The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 — to this day considered one of the most destructive earthquakes ever — struck on a religious holiday. It flattened what had been a beautiful city, including almost every single church. Europeans — especially the literati — were shocked. How, if there was any kind of divinity at all, could so many innocents be slaughtered? The Enlightenment considered man’s ignorance to be the core reason for man’s misery, and reason to be the solution to man’s superstitious attachment to faith and the route to his progress. The Lisbon earthquake in particular — and the uncalled-for suffering wrought by nature more generally — made this idea appear deeply wrongheaded.
Voltaire’s Candide (1758) was written at least partially in response to the Lisbon earthquake, but it also tackled the great problem of human suffering in general. The work satirizes optimism — or at least the fatuous kind that insists on cheerily finding a silver lining in the cloud of every catastrophe. Voltaire wrote a comedy that delivers news no one wants to hear. We do not, it turns out, live in “the best of all possible worlds.” We live in a tragic and terribly dangerous world that is indifferent to individual suffering. Voltaire concludes (although these are my words, not his) that our earth — this planet that is our home — is nowhere near the good home we so often claim it is.
Optimists who manage to find redemption through suffering argue that “God works in mysterious ways,” or that “divine providence” is at work. On this account, every time there’s a calamity, or even a quotidian death, we should pull back and consider “the big picture” or the “overall general good of the universe.” The options are limited: (1) God does not exist; (2) God exists, but in permitting suffering and death even in the case of innocent children, God has a plan that remains forever unfathomable to us; our choice is to accept or reject this God; (3) God exists but doesn’t care; our choice is to accept or reject this God; (4) God is not all-powerful (maybe he’s up against a devil, or nature, or simply bad human beings); in any event, some things are beyond God’s control, and our choice remains the same — accept or reject this God.
Yet even in the face of a home that’s indifferent to whether or not we live on it (we live on this home called Earth, not in it), those who think God does not exist can occasionally join forces with those who think he does. All of us are equipped with reason. We see with our own eyes — in images on the Internet and on TV (as people in Voltaire’s time could not) — that the earthquake that devastated Haiti on Tuesday wreaked colossal suffering that requires money. If relief efforts are to work, Haiti needs more than what even government and large generous businesses like Google or Microsoft can supply. People everywhere are responding, as evidenced by the money that is now flowing into relief agencies. Those on Twitter gave almost instantaneously — they received the Twitter message saying, “Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to @RedCross relief.” Others gave in larger amounts, made almost just as instantaneously, via the Internet. Still others will send in old-fashioned checks.
The tragedy in Haiti sends a shudder down our spines. Our planet is indifferent to our presence and our fate. Yet we’re here. This is our home, and we’re not going any place soon. Whether devoutly religious or stoically atheistic, people are nevertheless performing a common gesture: They are giving money to help the people in Haiti.
Here is a list of three charities that are helping in Haiti that meet all 20 BBB (Better Business Bureau) Standards for Charity Accountibility and are BBB Seal Holders. There are others. There are also dozens of other excellent charities working on relief in Haiti that do not appear on the BBB list of charities or do not achieve the highest BBB ranking.
http://www.mercycorps.org/
http://www.redcross.org
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org
NOTE: I have no authorization to endorse any charities, nor am I employed by, or do volunteer work, for any of the charities I list here. I list them as a few possibilities among many of the charities working in disaster relief in Haiti.
