Hamma Time

Something that has always bothered me personally is the usage of terms like “Miracle” in media news outlets and just in general. There’s always the token interviewee who claims that someone was saved or avoided death only by a “Miracle”. The very definition of the term Miracle suggests divine intervention. Tell me why is this something that should be used regularly by news outlets and ignorant politicians to describe people who survived unbelievable accidents?

I will use the recent plane crash of flight 1549 in the Hudson River as a prime example, compared with the also recent plane crash of Continental Flight 3407.

In the first case everyone on board survived. They did this because of the extreme piloting skills of Captain Sully Sullenberger and not a miracle as the NY State Governor David Paterson said  “We have had a miracle on 34th Street. I believe now we have had a miracle on the Hudson.” Allot of news outlets ran with the headline “Miracle on the Hudson” That is a pure insult to Sully and the people who helped save those lives. Those people were saved because a human with amazing skills as a pilot saved them. He is the true definition of the word Hero which is another term abused often.

Now what of Continental Flight 3407? That plane went down near Buffalo NY on a cold night in early February of this year killing all 49 people on board. Tell me why is it that the people on board that plane (One a September 11th widow) didn’t deserve the mercy of god? A Christian (for example) would tell you that it is satan who is responsible for this act. That is the typical cop-out that is used by theists, god is responsible for everything good that happens in the world and the devil everything bad. Pretty good childhood fantasy isn’t it? In actuality it was probably ice buildup on the plane that caused this accident, we won’t know for sure for some time.

There is no such thing as divine intervention.  When you get into a car accident for example you are at the whim of the random number generator (for lack of a better term) the second you smash into an object you are at the mercy of gravity, mass, and most of all just pure dumb luck. You survived? Good for you! It wasn’t god’s hand that cradled you from injury. It was the safety features of the vehicle you were driving in combination with everything working out just the way it had to. And when I say that I don’t mean that something had to be in control of it for it to work out “just right” as creationists would try to make you believe about the origins of mankind for example.

Next up I will discuss people who “Thank God” for their abilities.. but that’s for another entry.

Hamma Atheism, Bullshit, Rants Atheism, Christianity, Flight 1549, Flight 3407, Miracle, Rants, Religion, Sully Sullenberger