Followers of my regular blog know that I have been a large supporter of the Give A Damn project (see entries here and here).  I would support this project anyway, but I support it more because of my relationship with Rob Lehr, who is part of the core team for the documentary.  Rob and his production company filmed Skepticon I (for cheap, I may add).  Rob is also a member of the Church of the FSM here at MSU, and has led the organization during my absence in the past.

This morning, at about 4 am CST, Rob and Dan were doing a flyover of Nairobi to get footage for the documentary when the plane crashed.  Rob is interviewed in this video.

Now, here’s something interesting.  The Give A Damn documentary promos build up Rob as the atheist who doesn’t give a shit about others.  I know Rob, and while he is often frank and eager to lay responsibility where it should be, he is not apathetic or dispassionate.  All the same, that’s how he has been billed for this project.

However, Rob the uncaring atheist was the passenger that lept out of the plane before it could spiral down (ultimately landing upside down and bursting into flame upon impact before exploding five minutes later).  The gash on Rob’s head would later require six stitches and he also has a fractured leg.  After landing, he went back into the burning plane and pulled out an unconscious Dan, then went back in after the co-pilot.  In the process of unlatching the co-pilot’s seat belt Rob’s arm caught on fire (he has burns up and down his arm from it), yet he still managed to get the co-pilot free.  It was at this point that the locals dragged Rob and the co-pilot to safety.  If the co-pilot lives (he’s currently in critical condition), it may very well be because of Rob’s selfless bravery.  I’m very proud of Rob, and infinitely grateful that one of my closest friends is alright.  I’ve always known that Rob had this type of character.

So for all of you who have ever said that atheists have no impulse to be moral, you can now borrow my crowbar in the interest of dislodging your feet from your mouth – the atheist dragged one of your own from a firey wreckage when god was too busy to do it.

Which brings me to my next point.  Before I get into it, I want all my readers to bear in mind that this event was a tragedy.  I feel for everybody involved, and I had to really mull over whether or not I should say what I’m about to say.  I am not an asshole (in fact, I’m often too caring for my own good – my parents can vouch for this), and believe me when I express that saying what needs to be said even though it may hurt people is not always easy for me.  This scenario is no different.  I realize that some people may brand me as insensitive, and I admit that I can’t blame them.  But if we don’t all learn something from this, then we are not doing anybody a favor.  That being said, here we go…

Dan and Dave are both religious, which is why it was no surprise to see that Dave’s first post on the Give A Damn twitter feed was:

“Thank God for this #miracle of the #Giveadamn #documentary team surviving the #plane #crash.”

I couldn’t believe my eyes.  If it was god that kept Rob and Dan (and possibly the co-pilot) alive, why did he allow the plane to crash in the first place?  Moreover, the pilot of that plane is dead.  Dead. He is survived by a wife and four children.  How could anybody possibly call such a thing a miracle?  This is a travesty, maybe worse.

The truth of the matter is that if god was watching, he left it to the hands of a non-believer to do what he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do.  The reason Dan is alive and that the co-pilot has as high a chance of survival as he does is because a rather exemplary mortal, not Jesus, was watching over the believers.  All the prayers in the world would not have budged Dan one inch further from that wreckage.  Instead, the man who thinks he only gets one crack at life was self-sacrificing enough to dive back into the blaze and rescue them.  Don’t thank god – thank human goodness.

When travesties of this magnitude can be used as evidence of god’s goodness, one can only wonder what could ever possibly be used to establish his wickedness or apathy (or reasonably, his non-existence).  The real inversion of reality here is that many Christians still consider god more worthy than man, including the best of us like Rob.

I am infinitely grateful that Dan and Rob, both my friends, are going to live.  Dan has a broken collar bone, but he’ll recover.  More Give A Damn twitter feeds beseech me to offer my prayers for them.  I will not pray.  If god exists, he didn’t help them then and I have no reason at all to believe he would help them now.  Instead, I’ll give credit where it’s rightly due and when they return home (Rob lives under two miles from my house), I will fry them up some bacon and buy them a beer, and reassure Rob once more how proud I am to know him.