Theodicy & Natural Disaster: a Hurricane Harvey Tetris Attack Cover Story

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subversiveasset

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Published on August 30, 2017 5:27:03 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkvarV4Io24

Game:

Tetris Attack (1995)

Duration: 5:14

667 views

63

Here's a cover of Froggy (or Elias's) Water Stage from Tetris Attack (or Panel de Pon, if you prefer). I felt like a sax cover of a water stage would be appropriate given the recent arrival of Hurricane Harvey to the Gulf Coast and Texas.

🎵 Song: Water Stage/Froggy's Stage/Elias's Stage
🎮 Game: Tetris Attack/Panel de Pon
🎼 Composer: Masaya Kuzume

For this video's cover story, I decided to discuss two things: theodicy (or a response to the problem of evil -- that is, God's attributes of being all powerful, all knowing, and all good in a universe in which evil exists), and the development of the city of Houston.

How can those things have anything in common, you might ask? Well, the common theodicy is to say that evil exists because of human free will. The common counterargument is to point to the problem of natural evils -- after all, how can human free will be responsible for a natural disaster?

While I have seen some people argue that human free will is nevertheless theologically responsible for disasters (for example: natural disasters were brought into the world by man's fall from grace), this seems like too simple an answer. I have heard other people argue that human free will contributes to the suffering of natural disasters in the sense that human action may make natural disasters more severe, or that human action may amplify the destruction of a natural disaster (for example, the Dust Bowl was exacerbated by human farming techniques.)

And, of course, some would say that humans continue to do foolish things like build cities in swampland. And that brings us to Houston. Though the word "bayou" is French (and so you might guess it describes Louisiana), Bayou City is Houston...Houston is built around a series of bayous, which are essentially slow-moving rivers or marshlands. Although Houston is above sea level, the bayous are nevertheless prone to flooding.

Over Houston's history, engineers have essentially worked with the bayous for flood mitigation purposes. As the city has built highways, the highways have been designed to flood as well to prevent flooding to populated neighborhoods. After severe flooding to Houston's downtown, the city built reservoirs and dams to keep water upstream.

However, with large storms such as Hurricane Harvey, the systems simply cannot bear all the water, and so the bayou banks overflow their channels and massive flooding ensues.

How much do humans bear responsibility for continuing to build and live in floodplains?

It's difficult to say how much damage Hurricane Harvey will end up causing, but I'll end this segment with one final theodicy: what if natural disasters were the price that was paid to have a vibrant, lively earth? This "anthropic" natural disaster theodicy posits that natural disasters, while devasting to life that crosses its path, nevertheless serve ecological purposes that still help the earth be habitable. In the case of hurricanes, hurricanes serve as an engine to distribute heat, water, and nutrients across the planet. It's hard to imagine Houston will ever need any more water, but the sad fact is that Houston *does* periodically undergo drought periods.

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