Why did a good God create earthquakes and volcanoes? Suffering, creation and natural evil, with Prof Bob White

Natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have caused untold misery, suffering and death over the centuries. Some, like the infamous Lisbon earthquake and tsunami in 1755, have even been held up as prompting turns away from belief in God entirely. How can believers account for the apparent brokenness and destructiveness of the earth, and yet continue to believe it was made by a good God who declared his creation to be good? Are these deep geological forces actually as bad as many have thought? What about cancer, or other genetic diseases which cause deep suffering and have no human cause? Are they still, mysteriously, somehow caused by human sinfulness? Is it right to think of anything in creation as inherently ‘evil’ at all? Helping us think through these big questions this week is Prof Bob White, a world-renowned geo-physicist who has spent his career trying to better understand place tectonics which cause volcanoes and earthquakes. He’s also emeritus director of the Faraday Institute, a Cambridge-based think tank aiming to bolster the interface between science and Christian faith. Find out more about the Faraday Institute, including their long list of resources - https://www.faraday.cam.ac.uk/ • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to [e-mail] • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com