Is Weather an act of God?

[Disturbed]

I hear a lot of people say that Hurricanes, Floods, Tornados etc. are Acts of God. What sort of God inflicts horrible acts like that?

[rubberducky]

1. I think the weather is a gift from "Mother Nature"!

;-)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Weather is thermodynamics in action -- pure physics.

It's the exchange of heat in the atmosphere. "God" has nothing to do with it, IMO.

[varkam]

3. A Mean One.

:D

[happyslug]

4. "An Act God" is a legal term meaning Natural causation.

It is a term of art within the legal community that is while defined in legal cases over the last 1000 years. Thus the term "Act of God" is used in Legal Contracts for any natural disaster beyond the foreseeable knowledge of the parties agreeing to the contract.

[havocmom]

5. If so, there are no atheists among insurance company execs

What? Your home was destroyed in a storm? Sorry, act of God - not covered. Good-bye, good luck and thanks for all those years of checks you sent us. Enjoy tent living.

[Disturbed]

6. One must believe that there is a God

in order to claim an event of nature was caused by a God, uh right? Unfortunately a God cannot be sued for causing death and destruction.

[havocmom]

10. Armies have been delivering death & destruction in God's name

since the advent of shoes. Yeah, unfortunately, can't sue. ;)

[happyslug]

7. It is a term of Art

Like "Probable Cause", "Beyond a reasonable doubt", These are legal terms that are hard to defined, but we know what they mean. Lawyers are a conservative lot, they do NOT want to vary from traditional terms least some Judge would rule since they varied from traditional terms they meant something OTHER than what the traditional term meant. Thus you have terms like "Cease and Decease", and "Last Will and Testament", which derived during the Middle Ages when the Kings and Nobles spoke French but the Common People spoke English, thus in legal papers both the English and the French terms for any legal document were used. "Testament" is the Norman-French term for "Will", and the Term "Decease" is the Norman-French term for "Cease". These phases survive to this day do to lawyers being conservative (Norman French was dropped as the legal Language of England in about 1603). It has been 400 years since French was the legal language of England, but those ancient French terms survive to this day for lawyers and laymen KNOW WHAT THE TERMS MEAN. The same with the Term "Act of God", lawyers, insurance agents and even laymen KNOW WHAT THAT TERM MEAN and thus is still used in contracts for it means some sort of natural Disaster that is beyond normal weather conditions and the acts of men.

[havocmom]

9. yeah

I know

Also a handy excuse to not pay a bet

[Kickoutthejams23]

8. Karl Rove controls the weather

I've got the link here somewhere...:tinfoilhat:

[havocmom]

11. He probably thinks so

Might even have that on his card.
;)

[soothsayer]

12. It was until HAARP. The USAF intends to weaponize it (to "own

the weather" they say) by 2012

[dattaswamI]

13. Tsunami killed even innocent children.

Even fish eats some creatures and so there is no sin if I eat the fish. Even plants have life. Tsunami killed even innocent children. Can you analyze these points?

---------------------------------
A goat is a pure vegetarian but you are eating that goat also. When you find a human being, who is a murderer, will you kill him directly or hand over him to the court? Assuming that the fish is also a murderer, you cannot kill it directly. God will punish it. In the case of the fish, you need not file a case against the fish in the court of the God, because there is no need of such filing in the case of God. Moreover you are raising your voice against the hanging of a murderer stating, “If you cannot give life, you have no right to take it away”. You are also pleading that hanging is the most barbaric deed and that several countries have banned it.

Your statement applies to the fish also, which is a murderer of the creatures. Life is common in the human being as well as the fish. Both are living beings. If you don’t have right to take away the life of a human being, you have also no right to take the life of the fish also. The Dharma Shastras say that non-voilence is the highest justice (Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah). If you say that the fish kills the creatures for food and that there is no sin, there should not be sin if cornivorous hunters from forest enter the city and start eating the human beings. You should not object their food also, but you will kill them because your fellow human beings are killed. If you broaden your heart and see the fish as your fellow living being, you are practicing the highest form of justice, which pleases the Lord. You cannot compare the plants with animals and birds. Even in the case of plants, the green plants should not be cut.
Plucking leaves and fruits is not killing. The crops are cut only when they die after loosing the sign of the life, which is the Green Chlorophyll. In plants life exists but mind and intelligence do not exist.
Life is called as Pranamaya Kosa. Mind is Manomaya Kosa. Intelligence is Vijnanamaya Kosa. The life is only inert mechanism of exchange process of Oxygen and Carbondioxide and release of energy by oxidation. This mechanism has no awareness of the pain. The mind is represented by the nervous system, which is not present in the plants. The mind may be in very very primitive stage in plants as per the research of Mr. Bose. The ancient Indian sages avoided even plucking the leaves and fruits. They ate leaves and fruits when they have fallen from the plants (Swayam Viseerna Dhruva Patra Vruttita). They avoided this trace of sin also. In plucking the leaf and killing an animal, the sin is qualitatively equal, but there is a lot of quantitative difference. One percent sin and hundred percent sin cannot be equated. Your argument concludes that if one does one percent sin, why not hundred percent sin be done? This equates to your statement that if one plucks a leaf why not we kill an animal. Are you pained equally if I steal one rupee or one lakh rupees from your pocket. The trace of sin can always be neglected. The Lord came as Bhuddha and preached this non-voilence. Veda also says that one should kill his animal nature in the sacrifice and not the animal (Manyuh Pasuh).
As you think, children are not innocent. The child of a demon has the devil characteristics in the form of seeds. The soul in a child has just entered the earth after a long punishment in the hell. The strength of the sinful attitude (Samskara) is very much reduced but did not vanish completely. A thief when released from a police station after a long torture has the attitude of stealing in very much reduced state. The attitude did not disappear. When he comes out and enters a suitable encouraging atmosphere, this seed grows as a tree and he is caught by the police again for his theft. Similarly when the child grows, again the grown up person does the same sin and at the end goes to the hell. This is the cycle of deeds (Karma Chakra). When a child is taken away by God, it is something like arresting the thief immediately after his release. This prevents the thief to steal again. He must be considered lucky.
The child may get a better birth. The angle of sympathy comes since you are not aware of the soul in the body of the child. The body is like a shirt and the death is only destruction of the shirt. Gita emphasizes about this aspect in the beginning itself. The plans of the Lord are not known to us. He may give a better shirt in a better place and protect the soul. We see a brief part of the film and conclude.
Only complete and thorough spiritual knowledge can remove all the doubts.


At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

Anil Antony

www.universal-spirituality.org
Universal Spirituality for World Peace
[e-mail]