I went to church today and what struck me was a father's plea for prayer. His 10-month old son was diagnosed with a fist-sized brain tumor and is about to go into his second round of surgery. The whole situation was tragic and I do not wish any parent this type of agony for their child. What actually struck me was how exploitative it seemed when this man and his wife were vowing piety to God in their moment of extreme vulnerability. They are looking for answers when no one can provide them with a solution and so they turn to faith. The 400+ audience is witness to his devotion and hold him to that promise no matter what the outcome. It is fair to believe that he is sharing his story to provide perspective to us, but the system is set up to make followers more pious regardless of the outcome. The church is absolved from any negative consequences - "It was God's will to take my son" - yet is credited to all the positive outcomes - "God has created a miracle and saved my son." It is the lack of accountability that really puzzles me in religion. I do wish all the best for this child, I really do. But he is signing up for something he really has no control over.

I do believe that humankind is predisposed to believe in some sort of religion. However, we have to be comfortable with not having answers to everything in the universe. God is not compassionate or calculating towards life, it is a set of probabilities that we choose to ignore because we cannot comprehend the complexity of such a system.