On God and disasters:

Two different articles on reactions to the tsunami today.

Heather MacDonald on Slate calls for a boycott of God. While I understand and sympathise with her point, I think she's being a bit disingenuous. There is a fundamental difference between human action and natural disaster. That is, I think that people who claim that God is responsible for the response of people but not fo the tsunami are not necessarily being intellectually dishonest. I like a universe where even God is governed by his own rules, since I'm not particuarly bothered by a God who is not all powerful. My understanding of quantum mechanics is that it precludes an omnipotent God anyway.

Willliam Safire writes on the book of Job for the NYT. I found this article really interesting, though perhaps it does let God off the hook a bit. So God is so busy restoring light to the Universe that he can't save 150,000 lives?