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When I was twenty years old, I worked part-time as a respiratory therapist. On one of my first calls to the emergency room, I assisted treatment on a five-year-old boy who had been hit by a truck. As we treated him, the story unfolded: he had been walking to his first day of kindergarten and was the only child of young parents. Despite hours of resuscitative care, he died from multiple injuries. In shock, I stumbled out into the hall just in time to see his parents’ faces contort in grief as a doctor told them the news.
I went outside, shook my fist at the sky, and cursed God. How could an all loving, powerful, and knowing Creator allow a little one to die so tragically? What kind of world was this where innocent children suffer and people experience such losses? Afterwards, I entered a period of agnosticism and experienced the emotional pain and confusion that accompany a bleak world view.
Over time, this and other difficult events in my life motivated me to search for answers to life’s existential questions, such as: “Who am I? Why am I here? Is there a loving and just Higher Power? If so, why is there so much suffering? What happens after physical death?”