Every time there is another random shooting Americans gather at their churches and synagogues to pray.  They are clearly looking for comfort.  Somehow they hope that their prayers will be answered with a reason and some understanding.

That never really happens.  They receive no answer.  Instead the killing goes on.  Just this past week a shooting in a Portland Oregon mall took two lives.  Those two people did not know their killer.  Now another killing of 26 people for no apparent reason.  Twenty were just children whose lives were lost for nothing.

Still, I turn on the television and there are people praying.  I want someone to help me understand the value of the prayers.

G-d was not there to save those 26 people nor was he there to save the two gunned down in Portland .  Still in our memories there was the Holocaust, Rwanda , Cambodia , and Bosnia .  Weren’t there religious people among those that were killed?  Where was G-d then?

I have no explanation about our baby sitter who was killed by a drunk driver on Topanga Canyon Boulevard .  That was 25 years ago.  Her mother has suffered with depression ever since.  Was that part of G-d’s plan?  What possible benefit was that to her family or society?

Go ahead and attend your churches, mosques, and synagogues.  It seems to make you feel better.  I just don’t believe that prayer helps in any way.