Disaster consciousness and belief in fate: Gümüşhane example

Abstract

Disaster is nature or human-induced events, which devastate a society, cause serious death and loss of property. Due to the variety of disasters occuring in Turkey, people in the region we are in are under constant disaster risk. In complience with the religious beliefs of the society, it is considered by some that the reason lying behind the occurance of disasters is simply fate. However, even though all disasters are fate, the teachings of Islam suggest not to rely solely on fate but to be cautious. In this context, owing to the variety and frequency of the disasters occuring in our region, knowing the activities to be organized in pre-disaster, during disaster and post-disaster, and being a disaster conscious individual are crucially important for the futere of the society. Basing the sample on the individuals residing in Gümüşhane, this research is concerned with the level of relationship between knowledge and consciousness levels, and beliefs in fate, and also investigates in how prepared they are for disasters. Striving to have insights into disaster consciousness and beliefs in fate, this study intends to measure to what extent belief affects disaster consciousness level and at what level participants have disaster consciousness through face to face surveys with 385 participants residing in Gümüşhane. Disaster consciousness and fate relationship was identified by three questions asked and a relation could not have been found in general terms. The findings were meant to be analyzed through SPSS 20 and be interprated, afterwards. Keywords: Disaster, Disaster Consciousness, Fate, Disaster Consciousness and Belief in Fate