What the Sandy Hook shooting says about today’s society

The shooting at the Sandy Hook primary school last week was a terrible tragedy, the second worst in U.S history.  The lives that were lost, the young and the old, are irreplaceable. Now the search is on for the reason. There is talk of mental illness, a deficient childhood and gun control. 

Adam Lanza was a 2010 graduate of Newton High, a tech-geek, described as a skinny, shy boy who didn’t talk much and often carried his laptop and a briefcase around with him. He lived in an affluent neighborhood and was a regular fixture at neighborhood events. No one expected he would ever commit a crime of this magnitude.  Although he had a mild form of autism, no one really considered him as mentally ill, at least not in this manner. 

In today’s modern scientific society, everything must be pointed back to a materialistic cause. Does this really answer the question? We assume that a killer of this magnitude is deeply troubled, perhaps suffering from loneliness, depression and isolation. Maybe there’s a more serious disease, such as schizophrenia, a condition frequently marked by an inability to distinguish fantasy from reality. I’m not arguing that these aren’t valid causes. They are all serious and need to be addressed with all earnestness at our disposal. But are these explanations satisfactory? Is that all there is to our existence? Will science ever fully rationalize people’s motives and the causes for their behavior? 

The major religions of the world argue for the existence of human evil, some proclaiming that this is humanity‘s natural state. Even renowned atheists such as Joseph Conrad attest to its horrible reality. But in our scientifically-dominated society, we have no way of talking about it.  Instead, we are constantly surprised by acts of evil, as if they had never happened before. We believe ourselves above such acts. These are problems that happened before we had science, back in the darkened days of superstition and religion. 

But what if the world’s ancient religions were right? What if there is no scientific cure? What if human beings don’t function properly without God in their lives? What if these acts are actually a reaction to our modern rational society that turns it‘s nose at silly religion? What if, as religion becomes less important to our public life, these acts of evil only increase?