Gods and Crashed Planes

On Sunday the 16^th of September, a passenger plane bearing 123 passengers and 5 crew crashed due to windshear and heavy rain on the island of Phuket, Thailand.

The initial death count was 66 with 19 missing. As I write this, the dead have risen to 89.

 

Before I begin to comment, although I am no person of significance, I want to offer the families and friends of the victims, both deceased and yet suffering, my most sincere respects for their loss and earnest wishes for inner peace in the immediate shadow of this tragedy and in their progress through and beyond their dark time.

 

For so many lives to have been lost and others to have been so dramatically and painfully changed in such a circumstance is certainly an injustice. In the news coverage that poured forth from this, something I read, mentioned briefly, brought me to a full stop and then filled me with such loathing that I felt I must not remain silent about it. I want to address yet another injustice suffered by the dead, dying, and injured, secondary only to being hurled to obliteration from the sky.

 

This consists of words uttered by a certain Millie Furlong, a Canadian vacationing on the island, who survived the crash: “My boyfriend is all right. When we both got out – he’s Buddhist and I’m Christian – and we both said, ‘Our gods are looking after us.’” Her sister here at home was quoted as saying “God was definitely watching out for her.” To be fair, Ms. Furlong is probably not the only one thanking her god. But therein lies the rub.

 

It is truly a good thing that Ms. Furlong emerged from the crash so unscathed, as did her companion. I would not like to see her receive any other outcome. But the implication of her words is that no gods chose to help those who did not emerge whole from that carnage; the others can only have been forsaken, being of lesser or no worth. The fact that where she sat – “in the 23^rd row in the back” of the plane – is regarded as being in the area in which one is most likely to survive a crash, is just as or more likely relevant to the survival of herself and the few others as any involvement of the supernatural.

 

The celebrated oncologist Dr. Robert Buckman, M.D., Ph.D., in his wonderful book Can We Be Good Without God?, discusses this very phenomenon of survivors and faith, and it was his intelligent insight that came immediately to mind. I quote, with some paraphrasing:

 

We have all read stories like that. For example, in September 1999 there was a horrendous traffic accident involving about eighty vehicles on a highway near Windsor, Ontario. A great deal of fuel was spilled and several vehicles caught fire, resulting in the deaths of seven people. Among the survivors, one woman said that God had been looking after her in there. “God was with me”, she said. “He had to be.” [...] In the same story it was reported that a fourteen-year-old girl had died in that same accident, and that people had tried to rescue her but were beaten back by the flames. She had cried out to them, “Help me, I’m only fourteen!”

…Did the survivor genuinely mean that there was a God who looked over that accident and chose to preserve the life of the woman and to end the life of the girl? I doubt it. It is highly unlikely that if the survivor had been asked the question directly she would have said, “Yes, I am sure that God intended that poor young girl to die” Of course she would not have said that – yet that is the inescapable implication of the story.

There are two ways of seeing this kind of selectivity in catastrophes. One way is to accept that there genuinely is a divine plan and that yes, God did intend the young girl to die, and that we humans are unworthy to understand the final and perfect objective of that plan. [...] The opposing view is just as simple and intelligible. It is this: the survivor’s claim of divine protection is no more than – and no less than – a perfectly normal reaction to horror. It is socially acceptable (which is why stories like these are on the news all the time) and it is a natural, innate coping strategy that we all use in the face of overwhelming catastrophe. It gives us all, when we survive a tragedy, a sense of meaning. [...] The point is that when confronted with a disaster, most people seek an explanation that involves a plan or design for the universe…

 

Dr. Buckman’s career certainly qualifies him to speak on human nature in meaninglessly tragic and grave circumstances. His practise involves counselling and caring for patients who are terminally ill with cancer.

 

So the suggestion that the survivors of the Phuket crash had God with them may at least be explained, if not excused.

 

Bethan Jones, 22, of the U.K. also survived the crash, and at this time languishes in agony in hospital with burns to 80% of her body, and is not expected to live. I somehow doubt that she shares the same view of Divine Providence as Ms. Furlong. There are others like Ms. Jones, and most likely Christians and Buddhists like Ms. Furlong and her boyfriend, living their final hours in undeserved suffering; who along with their grieving families and friends may also be counted as being outside God’s grace according to this shallow, egocentric logic.

 

May the gods, if there are any, forgive the assertion of worth by those fortunate enough to still speak.

 

Info sources:

The Telegraph

Reuters

The Globe And Mail