabbi who walks in and listens to the man's prayers. The man starts confessing every little thing he has done - I lied here, I didn't follow the law here, and so on - but near the end the man stops and says, "But wait a minute God, what about you? You have taken sons from their mothers, you have let people become ill, you have let people die, you have let people starve, you have let evil prosper..." and on and on the man goes. Finally as he ends his prayer he tells God, "Well let's calll it even." As soon as the Rabbi heard this he looked at the man and said, "Oh, you have let God off so easy."
It's hard not to feel this way. Chassidism fights for the human being before God, and we want to join in some times. The person you asked me "Where is God?" also talked about how this might be an act of judgment. And while we can't rule this possibility out, I find it hard to beleive that this certain person, or any person, can speak for God. Not saying this cannot happen, but let's not jump the gun. God certainly is sovereign over nature, but this does not mean that he is wrong to not intercede when it gets dangerous. If this were the case, then many laws of nature would be unpredictable, and they would cease to be laws. Moreover, you have a slippery slope problem. When does God not intervene? When you'll just suffer a broken arm? How about a deep cut? When does this end?
We must understand a couple of things about the question itself. First of all, to question God is to recognize Him. And this is very encouraging and healthy. Moses, Abraham, Habbakuk, and Job all questioned God, and God welcomed the questions. There is nothing more encouraging to me than to have a person to wrestle with, and you have to if you want to even accept the question. What about the atheist? Who does he question? Nature? To him or her, your life is nothing more than atoms put together.
Secondly, we must understand that God cares. Even in the cold Old Testament, God looks upon his people in Egypt and cares for them. And God comes and redeems them. In the New Testament, Jesus weeps for the effect sin has upon this world. He feels the pain, and He cares.
Now the key to start to open up this issue is to understand that the basis of all existence is to have relationship. God create the world and man for relationship; not because he needed it but because he wanted it. Moreover, God create woman, not for the purpose of marriage alone, but because man was alone and needed relationship. Man needed another human being first and foremost. Man also was endowed with a relationship with nature. This relationship we have not taken seriously, especially in today's world. But God gave laws for the Hebrews that greatly respected nature. There are laws about how you should treat trees, animals, and so on. For instance, it is against the law to eat in front of a hungry dog. For the Christian, we should take the principles of the laws seriously and understand that God wants us to take care of what he gave us dominion over.
However, with the fall came the severence of all relations. God and man no longer have the same relationship because of sin, and neither does man and nature. Nature now works against man; we have to work to gain food from the ground, the animals are no longer kind but fearful of us and we fear them, and nature groans because it has lost its relationship. Now this is not say that nature has a personality, but it is to say that nature is not the way it intended to be, and it, metaphorically, hurts because of that.
So what does this mean? It doesn't mean that if we treat nature better then nature will treat us better. God does not see it that way. When a relationship is severed or hurt, things change on both ends. Neither side is the same in the way they treat each other, or react towards each other. Nature's fury is brought about by man's severence of the proper relationship with it. When you knock things out of place, they will always start to go against each other.
This also does not mean that because I lied last week, I will get hit by a tornado for judgment. Judgment comes in all shapes and forms, and we forget that death itself is judgment. Neither does this mean that nature is getting back at me for putting too much CO2 in the air. I think what this mainly does mean is that we have lost our way in our relationships with both God and nature, and because of this we have to accept that their are consequences for it that are out of our control that will hurt us. It was no different with God, an old girlfriend, and God says it's no different with nature either.
Again, I do not claim to have solved a great mystery or puzzle. I am merely hoping to give people insights to think about, especially Christians. Any atheist, if he is to be consistent, should not have any problem with what has happened. He may care, but he cannot question. The believer in God does have some things to work out, but it is much more comforting to have a God there who can be supplicated and comforting than to have nothing or anyone to truly address this issue with. God is there to listen and to be challenged. I encourage anyone who has struggles with this to pray and challenge God; if He is who He says He is then I am confident there is an answer to be realized. If not now, eventually.
