Mother of Crash Survivor: It was not God

James Polehinke, the sole survivor of a recent airplane crash in Lexington, Kentucky, attributes his newfound predicament to the almighty hand of God:

One of the first full sentences he said after regaining consciousness was, "Why did God do this to me?"

Polehinke has suffered major injuries from the unfortunate crash. He currently can only move his head, and until recently was on a ventilator. He also has a collapsed lung and has suffered many broken bones.

While it wasn't exactly clear if he was criticizing or praising God, the CNN.com article says that he, "has questioned his relationship with God." This, combined with Polehinke's earlier quote, seems to imply that he has been viewing God in a critical light.

But of course, God didn't have anything to do with it. Fortunately, Polehinke's mother knows as much:

It was not God. It was just an accident.

Look at what happens when God is believed in, and an accident happens. It's God's "judgment" in some way. People of faith that experience accidents usually have some kind of huge moral crises afterwards. They often believe that God had a hand in it in some way, and either they condemn him and seethe with anger over their suffering, or praise him and feel all guilty because they survived.

But when accidents and natural disasters are properly attributed to their natural causes, the people involved will take the correct action to lower the chances of suffering. Either they learn to operate the airport or airplane more safely, or they learn to build storm shelters, or they learn to make levees that don't break (hopefully).

On the other hand, if accidents and natural disasters are instead mistakenly attributed to God and His Holy Word, then the corrective action that the people take will not increase safety in future instances. Following the Ten Commandments will not reduce your chances of being hurt in an accident or natural disaster.

I mean come on! Who seriously thinks that they are less likely to die in a plane crash if they stop eyeballing their neighbor's wife, or start honoring their parents more?