Is Faith the Answer?
  by Doris Drisgil

On September 11, whose side was God on?

The suicide hijackers presumably felt very close to God as they dove into the tallest buildings in New York. Apparently they were convinced that they were martyring themselves, and would, according to their Muslim belief, go straight to Heaven rather than having to wait until judgment day. No one pointed out to them that a martyr is someone who would rather die than betray their cause. A person who commits suicide, on the other hand, is just killing themselves and is not a martyr, because it is a choice freely made, not one thrust upon them. Was this act of suicide and the purposeful taking out 5000 innocent people, then, an act that God would applaud?

Was He on the side of the innocent victims? How many of them were sincere believers? How many were Christians? How many were Jews or Muslims? Or were they, all 5000 of them, evil, sinful, and worthy of suffering an untimely death? Did their families deserve to suffer in their loss? Or were Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson on the right track when they said God has withdrawn his protection from the U. S. because of our nationally sinful secular behavior?

Since the attack, leaders from all over the country have been telling us we must renew our faith, we must put our trust in God. But we have every right to ask them: "Which god?" The god the hijackers believed in? The god Falwell and Robertson bow down to? Or one of the hundred deities that are worshiped around the world?

If there is one obvious conclusion the thinking person can draw from this tragedy, it is that no god could be cruel enough to will it to happen. Any god who would support such acts is no god an honest, compassionate person would want to worship. Faith in any such being is not the answer. There is an alternative way of looking at life, one that doesn't require reliance on any ambiguous and unpredictable supernatural force. It is called Humanism.

Humanists find no evidence for the existence of a supreme being that intervenes in human lives. Humanists accept that the universe runs according to natural laws, (best described by science), and that everything that happens is a result of those laws, operating in conjunction with human choice and random chance. Since we see no evidence for a god or an afterlife, we understand that this is probably the only life we have, and we must solve our own problems. To the humanist/rationalist it is clear that fanatical belief in any god is, and has historically been, one of our greatest problems; it encourages the dehumanization of those who don't share that particular belief, allowing hatred and cruelty toward all that are different.

What this world needs is not more reliance on the supernatural, but more reliance on ourselves, more respect for each other, and more tolerance and compassion for all humans, whatever their background or beliefs. That's what makes our philosophy Humanism.

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