Collegiate Times

After two months of thinking about that surreal day in April, most of us have settled into one of three general categories: Some have gained a closer dependence on God; others have lost hope in the goodness or existence of such a being; and the rest are back to the comfortable normalcy of not thinking about life, death or the mystery of what lies beyond. It seems the majority of people are in the latter two categories. If you’re not, Adult Swim can get you there in less than 10 minutes.

We make vague public gestures toward heaven but earnestly turning to God for explanation and comfort is admittedly difficult. In today’s world God is getting old. He is no longer a person of common identity in American culture. We hold on to his legacy like a delicate hand-stitched quilt on display in grandma’s mauve living room next to the scented candles — a sentimental heirloom of a bye-gone era.

We see indications of his retirement as our national motto “In God We Trust” is removed from our money in favor of truth in advertising. It should more accurately read “In This Piece of Non-gold-backed Tender We Trust” (a mythological premise in which we seem to have no problem believing). We also watch as God’s 10 simple rules for civilization, our original template for the impartial rule of law, is removed from our courthouses as a threat to justice. We hear the laughter abound if anyone were to propose on the campus of an engineering school that the intricate working of physics may have been engineered.

We’ve kicked God to the curb like know-it-all teenagers flicking off our parents as we peel out of the driveway in the sports car they bought for us. When our drunken rebellious stupidity drives us into a telephone pole, who’s the first and only number we call from the jailhouse? That’s right, mom and dad. We cry for help and they bail us out yet again. Then imagine the absurdity of blaming them for causing our accident because they bought the car! This is beyond teenage irrationality, yet it’s essentially the type of relationship humanity expects to have with our celestial Parent.

Maybe it’s not God, but our double-standard that’s getting old. When we pass an impossible exam, we look back and say that it was due to studying hard (in addition to the 23 point curve). When millions survive birth, surgery and catastrophic injury everyday, we give credit to doctors and technology. When a catastrophic year of hurricanes is followed by an entire season of mild tropical storms, we don’t give it a second thought. When billions wake up each morning in decent health to sip coffee with the morning paper no one cares. All this goes on unnoted, but when an unexplainable tragedy strikes, God is suddenly on trial for murder.

He is our scapegoat. He has his own category on insurance policies for disasters for which he is apparently responsible by default.

Let’s go easy on the creator and sustainer of the universe, it’s a lot more than any of us could keep up with. If you’re going to give him credit for 33 deaths, please also give him credit for 26,000 lives.