God allowed the attack on America

This will be a date in history we will tell our kids about, a date we will tell our grandkids about. We will all remember where we were when we found out about the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. We will tell them about the shock, horror, sadness, disbelief and the other cornucopia of emotions we felt on that day. After getting past the initial body blow that the image of a commercial jet crashing into the World Trade Center dealt to our psyche, we had to begin dealing with the multitude of emotions we felt.

As I talked to many of my friends and saw the away messages posted online, a pattern emerged: almost every single person turned to prayer and to God.

Why is it that in these times of disaster people turn to God? And upon reflection, does the act of praying to God really make sense in such a time?

For many people, God is their support. They believe in a God that is benevolent, omnipotent and omniscient. Aside from these three aspects, peoples' views of God tend to differ quite widely, but all people who believe in God will turn to Him on days like Sept. 11, 2001. They will pray for the families of the victims. They will pray for humanity. These people will know in their hearts that the people who died in the attacks will go to heaven. While I have absolutely no doubt that their hearts are in the right place, I fear their prayers to God are misguided. Let us assume, as many people do, that God is watching down upon us. As God is omniscient, he no doubt knew that the horrific events of Sept. 11 were going to occur. He knew that terrorists would hijack four different airplanes, fly two of them into the World Trade Center buildings and one into the Pentagon. God furthermore knew that after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the buildings would collapse, undoubtedly ending the lives of all those within.

God is also omnipotent, meaning that it was completely within his power to somehow avert this terrible chain of events. I realize that many people believe that God does not directly change events on earth, but God could have altered the mindset of these terrorists so that they would not have been inclined to commit such acts. However, as we all know, God did not do this. He knowingly allowed this relatively small number of terrorists to plan and execute the most horrific terrorist act in the history of man.

So does it really make sense to pray to God at a time like this? I do not believe it is sensible to direct your prayers for the welfare of the victims' families to the very God who stood idle while terrorists committed these crimes. I would liken it to a situation where your best friend is thinking of robbing a store and asks you if you think it is a good idea. Your friend tells you that if you don't think it to be a good idea, he will abandon the plan. Do you, in all your benevolence, omnipotence (ability to stop the robbery) and omniscience (knowledge of the impending crime), decide to tell your friend to not do it? No, in this case, you tell your friend, "It's up to you!" Now, granted, this analogy is far from perfect, but I believe the situations are similar enough to have made my point, which is this: Praying for support to the very God that allowed these events to happen is pointless. He is just as guilty as the men who physically carried out the act.

As you can guess, I am no great believer in God. I think that maybe a higher being does exist, but if he does, I would not want to worship a God who allows a few wayward men to tragically end the lives of thousands of innocent people. If this is God's way of making us stronger, if allowing evil such as this is his way of allowing us to reach a higher level of appreciation of all the good that exists, then I don't want any part of it.

Perhaps some of you think I have lost track of the real issue here, which is what to make of the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. Indeed, I have not. I believe it is times like these in which we should appreciate the lives we do have, purely for the sake of having those lives, not in the sense of thanking God. We should reflect on how to become better people. We should think about what we can change about ourselves to make the most of our limited time on earth. The tragedy and horror of these attacks will not soon be forgotten, but perhaps it will make people reflect on themselves, and on what they can do to be better people. I will not be praying to God in the aftermath of the attacks, I will instead be reflecting on my life and trying to make myself a better person. For in reality, that is all I can truly do.