Prayer on a Plane

Last week I was on a long haul flight. I kicked off my shoes and settled in and introduced myself to the guy next to me, a Jamun something.

After take-off I was still admiring the view over the ocean over on the right hand side, when a loud bang came from the left side of the plane. Because I was on the right I couldn’t see anything, but I did feel a shudder go through this huge construction and heard the spooling up and the screeching noise as the poor engine tore itself apart internally, as the revs per minute went way beyond what it was designed for.

There was an eerie silence in the plane and people waited for the next event which was either going to signal something good or bad. I turned to my left and saw the Jamun guy clasping his hands and reciting something as his lips moved fervently without any discernible words coming from his mouth.

I looked around and because a plane is always a fascinating microcosm, saw people doing different things, such as touching their foreheads, chest and then each shoulder in some superstitious ritual, apparently for good luck. Some were holding hands and rocking back and forth and others still were putting their hands together in front of their faces and looked up at the ceiling as though some safety instructions were printed there.

That reminded me, so I first checked that the plane was straight and level, slats and flaps were retracted and the remaining engines were humming reassuringly. I noticed the pilot was turning over the intact side and was releasing fuel. So I knew things were under control and now familiarized myself with the layout of the plane, identifying the emergency exits in front of me and behind me, counting how many rows were between me and the exit in case my vision was impaired should we make an emergency landing. I also made a mental note of the location of the compartments with fire extinguisher and first aid kit. So instead of relying on and pleading with my favourite god, I prepared myself the best I could. Just in case.

As far as I could recall, no plane emergency had ever resulted in a particular set of people adhering to a particular religion having escaped unscathed while atheists and believers of other religions had perished.  Well, on second thought, that actually goes for any catastrophe, funny enough.

I sent an SMS to my wife, telling her we’d be delayed due to an engine failure and overheard my neighbour talking to his wife on the phone, telling her he was in a plane which was crashing and his life was in the hands of his god and that they should pray for him so that his god would protect him. And wouldn’t this be a good moment indeed for any of the gods to come forward and say: here I am and now I will save you? Then, like Superman, take the plane and put it down gently on the tarmac. With all the smartphones with their cameras around, this would solve all the demands for evidence of the existence of a god and atheism would instantly dissolve.

But all that happened is that my Jamun guy only cried for more and more prayers.

Hang on, I thought, if your god is responsible for this and in a position to actively do something, why are you so selfish? Why not take care of some other people while you’re at it? If the god on duty was the Islamic god it would be easy as no bird or plane can fly without his personal assistance anyway.

} 16:79 Do they not see the birds controlled in the atmosphere of the sky? None holds them up except Allah.

Other gods can’t do this for some reason. But maybe they could come up with a miracle.

While he was talking to his wife, I asked myself whether he loved his wife and children in a different way or more than I did. Do theists and atheists feel different for their loved ones?

Do theists and atheists have different preferences when it comes to coffee, Mozart or genocide?

Do theists and atheists have different preferences when it comes to anything if I exclude religious things for a moment?

It would seem that all humans operate under a similar set of rules, the well-being of the race, of society, of the culture, of the tribe, of the family, of me. I put this down to human nature. Theists, because they were told to believe this, need to introduce a super-natural being for this, their god, along with his texts, which are actually quite horrific when scrutinised.

If a family has a field, the other family a plough and the third a tractor, we all benefit if we combine our efforts. That increases well-being. If we now introduce more families from other parts of the world and we see that this improves the techniques or the materials used and in the long run this diversity increases efficiency and quality.

Isolation, on the other hand, decreases productivity and creativity. We see this all the time when we come across some undiscovered tribe in a jungle somewhere. In-breeding is causing huge problems today within some communities. Isolation also hinders development and progress.

So the ability to travel huge distances in a very short time did not come about by a single person reading scripture, but a group of people putting their combined brain power to the test and coming up with brilliant ideas and functional solutions. Unfortunately, because they are only humans and no gods are there to help out, there are flaws and mistakes are made. This means that ambitious projects carry inherent risks and dangers. Just as the malfunction of an engine on a modern plane.

A gentle bump threw me out of my day-dream and back into reality. We had landed. Safely. The pilots were trained to handle such a situation because people were aware of the possibility of failures and mistakes and had prepared for them. None of the pilots had gone down on her knees and shouted out a prayer but they had rather concentrated on identifying the problem and taking the action necessary to resolve the crisis and get 100s of people on the ground and now ground crew took over and got us into hotels to wait for a replacement plane.

Actually, I enjoyed the extra relaxation and spent the day on the beach sailing and snorkelling. But here is where I realised where the huge difference between a theist and an atheist becomes apparent. After we landed, my neighbour enthusiastically thanked his god for saving him and being a merciful god.

I went to the pilots and congratulated them for keeping their wits about them and thanked them for doing a good job.

Credit where credit is due.