Seemingly the consensus is that it's Melkor's legacy that causes the natural disasters. Though he was cast into the Void, his malevolence lingers to plague the residents, flora, fauna and works within Arda. All well and good. It's not what we would have wanted, but at least we know who's behind the disasters and so just have to tough it out as best we can.
Or is there something we can do?
Assume an earthquake swallows up an entire village as father and son watch from a safe vantage point. It's not their village, so they aren't as upset as if it were their home. Still, as they walk home, the father has to answer more questions from his inquisitive son.
- "Dad, why is it that whenever we're together we witness some calamity?"
- "Dad, I know that although the Dark Lord was defeated long ago, we still have to live with his residual evil, but why can't something be done by the Valar?"
Dad ponders this. Are Manwë, Aulë and their ilk busy dancing around in Aman and so weren't available to help the village, did they fear to intervene as the Valar are still smarting over their failure that was the elven intervention, or did the Valar intervene and though the village was swallowed whole by the ground, at least the man and his son got to walk away as that's about as much the gods could do, as there seems to be a limit to their ability to stave off disasters such as this? Dad, in this thoughts, summarizes then speaks to his son, "Son, either the Valar won't help, can't help or did help as much as they could. I don't know the answer; there's a whole in the ground where that village used to be, regardless."
Maybe that's why no one prays in Middle Earth.
