Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero by

In the 12 years since the terrorist attacks on the world trade towers in New York city, thousands of hours of research and interviews has been conducted, scores of books have been written, and countless documentaries and films have been produced in an effort to help us understand how and why terrorists were able to carry out the massacre of nearly 3500 people. Despite the plethora of religious and nonreligious beliefs represented by the friends and family of those who died, one universal belief binds them all: the belief that an unspeakable act of cruelty has changed our nation and our people for all time. The name ascribed to this act of terrorism is debated widely. Some call it evil. Others call it nothing more than supreme cruelty.

Award-winning writer, Helen Whitney, and author and noted Jewish agnostic, Ron Rosenblum sought to chronicle the “spiritual aftershocks” of 9-11. On September 3, 2002, PBS Broadcasting aired a FRONTLINE documentary entitled “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero.” To do so, Whitney compiled video interviews of family and friends of 9-11 victims and experts in the fields of philosophy, religion, Islamic issues, and others. The result is a masterful work of art that leaves viewers emotionally moved and deeply in tune with the pain of those intimately affected by the terrorist attacks of that day. True to the title of the film, viewers witness personal interviews documenting the personal struggles of individuals dealing with the aftermath of 9-11, clearly a process in which worldview and faith come together.

Transcendentalism is a belief system wherein “the physical world is viewed as deceptive and illusory,” and there is a “need to see the unity of all things.” (Phillips, Brown, and Stonestreet. 200...

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... evil survivable. It does not diminish evil. It does not diminish pain. It does not explain evil. Faith in life-eternal with the God of their faith, is what comforts and gives hope when evil makes an entrance in the lives of people.

The makers of this film have done a breathtaking job of capturing the universal struggle of mankind to make sense of evil in the world – “supreme acts of cruelty” if you prefer. Out of all the views expressed, only one gives a sufficient response to the problem of evil; that is the Christian faith. Pantheism, transcendentalism, atheism, and agnosticism only reinforce a futility in living and thus cannot provide a means of dealing with the pain and suffering which evil brings. A Christian faith offers a God who is altogether good, who has a plan for man that includes destroying all evil and its accompanying pain for all eternity.