Since Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, and now the earthquake and tidal wave in Japan I have been listening the last few years to opinions presented to me either personally, or ingroups concerning why these things happen. The general belief among many that I am acquainted with is that New Orleans and Haiti are "wicked" and God punished them. (This is very true, someone said to me about a month ago: Katrina was sent by God to chasten New Orleans...), another mouth rambled on: Haiti was destroyed because of the wickedness of the people.

Now on the other side of the coin: The Teton Dam flood happened to us to bless us and help us grow together as a community...

It interests me that when something bad happens to someone else, or another group of people it is often because God was humbling or punishing them, they are wicked. When something bad happens to a Mormon, or groups of Mormons (illness, bankrupty, natural disaster, death, etc.) it is because God wants to "prove" them, bring them closer to him, or take them from Earth because he needs them to do work "beyond the vail".

To me that is the paradox.

Essentially, everything - whether good or evil - happens to the non-believers to punish or tempt them. Everything - whether good or evil - happens to believers to perfect or bless them. So, we might as well quit worrying about it because religious people have it all figured out -- non-believers will be punished (or tempted further from God by sucesses) and believers will be blessed (or tried into greater faith by their God).

Must be nice to have a simple (minded) answer for everything, eh?

the conclusion comes before the reasoning. And the conclusion has to always come down to "the morg is the one true morg of god."