Dear FRONTLINE
Why is there a question about God now? Bad things existed before 9/11. The poor, the underprivileged, victims of crime, disease, and more all arise out of this imperfect society. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. God has given gifts such as free will and reason to ALL men, good and bad alike, to use as they wish. However, man is sinful, thus, the society man creates includes many injustices, which are man's responsibility and not God's. The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed to us. God Bless.
t j
nashville, tn
Dear FRONTLINE
I have been sitting here tonight, watching this moving film. I am not a very religious woman, although many times in my life I have felt a spiritual emptiness. I have never been confident in my spirituality, afraid of being ridiculed or judged. I have only had a very thin layer of faith that broke easily and without much force.
I have never been moved by a faith based film before and have never been able to relate much of the religion shows to my life.
In your film, you had a Rabbi speak interviewed who spoke one idea that has brought me to tears. All my life I have been fighting against the idea of "God" having a pre determined destiny for me. I have a hard time accepting that there is one "thing", "power", or "force" in control of my life. This Rabbi clarified this for me. There is a feeling that we have all experienced of feeling more connected to one another, be it looking down on an infant in the crib or with a friend or family member during a trying time together. It is this feeling of connectedness that is what we call God. When you pray for strength, you pray to feel the support and connection to those around you. When you pray for health, you pray for your heart and mind to open up to accept the positive energy of those around you.
Man has a gift called "free-will" and that is what happened to let those men who chose to let evil ruin them and all those innocent people. God was at work in those buildings and between those people that day. They didn't have to think or pray, the connection was felt by all. That is now what I recognize as my meaning of God.
Thank you, thank you so much for putting together a film that brought such peace to my heart.
Janet Noakes
Kingston, Ontario
Dear FRONTLINE
How appalling that not once in a 2 hour film was there a depiction of a synagogue in the inside, an Orthodox Rabbi who enjoyed a much larger range of acceptance for expressing genuinely/authnetically Torah observant positions other than the pony-tailed Tikkun, leftist extremist Rabbi "Brad" Hirschfield or the Rabbinical student Josh Simon or the Conservative Rabbi Irwin Kula. Come on folks, it's high time to show a real Jewish expression to your audience, not a left-wing politically correct version; take Rabbis Meir Fund, Avi Shafran, Jonathan Rosenblum, Berel Wein, Dr. Abraham Twerski, to name a few.
Joshua Corey
Brooklyn, NY
Dear FRONTLINE
Evil lies in the hearts and minds of men and women. If you loose your value of others, be it because of nation, or race, or differing faith, the loss of love is the basis of evil. When you loose your love of others, when your resentment of others takes over rational thought, you have allowed evil into your heart. Intolerance is evil. When you find that love for all of mankind, for the world we share, for all that we have been given becomes your viewpoint for viewing the world, then you have discovered God's love. That love disallows the manipulation of issues for selfish gain, or the destruction of life, or the destruction of what God has created for all of us to share. Love and tolerance, these are the basis of what make us whole and human and allow us hope for the future.
Warren Anderson
Roxboro, NC
Dear FRONTLINE
This was a very good documentary. I enjoyed how it showed both sides of faith. For the people that had faith, but now have doubt, and visa-versa, and how it strengthened the belief or dis-belief. It was comforting to see that other people also lost a little faith on that day, and was left with unanswered questions.
Rob Undecided
Dear FRONTLINE
There is a reason for everything that happens. My God The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit is always present, is all knowing, all caring, and all powerful. He is without defect and is incapable of comiting evil acts, the devil and people that may end up spending eternity with him commit evil acts. I feel pain for the people that lost thier life on 911, but they are part of a plan that is so complex that we in our time on earth can not comprehend it. I praise the Lord every day for what he has given me and I know he is with me through thick and thin. I have seen his works and knows that he is with us all, he forgives us if we confide in him and ask forgivness. I belive that he would even forgive the people who bring terror to our front door.
Phillip Cardwell
Stephenville, Tx
Dear FRONTLINE
As I listened to the stories of doubt on Frontline, I was truly saddened to see that the terrorists are ruining the lives of those that are still living. I was most struck by those who said that they blamed God for this atrocity because, after all, he could have stopped it from happening. Yet, these people don't understand that God grants his children free agency. He cannot force people to do good in just the same way that he cannot stop people from doing evil. The only reason September 11 happened is because of the bad decisions of a lot of people over time. And those who perished will be witnesses against those who caused 9/11 to occur.
So how does the knowledge of free agency help us to know that there is still a God? Well, think about it. For Christians, we know that God let his only begotten son die. God knew that he could not interfere. He had a larger purpose. He knew that justice would one day be served.
For Jews, Muslims, and others, their faith has been tried continuously. Major atrocities and injustices have occurred to all people, even by those falsely committing crimes in the name of God. Yet, faith that God, Allah and Buddha have delivered and will continue to deliver has carried them through. Let us stop blaming our higher power for the hunger, hate and murder in the world. After all he has instructed the world to provide for one another, to love and praise him. If we were all doing these things, the ills of this world would diminish quickly. We all know that yet we perpetuate hate and them we blame God.
The only thing we have control of is how well we keep our God's commandments. He grants blessings accordingly. But sometimes the sins of others interfere with our lives. Maybe not in this imperfect world is everything fair. However, in the life to come justice and mercy will set the scales to balance. Do not allow the terrorists to win with fear.
Hope is not just something humans have invented to keep them going, as many anthropologists have claimed. Rather, it is a real virtue that all humans are capable of feeling. We apply the principle of Faith in so many non-religious aspects of our lives: when we drive, when we diet, when we practice to get better at something. Faith is a true principle of life. When you give it up, you give up the concept of potential. We have eternal potential, as do those who've passed on.
Fashion Chavez Rabe
South Boston, MA
Dear FRONTLINE
I just want to express my sincere sorrow and thoughts for all the families who have lost loved ones on Sept 11th. I especially felt extremely touched to hear Marian Fontana's story of her lost husband David. My prayers go out to her and her family. Just hearing her story made me realize how important life is. I hope she has more days like the one she had in Hawaii. I will keep you all in mind when I wake up and go to work next Wednesday.
EJ McMahon
franklin square, ny
Dear FRONTLINE
I feel this film is very important to many of us. I feel their dispair and anger and hope, or rather loss of hope! My reaction is overwhelmed and I even found it hard to watch parts where the buildings have been hit and people plunging to their death, the tears came and I felt heaviness in my chest again, almost as it was on that day. This is very thought provoking and I think it is actually theraputic since the film touched so many types of faith and views on how our faith has changed from this horrific event. we now have experienced what we used to see on Tv, the most horrific violence of hate set upon a Nation that is now us. I truly appreciate your coverage of this most important part of our survival through this difficult time of what happened and what may still come.
Lucy Duffy
Brooklyn , NY
Dear FRONTLINE
I was disturbed by what I watched. God didn't tell a group of warped Islamic fanatics to fly planes into buildings. God didn't decide who was to die and who was to live. Rather, He was there to comfort and provide hope for all of us as events were unfolding and afterwards.
In this world we have free will.God doesn't force us to follow him any more than he decides what a group of terrorists will target on a given day.
Human beings are capable of great horror as we witnessed last September 11th. Why anybody would attempt to blame God for those acts is beyond me. I hope as time passes, those people come back to their faith and to a better understanding of God's role in their lives.
scott reinhardt
spencer, ohio
Dear FRONTLINE
Overall, the program is very moving and thought-provoking, however, in the treatment of God, evil and religion, the program fails to accurately represent the Christian view and presents watered-down perspectives of "so-called Christians" in an attempt to be politically correct.
In a country where 8 out of 10 people call themselves Christian and 6 out of 10 people attend church on a regular basis, more attention should have been paid to the conservative Christian view.
Mercy Morales
Miami, Florida
Dear FRONTLINE
There is no God, there is only us. God is only a story we made up to make sense of the world. We need to grow up and make our own meaning of our lives and of the world. The concept of God has been used to manipulate people to give up their lives by flying a plane into the world trade center and an infinite number of other atrocities that have been committed in the name of God throughout time for political power. This concept is not a positive influence on the world. We need to grow up and get over it! We are so lucky to live on this beautiful planet with all its possibilities. Imagine it’s only us, only people, all trying to do the best for themselves and their loved ones. There is no evil either, only misguided people. It feels like we're back in the dark ages with all this Religious fanaticism.
Monica Reilly
Commack, New York
Dear FRONTLINE
Again, PBS does a comprehensive job of covering this American tragedy. As a devoutly religious person, I feel so much pain for those that lost someone. One comment I have; God did not do this, man did. God in all his wisdom gives each of us free will to decide which path we take in life. We, as a nation, have been very fortunate that we do not see the consequence of this free will at work. I believe in Karma and that we all will be responsible for each action and thought good and bad - and therefore I believe those that committed these acts will have a heavy price to pay. It angers me the Al Queda claim to do all this in the name of Allah - in the Bible God is discusted at the many lives that are taken in his honor, for he would not want this to happen. Again, while I was close to losing a family member and feel very connected to this tragedy, it is my hope that people affected will not turn away from GOd, because only God can truly heal their broken hearts- if allowed to do so. For anyone out there that lost someone and is in pain just know - "The Wheels of God grind slowly but surely" and that you can believe in. He is out there and he loves all of us - believe in him, for he believes in you!
God Bless all of you and I pray every day for peace in the Middle East-because when all of GOd's children are safe from terror, we all will be safe.
This was a terrible wake up call for us - we live such materialistic lives, uncaring for our neighbor- otherwise there would not be so many hungry and homeless people right here in America. Open your hearts, give to those in need - and above all pray to the Virgin Mary for peace on Earth.
Laura Vhay
New Milford, CT
Dear FRONTLINE
This will be the identifying documentary of 9/11. Thank you for this gift that puts this event at ground zero into a comprehendable message on a moral high ground. Dave
david wachter
Takoma Park , MD
Dear FRONTLINE
What man has to do is stop using God as an excuse for the evil that exists. As innocent as man's actions may be, the lack of realizing one's responsibility, not only to yourself as American culture touts as success, but to everyone around you, and by around I mean to alude to the earth being round. To everything being round. We should be making everyday a reaction to the entire world's quotidian pain on par with the people of New York City's reaction to the moments of 9/11. Everyday. Everyone.
Jason Hobbins
Flint, Michigan 
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