Although the Act of God defense – that a defendant is insulated from liability for personal injury or property damages caused by a natural cause – is rarely used, it may become more common in the future if predictions of catastrophic weather events caused by global warming prove true.
Most insurance policies particularly Home Loans Insurance policies have a disclaimer containing an exclusion cause for damages caused by “Act of God”. As per dictionary meaning Act of God is “An event that directly and exclusively results from the occurrence of natural causes that could not have been prevented by the exercise of foresight or caution; an inevitable accident”.
And in same a business dictionary says "Inevitable, unpredictable, and unreasonably severe event caused by natural forces without any human interference, and over which an insured party has no control, such as an earthquake, flood, hurricane, lightning, snowstorm. Acts of God are insurable accidents and valid excuses for non-performance of a contract. Also called act of nature. See also force majeure."
Recent events have brought up this unique phrase “Act of God” in the picture. Let’s look at the two recent events which took place which even with so much advanced technology couldn’t be prevented nor could be resolved, it was naturally solved by nature itself and we Human beings having advanced so much could but meekly wait for nature to humble us.
The first event was the extreme North American Cold wave caused by the Polar Vertex that gripped parts of Canada and the Eastern United States.Temperatures fell to a record low and froze everything in its part. All rivers and water bodies froze including the majestic Niagara Falls.
All communications including electricity and transport was snapped off and people were stranded in trains & subways. All the airports were shut off due to freezing weather. It was so cold in Kentucky than an escaped prisoner turned himself back to the prison. Such was Nature’s wrath in full force.
Many power grids were trying to supply power but could had to do with limited resources and appealed to citizens to conserve electricity.
The authorities expressed helplessness and they couldn’t do anything and have to wait for the polar vertex to weaken itself on its own. The second case is the mysterious disappearance of Malaysian Airlines MH370.
The plane disappeared on 8 March as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, including 153 Chinese nationals.
Theories of a possible hijack were considered due to two passengers travelling on forged passports but the theory was called off as they turned out to be illegal immigrants.
The second theory of suspicion was on the pilot but that too turned out inconclusive. Search operations by all the countries, this being probably one of the first such joint search operation in history has failed to find the missing airline.
The searches on the northern corridor have been called off and are now concentrating on the Southern corridor. But till date there is now news.
The above two events brings to the fore a big question, with such advanced technologies in Computers, Electronics and practically every sphere of life, why are we still floundering in the dark?
In the first instance, no technology was able to solve nature’s fury but had to humbly wait for it to weaken on its own. In the second instance, with all the modern technology and communications, no one can trace the missing airliner.
Does that mean, in this times of modern age are we still primitives.
It also points to the fact that there is still a sublime power which is far more powerful than us and gives us instances like this to make us humble and be more human instead of trying to project ourselves as sublime beings.
Or what else will explain the disclaimer still used by Insurance companies as “Act of God” which explains their innermost fears that there is truly something powerful above us which govern our lives.
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