After Tsunami, Religion Plays Role in Coping

Very interesting Talk of the Nation. I don't think they truly had enough time to explore and appreciate all views here, though.

Many victims of the tsunami are left with tough questions about fate and natural disasters. Often, they're left with few answers, only their faith. We discuss how Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians reconcile religion and disaster.

[ NPR TotN ]

The caller “Fathima” who doesn't identify her religion is clearly a Muslim. Her point is valid, but perhaps too much of a tangent. I felt the Imam did bring up an important point about testing vs. punishment, but left off other important concepts like why it is better to be punished in this life than the next. More importantly, I think, one of the Muslims should have touched on the concept of punishment of a society for societal ills.

As for the non-Muslims, who's opinions I am not as familiar with, I'm not sure the “end of days” scenario of the Jewish gentleman was truly on topic, he seemed to be more concerned with Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and to imply that disasters of this proportion didn't occur before that invasion is a bit out there.

I also found the information about Krakatoa to be very intriguing, and may have to purchase his book.