I want to let readers know a bit more about the situation here. The debut this summer of BQO has been a "soft launch" intended to try out our ideas for the magazine, to see how they work, particularly in relationship to Sir John Templeton's ideals. We are still working on the site, and will be changing some things in response to feedback. With respect to this blog, we are reconsidering a style and format that will be more in tune with Sir John's forward-looking, positive, constructive ways to engage the Big Questions. We hope to fine-tune things to make BQO better for you, our readers. So, please be patient, and thanks for reading.

Folks, I'm going to suspend comments for the time being, both on this blog and all over the site, pending the outworking of some technical and editorial issues. I apologize for this, and ask for your patience.

UPDATE: I will not be blogging for now. I hope to be blogging again soon. You readers are faithful and important to me, so I ask for your patience during this down time. Please continue to enjoy other content on BQO -- but remember, we're not posting comments at the present time.

Read this heart-rending account of the flood from a Pakistani writer and farmer living in one of the hard-hit regions. Especially this excerpt:

This disaster is not like an earthquake or a tsunami. In the 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan, 80,000 people died more or less at one blow; whereas the immediate death toll from this flood is likely to be in the low thousands. The loss of property, however, is catastrophic. It is as if a neutron bomb exploded overhead, but instead of killing the people and leaving their houses intact, it piled trees upon the houses and swept away the villages and crops and animals, leaving the people alive.

For months and even years, the people of the Indus Valley will not have sufficient income for food or clothing. They will rebuild, if they can afford it, by inches. The corrupt and impoverished Pakistani government cannot possibly make these people’s lives whole again. It’s not hard to imagine the potential for radicalization in a country already rapidly turning to extremist political views, to envision the anarchy that may be unleashed if wealthier nations do not find a way to provide sufficient relief. This is not a problem that will go away, and it is the entire world’s problem. It is said, the most violent revolutions are the revolutions of the stomach.  

Everybody seems to be concerned that the Taliban religious extremists will take advantage of this disaster to win the loyalty of the people. I heard on the radio last week that whereas the Pakistani government is in some places nowhere to be seen, Islamists are thick on the ground, helping desperate people out. If you have had everything taken from you, you can hardly be blamed for being grateful to the men who give you something, anything. Especially hope.

Thinking about the farmer's essay and what Pakistanis are going through got me to wondering about the tradition of theodicy in Islam. Theodicy is the term used to mean theological explanations for the existence of evil. Here is a marvelous interview with the Christian theologian David Bentley Hart, in which he discussed theodicy in the Christian tradition. I don't know how the existence of evil is generally explained by Islamic theologians, and would appreciate any guidance from readers. You may be familiar with the infamous Lisbon earthquake of 1755, and the resulting tsunami. The massive destruction and loss of life it caused had a major effect on European intellectual currents at the time, causing many to doubt God's providence, or God himself. It seems to me that this is a case of a horrific natural disaster occurring at a time when serious fault lines in religious belief were already opening across European culture; the earthquake and tsunami only exacerbated the rupture.

Do you suppose something similar will happen in Pakistan? Will the Pakistani people likely become more dependent on their faith in God to see them through the extreme hardship? Or will none of it matter in the end? Explain your answer. I see no intrinsic reason why great suffering should destroy one's faith in God, or why it should strengthen it. I think it all depends on the individual, and on the cultural context. The Black Death struck Europe in the 14th century, and killed far more people ... but religious faith survived, and likely helped the survivors find hope amid the ruins. The 1755 disaster struck a very different Europe, as did the singular man-made catastrophe of World War I, with tragic results. In the case of modern Pakistan, I don't know enough about Islam as it's believed and practiced there, or the culture of the local people, to predict.

Parag Khanna says tomorrow will be the age of the megacity. Excerpt:

The 21st century will not be dominated by America or China, Brazil or India, but by the city. In an age that appears increasingly unmanageable, cities rather than states are becoming the islands of governance on which the future world order will be built. This new world is not -- and will not be -- one global village, so much as a network of different ones.

Time, technology, and population growth have massively accelerated the advent of this new urbanized era. Already, more than half the world lives in cities, and the percentage is growing rapidly. But just 100 cities account for 30 percent of the world's economy, and almost all its innovation. Many are world capitals that have evolved and adapted through centuries of dominance: London, New York, Paris. New York City's economy alone is larger than 46 of sub-Saharan Africa's economies combined. Hong Kong receives more tourists annually than all of India. These cities are the engines of globalization, and their enduring vibrancy lies in money, knowledge, and stability. They are today's true Global Cities.