Were the deaths of the victims in the Sikh shooting God's will?
People often explain inexplicable things by attributing them to God's will. It's something we hear frequently after all sorts of natural disasters and other horrible events. We cannot explain adequately why these things happen, so we attribute the unfortunate incidents to the will of a deity. "It's all part of God's plan," some people say when confronted with a horrible event.
Well, to any atheist, it is clear that such things are never the will of any deity. Natural disasters are, by definition disasters caused by natural events, not supernatural events. People sometimes die due to natural events. Where is the comfort in attributing such things to the will of a deity.
In Wisconsin, an angry man pulled out a firearm and killed several people in their place of worship. The cause of their death was the stupidity, anger, and mindless hatred in that individual human being. No deity was involved. They were killed by a human being. No supernatural will was required. Such things happen with some regularity, because human beings are capable of hatred, anger, and stupidity.
It is a terrible tragedy that those peaceful Sikh people were murdered by a man full of hatred. It is a terrible tragedy that a two-year-old child dies of Wilm's Tumor, an incurable cancer that strikes young children down while they are just toddlers. The daughter of a friend of mine died that way. Her friends told her that it was God's will that she died when she did. They were wrong, and they are no longer that grieving mother's friends. Cancer killed that child. An angry, bigoted, stupid man killed those Sikh worshippers. The tornado killed the family in Kansas.
God's will does nothing of that kind, and if it did, who could worship such a deity that would will such a tragedy. God's will does not make Mitt Romney wealthy, either. There is no supernatural cause for any of those effects.
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