Like Plato, I believe there are two definitions for a word. There is bad (lower case b) which represents human perception of bad, and there is Bad (capital b) which represents an Absolute Truth, the opposite of God's way. In the same way there is Good and good. Good and Bad exist whether or not we do, while good and bad our human perceptions that are relative to our society. This iceberg hitting the glacier may be "bad" in our definition, but it cannot possibly be considered "Bad" because the iceberg has no consciousness, no intent to do the penguin's harm. It simply happens. It would have happened if there were no penguins there at all. That is Nature. Only do humans and demons do anything that can be considered Bad.

Now, let’s pretend that the penguins have free will and consciousness, and could make a decision on what to do, and were not driven by instinct. Let's say that the penguins saw the horrible journey they would have to make, and all the hard work it would be, and decided to just give up. If you could only label one of those two things Bad, the iceberg or the inability of the penguins to do something about it, which would you choose? I would choose the penguins inability, because an iceberg is just an iceberg. This is true with our lives, and I think it is sort of what the Shinto were getting at. Their point was to move on with life, and not get hung up on the bad. My point is that getting hung up on the bad is what is actually Bad.

Whether or not God can control Nature isn't the point here. We know He can. In the Bible, God stops the turning of the sun, raises a worldwide flood, and rains fire and hail down on Egypt. God can do whatever He wants, but that doesn't mean He does. God could make elephants pink but it probably isn't going to happen. Life was meant for us to live it, not for us to be puppets. If God had wanted to control every aspect of our lives, then He would have made us robots.

And whether or not God uses everything to his glory isn't the point here either. I just call that resourcefullness. He can take any situation and bring the good out of it, that doesn't mean the situation always goes how He would like. And if we think from God's perspective, and look at the big picture and not the little one, we see that no matter how crooked the road is, God gets us there. Take Jonah again. Jonah should have went to Ninevah, but he didn't. God still got him there. Perhaps not as quickly as He had planned, but He still accomplished it. Or take the Israelites in the desert, they were supposed to get to the Promised Land but things didn’t work out exactly well and they were stuck in the desert for 40 years. God still got the Israelites in, though, didn’t He? They didn’t take over the lands He told them too, either, but God still kept them alive didn’t He? To me it is more amazing how resourceful God can be than to think that everything is carefully planned letter by letter. I don't believe in predestination, I believe in free will. Why? Because the Bible tells me to.

Sir Isaac Newton once asked which is the more powerful God..one who must assign a heavenly body to every blade of grass, or one who can create a Universe so perfectly, wind it up, and let it run like clockwork?