A few days after the Sumatra earthquake, a friend of mine told me that she was lost for words when her daughter asked her: "Mother, why did God send us an earthquake? Why should we worship a God who sends us natural disasters and miseries relentlessly?" It is not only children who ask this kind of question in the aftermath of natural disasters, especially ones on a massive scale like the Aceh tsunami and the more recent Sumatra earthquake. Many say that God is angry with us. They say the Indonesians deserve the punishment because of their sins. Clerics and priests urge us to ask forgiveness from God. In the words of Muslim clerics, taubat nasuhah (an act of contrition to God) is what the Indonesians have to do. Others confidently say natural disasters are signs the apocalypse has come nearer. To make matters worse, some of our media give too much space to upholders of the...