Many Questions​—Few Satisfying Answers

ON THE morning of All Saints’ Day, November 1, 1755, a powerful earthquake struck the city of Lisbon while most of its citizens were in church. Thousands of buildings collapsed, and tens of thousands of people were killed.

Shortly after that tragedy, the French writer Voltaire published his Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (Poem on the Lisbon Disaster), in which he dismissed the claim that the catastrophe was divine retribution for the sins of the people. Asserting that such calamitous events were beyond human understanding or explanation, Voltaire wrote:

Nature is mute, we question her in vain;

We need a God who speaks to the human race.

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The destruction of Lisbon in 1755 moved Voltaire to assert that such events were beyond human understanding

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Voltaire: From the book Great Men and Famous Women; Lisbon: J.P. Le Bas, Praça da Patriarcal depois do terramoto de 1755. Foto: Museu da Cidade/Lisboa