is God a reason?

I'm opening up a huge can of worms on this one but its something that I have been thinking about recently.

Right now my classroom is being used by Mr. A to teach HS Health. The class is currently talking about cancer and watching a video on it. The video shows interviews with kids (teenagers) who have cancer and how it changed their lives. One girl who had brain cancer made a statement about how she did not understand why God had given her cancer at this moment in her life.

I understand the role of organized religion. I was raised in a house with a mother who is a preacher's daughter and a father who has only been to church on a few occasions. I have come to question organized religion recently and have declared myself agnostic. Religion is based on faith and I believe that there is a reason why we exist and that being that put us here is otherwise known to us as God. Mohammed, Buddah, Jesus, and so on, are prophets (in my humble opinion) and worked to spread their beliefs around the world. I don't subscribe to any of those particular beliefs, hence being agnostic. In any case, religion plays a major role to many and this young girl with cancer brought up an interesting question/premise.

God is the supreme being that controls everything, or does She? (I say She because life on our planet is usually created from a female of the species) Does God control every aspect of everyone's life? Does She have the time to do so? Or does being God allow you the time to get everything done for 6 billion people every moment of every day?

This young lady was questioning why God gave her cancer. Some say that the cancer is to teach them what suffering is truly like and to let that be a lesson to them. 'If I survive this suffering, I can help others to overcome their suffering', if I may paraphrase some. While the Bible does tell of stories where God gives tests to Her children (I believe the Bible say His children, but I'm agnostic; remember?!), is cancer a modern-day test for us? I don't personally think so. Why would a benevelant god make people learn in such ways. As an educator, I gotta think that there are less painful ways of getting your point across.

Her question also brings to light the 'blessings' of those who have copious amount of atheltic talent. Living in America, a sports fan is bombarded with post-game interviews on SportsCenter. The winning athletes tend to always thank God for their talents and 'God-willing' they will make the playoffs. Do these people really think that God is such a huge Giants fan that She put together the right DNA to make a super-athlete? And what makes the right DNA for baseball is not the same for football (depending on which Giants team She is cheering for). Why does God have to play such a huge role in sports?

Or politics for that matter?

GW was re-elected in part by his rebirth in the realm of Christianity and exit polls reflect that. I know, bash the exit polls all you want but they do reflect opinions of those who just voted. One question asked during exit polls was in reference to how important religion to the voter's selection process. Amazingly enough, religion played a HUGE factor in the outcome of the election. So much for the separation of church and state...

But is God a reason for everything that happens to us? Is our daily life subjected to Her every whim? Are we just pawns on the grand chess board of the cosmos or do we have free will? I know that the Bible says that we all have free will but if God is going to pick and choose who gets the genes for cancer and the genes for sports, do we really have that much free will? Or are we just destined to do what She wants us to?

I gotta believe that if She does control every aspect of the universe that I would be struck down by a rogue lightning bolt at any moment for such questioning of Her power over my life. But that hasn't happened... hold on, I'll be right back. There are some strange thunder noises outside.


*end message*