Pray for the people of the Philippines.  Pray that they will get help, pray that they will get surcease and relief from the horrific effects of the typhoon that swept through their country last week.  The damage this storm wrought is terrifying; photos do not communicate the enormity of the carnage it visited upon thousands and thousands of people.
     In the face of such devastation, whether you are religious or not does not matter, really.  We are all human beings.  When one of us suffers, we all suffer.  We all are called to care for one another.  It is our obligation and, indeed, destiny as well.  What else would we do?
     In the wake of such tragedy, many of us who believe in God probably wonder why we believe in God.  Why, God, we might ask, did you not prevent this from happening?  Why are you allowing these innocent people to suffer such misery? What is the point?
     These are exceedingly difficult questions.  There are no easy answers.  One thing, however, is this:  if God did not exist, if the world is random, we, and everyone affected by the storm, would have absolutely no point.  We would be accidents caught in an accident.  We would care, yes, but if the world has no point, why would we, as many an unbeliever has pointed out, logically, bother?  Yes, faith is hard, yes, faith is challenging; yet without faith, trying to make sense of this disaster is an even more formidable task than without it.  True, the question of God—theodicy—remains, but if we discard this question, we encounter a bigger one still:  in the face of meaningless upheaval on a meaningless planet, how can we justify our existence?