After claiming the tsunami and earthquake that devastated Japan to be "divine punishment," Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has retracted his remark, and offered his apology for offending Japanese and others.
Monday, Ishihara described the disaster as "tembatsu" - divine punishment. Ishihara said: "Japanese politics is tainted with egoism and populism. We need to use the tsunami to wipe out egoism, which has attached itself like rust to the mentality of the Japanese people over a long period of time."
Tuesday, after receiving an outcry of protest for his insensitive remarks, Ishihara backtracked, and offered an apology. Speaking at a news conference Ishihara said "I will take back (the remark) and offer a deep apology," according to Japan’s Kyodo News.
Ishihara is not alone in attempting to explain the tragic natural disaster suffered by the Japanese people as somehow being an act of god, and somehow being a punishment for the nation of Japan.
Recently Glenn Beck suggested the natural disaster could be a message from God. There was also a similar claim by Christian evangelist and Korean mega-church pastor David Yonggi Cho. Cho claimed that “Because the Japanese people shun God in terms of their faith and follow idol worship, atheism, and materialism, it makes me wonder if this was not God’s warning to them.”
For many, the claim that a natural disaster is somehow "divine punishment" is a claim based in irrational superstition, and reflects the moral and intellectual poverty of theistic explanations.
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