more from John Stuart Mill

Single Idea 21331

[catalogued under 29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 3. Problem of Evil / d. Natural Evil]

Full Idea

Nature often takes the means by which we live. A single hurricane, a flight of locusts, or an inundation, or a trifling chemical change in an edible root, starve a million people.

Clarification

an 'inundation' is a flood

Gist of Idea

Hurricanes, locusts, floods and blight can starve a million people to death

Source

John Stuart Mill (Nature and Utility of Religion [1874], p.116)

Book Reference

'The Existence of God', ed/tr. Hick,John [Macmillan 1964], p.116


A Reaction

[second sentence compressed] The 'edible root' is an obvious reference to the Irish potato famine. Some desertification had human causes, but these are telling examples.