Tragedy in Haiti: Pat Robertson and the Satan Pact Machine Vs. Earthquake Science

Most people have already heard recent 700 Club host Pat Robertson, a notoriously right-wing conservative evangelical, called the earthquake tragedy in Haiti an act of God in so many words, blaming the devastating earthquake that killed many and left the small island country in ruins on a legendary pact with the devil. Some people actually believe that a country which is sometimes said to have rescued itself from European enslavement only by a pact with Satan and in present day practices forms of what we call "voodoo", would be punished indiscriminately in a natural disaster by the one and only just, loving, wrathful God. How is this possible when the fault line under Haiti has been lying in wait for 300 years under the surface of earth, yet the deal with the devil only took place about 200 years ago? Was this an obvious case of entrapment by God? A premeditated act of God, or a random scientific natural disaster? Let's explore these two options logically.

Argument One- God punished Haiti for deals with the devil and present-day Voodoo practice.

Pro: Haitian slaves longed to escape French rule. They were willing to do nearly anything to escape their life circumstances, were they not? Is it possible that a personification of a Christian devil appeared to the Haitians, and we are to take literally the tales that they actually struck a deal with Satan to obtain their freedom? We may never know. What we do know is that Haiti willingly recognizes and officially proclaims that its people are practitioners of voodoo (among Christianity). Is this enough to incur God's wrath upon the entire nation of Haiti? Is this to include innocent women, men, and children? Is this to include innocent travelers and tourists, among them young American Christians? If we take as a given that a) God does exist and b) God is a vengeful and jealous God, then we can say "yes" and support that theory. Factually, we may also never know.

Con: Slaves were taken from Africa. White European Christians were responsible for this. They were shipped to many places, including Haiti. They were downtrodden, impoverished, enslaved (obviously), and an overall desperate and beaten down people. Slavery will do that to anyone, I suppose. Now let's suppose, just for the sake of argument, that there is a God and that there is a Satan. Let's hypothetically say that slaves were able to communicate with the Dark Lord and get him to grant their freedom (because of course, uprising from the Europeans would only be an act granted by the Devil himself) in exchange for who-knows-what. If we are to take this myth literally and not in a historical, figurative context, can't we blame the white Christian French for this? After all, they created the condition for desperation, driving them to the brink of Satan worship.... Will they be responsible for their part, before God? And, if you believe God is a loving and just and fair God, why would God smite an entire nation for the crimes committed by some, and committed hundreds of years ago?

Please check in for Argument Two.