I’m not putting this in the Pit, as it’s more eye-rolling than steam-coming-out-of-ears:
WASHINGTON (AP) - The youngest victim of the Washington-area sniper attacks says he feels great and can’t wait to get back on the basketball court with his friends. Iran Brown, 13, told reporters at Children’s Hospital that he credits God with his remarkable recovery from a bullet wound that shredded his organs and threatened his life . . . “He’s recovering well,” said Dr. Martin Eichelberger, adding that Iran is one of the best patients he’s ever had. Eichelberger said the only medication Iran needs now is an antibiotic because his spleen was removed. He said Iran’s good health, his family’s support and the steps taken by the first medical workers who treated him were largely responsible for his recovery.
—What’s that, Dr. Martin Eicherberger? “Medical workers,” my eye! Obviously, God picked this kid as one of the few sniper victims to survive just to show how unworthy the others were!
I’m confused. Is this a sideways shot at a 13 year old kid’s beliefs? A belief in God’s healing power does not preclude a belief in the necessity of competent medical care (I mean there are Catholic hospitals, for example) What exactly is the cause for the eye rolling?
I’d say that, yes, it’s a shot at the kid’s belief - and that the argument that an all-powerful God uses human doctors to do his work (when he could just snap his fingers, or whatever he has to snap) looks a lot like the human doctors did it without his help. I mean, when the doctors can’t save one, does God get mad at them for trying to go against his “apparent” will?
It precludes belief for me, and apparently Eve as well. I find it ridiculous and insulting that people would credit the child’s recovery to God rather than the thousands of hours of training, dedication, technology, and judgement of human doctors.
Oh, but God trained the doctors! No, wait, God trained the doctors’ teachers! No, wait, he INSPIRED them!
Bah. What inspired them was common human compassion and professionalism, and deep-rooted confidence in their skills and training.
Well, who was in the OR, getting their hands dirty with that kid’s blood, beagle? Was it some scared, sweaty, concerned doc, or was it God?
And if it was God, why didn’t he just instantly heal the kid?
I won’t go so far as to say theists’ beliefs are dumb, but I will say this: I’ll bet that if all other things were equal, the recovery rate for patients that have been prayed for is quite similar to those that haven’t.
If it makes you feel better, though, I can’t really say it’s “dumb.”
The boy’s thirteen! If I’d been shot at the age of thirteen and lived, I would have credited my deity of choice, too. I didn’t develop my quasi-atheist views until I was an adult.
Geez, you’d think a thirteen year old who just got out of the hospital would have his whole theology worked out before making such a statement. :rolleyes:
Or…you know at least clarify his theological stance with a detailed acknowledgement of the role that the skilled EMS workers, the skilled nurses, the doctors, the lab techs, modern antibiotics…Alexander Fleming and penicillin …played in his recovery.
So now we have to brief little kids before they get out of the hospital.
“Please don’t mention anything about your religion of choice as it may offend some non-theists.”
His thanking God for being alive does not discount what the doctors did. For all you or I know, he could strongly believe that God gave the doctors the wisdom and strength to help him survive.
Nor did the child mention that he was ‘chosen’ by God to survive.
He had to be ‘chosen,’ didn’t he? I mean, after all, so many others died. And since we’re laying responsibility on God for those acts he had the power to either change or prevent (like, say, the kid dying of a bullet wound,) well, then God would have to be responsible for the sniper too, right?
And Ogre, you seriously believe that a thirteen year old with a bunch of microphones shoved in his face thought all of that out before saying “Thank God I’m alive?” or whatever?
GIVE ME A BREAK.
And Eve, you can eye roll all you like, but I don’t particularly care for the intimation that those of us who thank God for our successes in life are negating the works of human beings. I thank God for helping me pull out of a depression, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize the work of the doctors and medication.