'Where is God in All This?' – The Problem for Religions

London, UK – Confronted with the world's greatest natural disaster for half a century, religious leaders are attempting to make theological sense of the tsunami and console congregations that might ask why God allowed the tectonic plates under the Indian Ocean to shift so catastrophically on Boxing Day.

Christians stressed God's presence with the suffering, Hindus reconciled themselves to fate, the Chief Rabbi composed a prayer and the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote an article for the Sunday Telegraph.

However, Lambeth Palace has complained that the archbishop's words had not borne the headline that the newspaper chose to put on them: "Archbishop of Canterbury: This has made me question God's existence" – which would indeed have been an extraordinary admission from such a source. It insisted instead that Dr Rowan Williams had merely hypothesized that it would be wrong for Christians not to question what God was up to.

"There is something odd about expecting that God will constantly step in if things are getting dangerous. How dangerous do they have to be? How many deaths would be acceptable?” Dr Williams wrote. "If some religious genius did come up with an explanation of exactly why these deaths made sense, would we feel happier or safer or more confident in God? Wouldn't we feel something of a chill at the prospect of a God who deliberately plans a programme that involves a certain level of casualties... belief has survived such tests again and again, not because it comforts or explains but because believers... have learned to see the world and life in the world as a freely given gift. They have learned that there is some reality to which they can only relate in amazement."

The same newspaper has questioned the depth of the archbishop's faith before. Only four months ago it chided Dr Williams for admitting that the Beslan school siege raised questions about faith.

Lambeth Palace said, "Whilst the archbishop's article itself has been transcribed faithfully, the headline reporting it was a misrepresentation of [his] views. As any reading of the text makes instantly clear, the archbishop nowhere says that the tsunami causes him to question or doubt the existence of God: rather that the Christian faith does not invite simplistic answers to the problem of human suffering. It is extremely disappointing that what is a thoughtful response to the challenge posed by events of these kinds to the mind and heart of the believer has suffered in the search for a headline."