In 1755, the British sent an army to North America, under General 
Edward Braddock, in order to dispute the French expansion into western 
Pennsylvania.

	Braddock took a liking to a 23-year-old Virginian who had already 
fought the French there (unsuccessfully) and appointed him an 
aide-de-camp. He was the only colonial aide among a group of British.

	Braddock then marched his men toward the site of modern 
Pittsburgh and attempted to fight there in the style of European battles, 
with all his men carefully lined up and all firing a volley on order. 
They were opposed by French and Indians who, observing that they were 
fighting in a trackless forest, got each behind a tree.

	The French and the Indians fired ad lib from behind those trees 
and mowed down the British, who made splendid marks in their bright-red 
uniforms. The British had nothing visible at which to fire in return, and 
when they tried to take cover, Braddock beat them back into line with 
yells, oaths, and the flat of his sword.

	The British were slaughtered, of course, and Braddock was fatally 
wounded, dying four days later muttering, "Who would have thought it?"

	That any of the army was left alive at all was thanks to the 
Virginian aide-de-camp who, when the British finally broke and ran, 
covered their retreat by having his own Virginia troops fight Indian-style.

	The young Virginian went through the battle without a scratch. 
Two horses were killed under him. Four bullets ripped through his clothes 
without touching him. He was the _only_ aide-de-camp who remained alive 
(let alone totally unharmed) in that shambles.

	That Virginian's name (you're ahead of me, I know) was George
Washington. 

	I first heard that story in class when I was about 10 years old. 
The teacher (whom I will call Mr. Smith) got very emotional about it and 
told us that it was clearly the finger of God. Washington, he said, had 
been saved so that twenty years later he could lead the colonies to 
victory in the Revolutionary War and thus establish the United States of 
America.

	I listened to that with the deepest skepticism. In the first 
place, it seemed to me that God was not an American and had to care for 
all people equally. If he was really efficient, he would have figured out 
some way of accomplishing his purpose without a battle and thus he would 
have saved _everyone's_ life. But then a sudden, staggering thought 
occurred to me and I raised my hand excitedly.

	The teacher pointed to me and I said, "How can you say that that 
was the finger of God, Mr. Smith? For all any of us know, someone was 
killed in that battle who, if he had lived, would have been better than 
George Washington, and who would have figured out a way to make us 
independent without a war."

	At that, Mr. Smith turned red. His eyes bulged, he pointed a 
finger at me, and shouted, "Are you trying to tell me that anyone would 
have been better than George Washington?"

	Isaac Asimov continued, pointing out that what seems like the 
finger of God to the winner might seem like the Devil's hoofprint to the 
loser, and went on to complete a discussion of the curious history 
behind the discovery of nuclear fission and the development of the first 
nuclear bombs.

"The Finger of God", in _The Sun Shines Bright_