What kind of god would do this?

An Indian woman in the fishing of village of Cuddalore, Madras, mourns the death of her relative - one of more than 50,000 people killed by Sunday's tsunami that devastated coastlines from Indonesia to Somalia. Photograph: Arko Datta/Reuters
As the world grapples with the scale of the disaster of Indian Ocean tidal wave, the Guardian's Martin Kettle poses a troubling question for those who believe in God. When a devastating earthquake killed more than 50,000 people in Lisbon in 1755, Voltaire asked what kind of a God would permit such things to occur. In the 18th century, Europe had the intellectual curiosity to ask such questions, Kettle writes, but he wonders whether the same can be said of 21st century Europe. "A non-scientific belief system, especially one that is based on any kind of notion of a divine order, has some explaining to do," he says. In fact some Hindu religious groups have called the tsunami as "divine retribution". But a Michigan-based Hindu group, Navya Shastra, has condemned organisations in India for describing the disaster as a "vengeful act of God" for the arrest of a Hindu seer, on murder and other charges. "Hindus should not ascribe the disaster to divine retribution", said Rajarathina Bhattar, a Navya Shastra adviser and a Houston priest. "At times like these, sane voices must prevail."