this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
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"Act of God" is a commonly used term in
to describe freak weather events or environmental catastrophies such as being destroyed by lightning, a tornado, an earthquake, a wildfire, etc. You'll commonly see it in the terms and conditions for, say, auto insurance.
They aren't literally saying "God did this!"
They are kinda saying it though
it's a euphemism, like saying "the birds in the bees" when really they mean S * X. Do birds have s*x with bees?
Not all idioms are euphemisms, the expression is "the birds and the bees," and the suggested narrative of that idiom is not interspecial sex.
In modern English, "act of God" to refer generically to natural disasters is a "term of art" (a sort of jargon) used in legal contexts to insinuate not being liable, but I don't think they are facing legal action to start with even in a case where they fully admit fault, because fault is not the same as liability if you aren't obliged to prevent something. They are using the term with a meaning that is legible to its normal use, but outside of the normal legal utility, so I believe it is reasonable to conclude that they really do want to involve the idea of God even if they aren't going as far as making a fully theological argument regarding the disaster. Hence "kinda."