A recent discussion on an aviation message board brought up the subject of an aircraft accident where the two pilots on board were killed on impact. The message board is composed primarily of General Aviation pilots who fly for pleasure so deaths in the GA community come hard for those who haven't been around flying for very long.
The subject of learning from one's own mistakes (experience) and the mistakes of others (wisdom) as applied to aviation came up. This was followed by talk about luck and fate. I mentioned both the greatest aviation book ever written, "Fate is the Hunter" by Ernest K. Gann, and the famous Stephen Coonts article for the Naval Aviation's "Approach" magazine titled "The Philosophy of Luck".
A member responded with this:
This is a subject that has kept my attention all my life and my 'lessons' have taught me to believe what we're calling "luck" is a Higher Power acting in our behalf.
Where skill ends and luck/God/fate begin I have yet to understand despite it being my life study. Assume God is trying to test us with crisis. We can make ourselves more likely to pass the test by improving our skills, knowledge, experience, etc. and at the same time we can never overcome God's will if it's meant to be our time, whether that time is being the hero of the day (Sullenberger) or the unfortunate statistic (too many to name).
If skill and experience were the final answers we'd still be reading the exploits of Mr. Steve Fossett today. If God's will didn't matter, I wouldn't be sitting here typing but would have a marker in a cemetery somewhere long ago.
In response, I posted this: A most perplexing question and one I've pondered almost daily since my teens.
As near as I can figure it is something like this. There are many references in the Bible to a Father/Son relationship between the Almighty and mankind. A Father may give his son a hammer and hope he becomes a carpenter. He may even instruct his son, but he can't control whether the son listens or not, learns or not or chooses to become a carpenter.
While the Almighty certainly has the power to make his "son" a carpenter, the gift of free moral agency is a clear sign this will not be done. The choice remains ours.
Although we may have the deepest faith in the Lord, will the Almighty step in and save us if we choose to take a "leap of faith" off a 20-story buiding? It is certainly within the Lord's power,
but given the above, the choice to leap seems to ours. The New Testament passage Luke 4:12 should be remembered before taking that leap.
Now we come to flying. Put into religious terms, Coonts' article is saying we shouldn't put the Almighty to the test by our own negligence or foolishness. Do you think a pilot is wise, responsible or pious if they go scud-running and say "The Lord will protect me?" Wouldn't this, in fact, be disrespectful of both the Lord and the gifts given to mankind?
The Lord gave every human being a brain. My understanding of this gift is that we are each expected to use it. While I cannot possibly fathom why the Lord has done this or why the Lord does anything, what I can fathom is how best to use the gifts I am given. Stephen Coonts' article, to me, states the same reasoning. It is our choice to fly. We should choose to fly wisely.
No comments:
Post a Comment