My first feelings after news of the terrible tidal wave disaster in the Indian Ocean were ones of sheer gut horror at what had happened to so many people there: lives destroyed, children battered and bruised, deserted and disorientated, old enough to know what has happened to them, not old enough to be able to do anything much about it. Another stark reminder if it were necessary of how precarious life can be and how destiny is so often out-with control.

Then came anger at the innate injustice which seems to be at the heart of experience. As if any more evidence were needed. Such a disaster flies in the face of any belief in a benevolent god who could stand by and watch this, or worse still, actually make it happen. It seems indefensible. Listening to the believers trying to explain one feels almost embarrassed for them. When human wickedness is the thing they can always wax eloquent about evil and the abuse of free will etc. (far from convincingly in my view) but when it’s a natural ‘act of God’ they simply flounder.

My other thought was that this kind of grave misfortune is not new. On any given day there are many millions suffering either from poverty, starvation, war, or the commonplace hardships that life throws at the under-privileged. In this sense, the wave of sympathy that has been extended to victims of the tsunami is unusual. Perhaps it’s due to the spectacular nature of the event and the huge numbers of deaths and injuries inflicted. The ability to feel compassion for the plight of others should not have to be about numbers and high visibility. If we displayed only a fraction of this compassion ordinarily then the world would be a whole different place indeed.