As we all can remember, in March of 2011 a 9.0 magnitude earthquake rumbled earth and was felt halfway across the world. Aftershocks riddled the Japanese people and consistently continued some time after the initial earthquake. Thought to be one of the worst natural disasters in Japans history, its people were to be devastated far worse with the events following the earthquake.
Soon after the earthquake a giant tsunami raced across Japan swallowing up cities and destroying huge amounts of land. Thousands of lives we lost and the country was completely devastated. Not too long after the earthquake and the tsunami had settled, the world learns a nuclear reactor located near a coast had been severely damaged and was now leaking radioactive material into the earth, and into the sea. All around the world people asked, how could this happen, how could something so destructive happen to a country like this; and even worse, how could God let this happen.
Stephen Crane's response would be rather unaccommodating and bleak. According to Crane this type of disaster is part of the universe. The powers at hand have to remorse, no sympathy for these people or for anyone, it simply is. The universe continues on its path regardless of its inhabitants or the effects of nature. Secondly, to answer how could God of let this happen? How would he allow the sea to remorselessly swallow up thousands of his people and stand by to let it all happen? Crane would beg to ask the question. Was it really thousands of people who were swept away and lost forever? Or is it God who was swept away carelessly by man, pushed aside for other matters more important. Crane would present God as indifferent and unbiased. The things that happened that day and for days to come was the universe working as it has for millions of years. We think we are supreme beings and kings of our domain, when in all reality we are nothing more than a mark in time as the universe continues to turn.
No comments:
Post a Comment