In these sad days of war, I recently found myself looking up to God and asking, "Why?"

"Don’t look at me," God replied. "Besides, I could ask you the same thing."

He was right (being the Supreme Being, He often is). It isn’t God’s fault that the world has gone crazy, nor is it His place to grab us by the scruff of the neck and pull us out of the fire.

But the hard questions remain: How has humanity fallen so far off track? How has the world allowed things to get so out of hand?

I decided to put my investigative journalism experience to work and search for answers. Seeing as I’d never done investigative journalism, the work was slow-going. I started by trying to contact some of the greatest minds of our time, beginning with the Amazing Kreskin. But after he used the power of his mind to bend my favorite spoon, I politely asked him to leave. It was a great spoon. A great spoon!

Over the next few days, I contacted dozens of brilliant minds, including Alex Trebeck, Albert Einstein’s maid Helga Morgenstern (who was noted to have corrected her employer when he wrote on a chalk-board, "E=MC and a dash of orange sauce"), Coco the Gorilla (who has earned her PhD in pharmacology since her special ran on TV several years ago), and Judge Judy.

But, sadly, my search brought no results. Frustrated and on the verge of giving up, I decided to conduct one more quick search on the Internet. In the "search" box, I typed in the word "why," and suddenly I found the answer I was looking for.

In December 2001, Dr. Langston Heath, M.A., PhD., Pththth., professor of modern behavior at the Harvard School of Anthropology, began a study to determine, as he put it, "why the world had gone all hooey." Following is a brief snippet from an interview he gave National Public Radio (NPR) in August.

NPR: Dr. Heath, you say that one of the reasons the world is such bad shape is because of a general lack of morality. Can you elaborate?

Dr. Heath: Did I say that? I think I had just gotten a parking ticket when I said that. I was in a mood.

NPR: So you don’t think morality has anything to do with the troubles in the world?

Dr. Heath: Sure, it has something to do with it. If everyone were moral, you could eliminate many social ills -- and you could probably get a lot better deal on a used car.

NPR: Does thinking you’re moral, make you moral?

Dr. Heath: No, it may just mean you’re working without a pilot light, if you get my meaning.

NPR: If not a lack of morality, why?

Dr. Heath: For most of us, praying has come down to this: "Oh good and benevolent God in heaven, what have you done for me lately?" It’s all about "me." We no longer know our neighbors, much less practice any concern for them. You could be living next door to Dimitri Kosilkov and not even know it.

NPR: Who’s Dimitri Kosilkov?

Dr. Heath: Exactly. We’ve forgotten how much we need God. Take one day and skip lunch. By dinner time, your stomach will tell you how your soul is feeling. And that first bite of spaghetti? Prayer is no less tangible.

NPR: So, once again I ask you, why all the wars and violence?

Dr. Heath: In times of turmoil, people look to the one who’s emotionally charged, because in strong emotion we see action. Yet, imagine if a country is suddenly attacked. Would its citizens vote for Ghandi to lead their nation in the months to follow? I doubt it. Ghandi was just a little man in a sheet -- and yet he peacefully won a nation.

NPR: So your point is that . . . Um, what exactly is your point?

Dr. Heath: Why is the world teetering on a precipice? Why the war, the hate, the violence and destruction?

In general, the world has turned a deaf ear to the voice of God. If they do happen to hear his voice —filtered through all the hostility—then it’s a rare gem indeed who actually adheres to it.

But those caught up in war -- from the innocents struggling each day to survive, to the soldiers wondering if they may be the next to die -- you can bet they hear God’s voice, and with a crystal clarity. And you can be assured that each of them also are asking "why."