Why Did God Order the Destruction of Nations?

A BBC documentary film on YouTube narrates how an Italian city called Pompeii was destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD killing inhabitants of the city. I commented on that video: “An evil and adulterous generation was destroyed by God”. Some religious folks – both Christians and Muslims thumbed my comment up which made some of atheist folks really angry. These atheist folks ganged up against me and started debating me on God’s justice. They claimed when Mount Vesuvius was erupted, it killed both good and evil inhabitants of the city. They claimed it’s not fair if a God kills the innocent people in a city because of the sin of sinful people in the city. Keep in mind that the topic of their debate with me was not whether God was a mythical character or not. The topic of their debate with me was whether the supposed mythical God the religious people believe in was just in the stories the scriptures narrate.

Below is my conversation with those atheists:

Matthew Willams: Not every person in Pompeii was evil and adulterous. You believe children are innocent, right? Did babies in their cradles deserve to die? Did unborn children of pregnant women deserve to die? Did innocent babies deserve to die because their parents screwed? Why would God kill off all of the innocent people with the evil ones? How is it fair? You believe God is fair, right?

Hu Wen: Death isn't the end of your existence. Death is the door to the other side. Good people desire death because life on the other side is better than worldly life for them. But bad people don't desire death because life on the other side is worse than worldly life for them. Kids that died will have a better life in heaven on the other side. Adulterous that died will have a worse life in hell on the other side. So stop complaining unless you are adulterer and scared to go to hell.

Richard Mahn: Do you really think all the babies in Pompeii deserved to die because their parents screwed around? Quit your faith before it harms you.

Hu Wen: Babies are considered innocents by religions because they are not old enough to commit sin. Atheists don't believe babies are innocent. So stop shedding crocodile tears for babies died in Pompeii. Atheists consider babies depended animals, BUT not innocent humans like religions do. Got that?

As i mentioned earlier, if a baby dies, s/he goes to heaven. Heavenly life is better than worldly life. And life in hell is worse than worldly life.

Your presupposition that death is a punishment for both good and bad people is wrong. Death is a reward for good people & punishment for bad people. Because good people go to heaven after death & bad people go to hell after death. When a natural disaster comes upon a village and takes away the lives of all villagers, it is good for righteous villagers and bad for sinful villagers. Because righteous villagers will enter heaven and sinful villagers will enter hell after their death. Thus, God accomplish two objectives by a single action. He rewards righteous villagers & punishes sinful villagers by sending a natural deserter upon them to end their lives.

The interesting thing is atheists don't deny that the death is the end of human sufferings on earth although they don't believe in afterlife. The secular Western world promotes euthanasia for terminally ill people or anyone who wants to commit suicide in the name of "Freedom to choose". The word euthanasia comes from the Greek: εὐθανασία (good death). Therefore, we see that even atheists praise the killing of human beings to end their sufferings.

We, religious people condemn euthanasia because we believe the God is the giver of life so he has the right to take away the life. I am not the giver of life so I can't take away your life. Hope that helps you understands religious view on it. Let me know if you have further questions.

Rob Bowes: I'm sorry to break this to you Hu Wen, but your brain is broken. you are proclaiming your happiness for the death of thousands. You cannot do anything to harm me for saying it and I will continue to say it until the day I die and don't meet your angry and vengeful version of God.

Hu Wen: You said to me: “You are proclaiming your happiness for the death of thousands”.  Let me tell you a true story, Rob. Once an atheist asked a Christian lady why she cried when her mother passed away when she believed her mother would go to paradise after her death which was a thousand times better than this worldly life. That atheist was smarter than you because he understood it was good for a righteous person to die rather than continue living in this miserable world, if the heaven really existed. Yes, I am happy for the death of righteous people (if there was any) of Pompeii because they will have better life after their death. Simultaneously, I am sadden by the death of righteous people (if there was any) of Pompeii because I will miss them. Let me help you understand how a person can be happy and sad at the same time. Let’s say a son is leaving his mother from a poor African country to the United States, the land of the opportunities. The mother is happy because her son will have a way better life in the United States. But at the same time she is sad because her son is going to leave her and she will miss her son’s presence.

I said death was good for good people. Why don't you go and ask a religious Christian if s/he is scared to die. s/he will say no because s/he believes s/he will meet Jesus in heaven and have a life there that is at least one thousand times better than this worldly life full of hunger, depression, crime, diseases, pollution, and this list continues forever but you still don't get it and scratch your head and ask “Why?”. Pathetic.

You said to me: “You cannot do anything to harm me for saying it and I will continue to say it until the day I die and don't meet your angry and vengeful version of God”. The time of your death is predetermined by God. You will not die a second before or after that. You should be sacred to die because if you are an atheist. Theists are not scared to die because they believe a thousand times better life in heaven is waiting for them on the other side. Hope this helps you to understand the religious viewpoint. Take care of yourself.