To others, 9/11 seems to belie the notion of an all-loving, all-powerful God. Sam Harris began writing The End of Faith, his best-selling attack on religion, the day after the attacks.
Jonathan Miller, who wrote and narrated a 2004 BBC series on atheism, says that given the hijackers’ militant Islamist theology, 9/11 would have been “inconceivable without religion.”
Why would God allow such an atrocity ”” especially in God’s name? Didn’t religion drive the hijacked jets into the towers?
Lyndon Harris was the Episcopal priest in charge at St. Paul’s Chapel, which stood in the shadow of the towers. Here’s how he explains it: “God gave us free will, and some people chose to do evil. But the first heart to break on 9/11 was the heart of God.”
That’s one answer. Minerva Rosario, who lost her sister-in-law at the Trade Center, has another.
“If you lose your faith, you have nothing left.”
The complaint, “How could God allow this to happen?” is so irrational, so puerile, that I wonder we still hear it so often. If we start with a reasonable assumption, something we can bet on in fact, namely, that each one of us will die, then the of each death, one may cry “How could God allow this to happen?” But since we are going to die in any event, in such a universal cry one can see only universal childishness.
Is dying on 9/11 worse than, more God-unjust than, dying of cancer or Alzheimer’s? Obviously not. In fact, it is much quicker and must less painful. As, on might add, being killed by an IED in Iraq is much quicker and less painful than dying of dengue. Death is our lot, as it must be. That a death is a high profile death, as in the case of 9/11, has nothing whatever to do with God’s justice or His compassion, as it has nothing to do when an equal death is hidden away from the media. Larry
This article is a very poignent reminder of how we as weak and fragile creatures react to crisis. I can understand people being mad, and since the perpetrators are not around, they react to God. My wife died of breast cancer in 1999. Watching her suffer for 3 years was worse I would think than loosing someone so quickly. The joy and peace she showed in her suffering taught me much about faith. She knew she was saved, as she had confessed and been forgiven of her sins. She could see God face to face without fear. That my friends is as good a Christian witness as there is. It has driven me since to study for and seek ordination. If I can spread the word to others as I have had it given to me in suffering, then a far greater good will come from her death, passing Christianity on to new belivers. That is her legacy now and what I try to do. God allows us to follow our free will and do evil, but he has a prupose and greater good comes from suffering if we only keep our faith and follow God. Do I miss her, certaily. Not all the time but occasionally. Since her death, I remarried in 2004, and have a wonderful wife, a large extended family and wonderful grandchildren and life is good. It is not always easy, but even in its worst times, life is still very very good. I have been blessed for no other reason that I am a son of God. I know I am on the right path, trying to spread the word of God’s grace to us all and hope that He will give me the strength, courage, wisdom and patience to follow His will, whatever that may be. Life’s good, pass it on.
If God is willing to prevent evil, but is not able to
Then He is not omnipotent.
If He is able, but not willing
Then He is malevolent.
If He is both able and willing
Then whence cometh evil?
If He is neither able nor willing
Then why call Him God?
–Epicurus
Ah, drummie, I pray that I have the courage that your wife must have demonstrated. Larry
Larry (#4) that is what has sustained me for a long time it seemed. Now I realize what was sustaining me was the Grace of God that she had shown to me. That is what I hope to be able to do with others, show them through example (and speech) the Grace I have seen. She proved to me that Jesus Christ is alive and well and taking care of business. So, I want to pass that along to others in how I do things. She gave me a gift so special in her example that has helped transform me into the person I am now that I was never able to reach before. Yes, I belived in our Lord, but was it a personal relationship, maybe on a very casual basis, not the intimate friendship that I know today.