Remarkable. Incredible. Everyday brings even more ridiculous statements from religious leaders about the "lesson" of the Tsunami disaster. Another chestnut:

"This (disaster) is one of the greatest opportunities God has given us to share his love with people," said K.P. Yohannan, president of the Texas-based Gospel for Asia. In an interview, Yohannan said his 14,500 "native missionaries" in India, Sri Lanka and the Andaman Islands are giving survivors Bibles and booklets about "how to find hope in this time through the word of God."

Yeah, "God" shares his love with us by drowning people in the sea. Oh, but there's still more:

"Shlomo Amar, Israel's Sephardi chief rabbi, has said, 'This is an expression of God's great ire with the world. The world is being punished for wrongdoing -- be it people's needless hatred of each other, lack of charity, moral turpitude.'"

Sorry, but it is so easy to ridicule other person's religious views. The lesson of the tsunami disaster seems to be that most people are seriously deluded in their understanding of the universe. Our physical environment is a place of uncontrolled and unpredictable forces that can easily hurt or kill. There is no "moral" basis for anyone being killed by an act of nature. It is called bad luck.

Now what does a Buddhist believe? A Buddhist believes, if I understand correctly, that upon our death (no matter how caused) our fate depends on the sum of our actions. A death by a tornado, hurricane or bolt of lightening is not caused by our being a bad person.