“Interestingly enough, I have found that the prayers I offer to the sun and the prayers I formerly offered to God are all answered at about the same 50% rate.” ~ George Carlin

I was talking to a friend today who told me a story about answered prayers. Their only car broke down, and they couldn’t afford to fix it. After saying a prayer to God, miraculously, a guy they’d never spoken to from their church offered to fix the car for free.

Another friend was suffering from a horrible disease last year that landed her in the ICU for two weeks. She almost died, but after much prayer by her family and church congregation, she miraculously pulled through.

Every time I watch a football game, inevitably, in a post-game interview, a player will thank and give credit to God for the victory.

What do these people all have in common? God has made it a point to touch their lives in some way and bless them with His power.

But why? Are they special? Does God have some grand plan for these humans?

Meanwhile, every day across the world, roughly 25,000 people die of starvation. A large percentage of those are children.

In the United States alone, 40,000 people die in car accidents every year.

During the Iraq War, 4,486 of my fellow service members were killed. The death toll of Iraqis hovers somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000. About five percent of Iraqi children have lost one or both parents.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and maimed by drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

5.6 million Americans are paralyzed.

67,000 homeless veterans are living on American streets.

7.6 million people die from cancer each year, worldwide.

16.4 million children in the U.S. live in poverty. More than six million of those children are under six years old.

I could go on and on with these “statistics of suffering,” but I’m not trying to write a fucking book here.

So what about all those people listed above? Does God not care about them? Surely, a large number of them were Christians. Were they not important enough to save from death, maiming, or misery? Why not?

To any thinking, honest person, the answer is obvious.

God, by definition, is omnipotent and omniscient. The religious also claim that He is omnibenevolent.

But the numbers don’t add up.

A god that is all-powerful and all-knowing would be able to stop all the misery in the world. And a god that is all-good would surely choose to stop the suffering.

Yet the suffering and misery go on, day after day. Innocent people die horribly in drone attacks and vehicle accidents. Children starve slowly, their parents watching helplessly until their small bodies finally give out. War, disease, famine, genocide, murder, torture, natural disasters, rape, child abuse…

Where is God? He appears to be AWOL most of the time.

We have a few options here:

a) God is powerless to stop the suffering, in which case, He is not God.

b) He chooses not to stop it, in which case, He is not good and certainly not deserving of our worship.

c) He simply does not exist, and we are on our own.

For some reason, option “c” is the scariest for most people.

“But God works in mysterious ways! Who are we to question HIS will?”

I’m sorry, but that’s just a cop-out.

We question everything—all the time. It’s what humans do.
(Well… some of us, anyway.)
Besides, if He works in mysterious ways and His will isn’t to be questioned, why are you praying to Him in the first place?

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So what’s the point of this essay?

I’m attempting to point out the hypocrisy. The people I spoke about in the beginning—those who claim that God has, for some unknown reason, made an exception for them. By making this claim, they are, by default, implying that their lives are more important than all of the millions of innocent people affected by tragedy every day. Those people were praying too. But for some reason, God chose to ignore them.

My other point is this: we need to give credit where credit is due.

My friend whose car was fixed by a complete stranger after praying thanked God.
He should have thanked the mechanic—the guy who showed actual selflessness and went out of his way to help another human being.

The person in the ICU who recovered thanked God.
She should have thanked the surgeons—the people who spent years training, studying, and working to save her life.

The quarterback who thanked God for his victory should have thanked his offensive line, his coaches, and maybe even himself—for the hours of preparation, sacrifice, and effort it took to reach that moment.

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In closing, it’s not my intention to turn people away from whatever philosophy helps them get through the hard times. We all need something to hold onto. I get it.

But when things go our way, we should first look to—and thank—the living, breathing people around us who helped make it happen.

But when things go our way, we should first look to—and thank—the living, breathing people around us who actually made it happen. If you still want to thank “God,” that’s fine. But honestly—don’t you think it’s a little rude to ask Him to fix your car in the first place?

After all, He’s pretty busy letting poor kids starve to death, rigging the Super Bowl, flattening small towns with tornadoes, and making sure gay people don’t get wedding cakes.

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Author: Nick Allison is just a banged-up combat infantry veteran of the War in Iraq. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife, their children and two big, dumb, ugly mongrel dogs.

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