We know a lot about the character of gods from incidents such as the Tucson massacre  ("and acts of god" such as hurricanes, famine, earthquakes, etc).  Either gods do not know what is going on or they don't care or are powerless to be of any help or wanted the tragedy to happen, or most likely gods are fictional.

It's more rational to view humans as evolutionary animals with all our plusses, minuses and illnesses. Some mentally disturbed people goaded by aspects of free media and religion can produce mayhem.  That is relatively common.  From my psychiatric standpoint, the management of such people can require infringements of their liberty in the name of protecting our community.  It is often a difficult balance, on that tilted the wrong way in Tucson.

We are each on our own together to seek the best outcome that nature and our natural minds (also nature)  can devise.  Effort, time and money for prayer and the like is wasteful and distracts from useful activity.  Community commiseration and support are beneficial if they do not advance the superstitious religion media government complex.

William van Druten,
the writer is founder of the Lake Superior Freethinkers.