I admit I have much more difficulty with earthquakes.

It was put eloquently this week by an old woman in a devastated village in southern India’s Tamil Nadu. “Why did you do this to us, God?” she wailed. “What did we do to upset you?”

Perhaps no event in living memory has confronted the world’s great religions with such a basic test of faith as this week’s tsunami, which indiscriminately slaughtered Indonesian Muslims, Indians of all faiths, Thai and Sri Lankan Buddhists and tourists who were Christians and Jews.

Woody Allen certa vez disse que não podia acreditar em Deus, já que prendera a língua na máquina de escrever na noite anterior. Se fosse comigo, eu concluiria que Deus existe e é um sacana, mas prefiro acreditar na inexistência.