How do the faithful reconcile the fact that God demonstrates no particular mercy to his followers during an “Act of God”? Here’s a true story that (partially) answers that question.
The morning of Saturday, November 1, 1755 was like any other morning in Lisbon, Portugal. Well, except that was one of the largest religious holidays of the year, the Feast of All Saints. That busy morning in Lisbon, a devoutly Roman Catholic city, the churches and cathedrals were packed with an estimated 200,000 worshipers when a massive earthquake struck. The churches, unable to withstand the seismic shock, collapsed, fatally crushing thousands of the faithful. The quake triggered a tsunami that swept into the coastal city, drowning thousands more. The earthquake started a fire when candles lit for the holy day were knocked over, creating a firestorm that barbequed those that were not crushed by falling buildings and asphyxiated others up to 30 meters from the blaze.
In the aftermath of the holocaust, historians claim that at least 70,000 men, women and children had been killed, with estimates as high as 100,000, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in European history. Survivors lost families, homes and belongings and had to deal with the unimaginable trauma of retrieving the rotting and charred corpses as well as the disease and starvation to follow.
Christians ostensibly believe that God is omnipresent, but even moreso on holy days when the Holy Spirit dwells in their sacred houses of worship. So where was God during this calamity? Was he busy on some other part of the planet and couldn’t be bothered to protect his more ardent followers? Or did he intentionally unleash his wrath on the pious for practicing the “wrong” version of Christianity as the Protestants of the day would have you believe? The irony here is exquisite.
As anyone could predict in such situations, many survivors felt God had blessed them and were grateful to him for sparing their lives. Some expressed that their faith had been forever bolstered by this event. However, many more of the once-faithful were conflicted as recorded in letters, journals or publications, where they challenged the traditional views of God, nature and society.
Coincidentally, this disaster occurred during the height of the period known as The Age of Enlightenment accompanied by a Scientific Revolution that was beginning to sweep across Europe and the American colonies where this tragic event played in to the views of scientists and philosophers who were already challenging the value of religion, monarchies and papal authority, promoting the liberation of human consciousness from a state of ignorance to a state of reason. As a result, these radical views led to a scientific understanding of geological forces as the cause of earthquakes as opposed to supernatural forces and the germ theory of disease as the cause of illness as opposed to spells and incantations from witches and to the birth of democracies in America and Europe.
As for the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, some historians posit that this single event was responsible for triggering a mass “deconversion” in Western Europe where today only 19% of the Portuguese population continue to attend Mass and take the sacraments regularly.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments section below.