God Helps Widdlest Sniper Victim Recover

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I don’t think anyone said that. Free country, the kid can say whatever he likes, even that Binky the Magic Space Clown saved him or that Avril Lavigne is a great musician - but it doesn’t mean others can’t say he’s mistaken, does it?

He probably does believe that - but again, it’s just an unverifiable as saying it was God alone. I’d like to think that years of education and a willingness to do everything possible to save a life were the success factors - not some puppeteer pulling the strings behind the scenes. If God wants to impress us, let’s have an uneducated school janitor perform surgery on someone and save them - now THAT would be impressive (and I’d have to reconsider my atheism too!).

22

I think the kid should have thanked all the people who worked to save his life at least as much as God but I think it’s mean spirited belittle his faith. The survival rate of the sniper’s victims was extremely low. I’d think any survivor would tend to think a greater power was looking out for them. I like to think that on SDMB we pick on people our own size.

23

This is a rather belligerent attitude on Eve’s part.

If a thirteen-year-old - or, indeed, if anyone - wishes to credit God, what of it? Who is harmed? Indeed, I’m convinced that for those have such faith, it can prove a powerful aspect of healing. There’s no question that trained surgeons are also powerful indicators for survival, of course, but just as Ogre derides the idea of God’s involvement by asking why, if He were involved, the boy was not instantly healed, I could as well ask why, if trained surgeons are all that it takes, why any shooting victim ever dies on an operating table?

Trained surgeons make no claim to omnipotence, of course - but while God’s press releases hint at omnipotence, they also are clear that God works in mysterious ways not clear to man. In other words, the lack of instant healing is not particularly probative one way or another.

The very title of the OP’s thread is disturbing. The child suffered a terrible ordeal, and the inclusion of ‘Widdlest’ seems to mock the gravity of the situation and the injuries suffered.

It’s unclear to me how the child’s belief in, and thanks to, God are remotely insulting to Eve, Ogre, or, indeed, anyone. I’m willing to bet that not one of the trauma surgeons, the only ones who might feel reasonably slighted by the loss of explicit top billing, would chastise the child for his feelings.

In short, I think the OP is downright rude. Unbelievably rude, in fact.

  • Rick
24

“How come no one raises this much of a stink when, say, some sports star thanks God first.”

—because I never watch sports. If I did see some sports star thanking God for scoring a touchdown or whatever, I would eye-roll myself right off the chair.

25

Excellent point. I don’t think Eve’s point is that the kid shouldn’t have said that, but that she thinks he’s wrong and being a little ridiculous, which is a perfectly valid opinion.

jar makes a good point too, though:

IANATheist, but it seems much more reasonable and fair to assume that someone thanking God for his/her successes or good fortune is doing so under the belief not of direct divine intervention, precluding any credit given to human effort, but of a general, “thank God for a world in which I am able to be helped.”

But, if it’s any more than that, I have trouble understanding any “thank God” sentiment, unless you can also be angry at God for all the bad stuff that happens.

26

You can only have your atheist eye-rolling if you stop getting God mixed up with Zeus.

27

Eonwe, just as men are able to do wondrous things to help us, so are they able to do horrid things like rape and murder and wage war. We’re in it together.

If you’re unwilling to thank God for the good things he’s done, how can you also hold him responsible for ALL the evil, letting man off the hook?

28

Because, Bricker, God is the magic bullet (so to speak.) He’s infallible. That means that he would be effective in 100% of the cases. Human doctors, for all their training, still have lapses in judgement and get exhausted. God doesn’t.

And “God works in mysterious ways?” Only if you mean, “Lets a little bad happen for the eventual greater good.” But that makes no sense for a being that has the power to make everything instantaneously sunshine and puppydogs with a wave of his Mighty Berobed Arm.

Pffft. I’d bet any number of atheist docs might have the same belief.

I don’t. In fact, I think it was spot on target.

29

I’d be thanking the surgeons who spent hours hunched over my bleeding, shredded dying body trying to repair the massive internal damage and those kind people whose donated blood was used to keep me alive while I was put back together.

Eve I agree with you. The damn kid should be thanking the ER doctors, surgeons, nurses and blood donars who saved his life.

He should also be thanking the researchers that developed the medication that’s going to help him stave off infection now that he’s missing a spleen.

This annoys me because shouldn’t you thank people for the efforts they do on your behalf? The no thank you to the people who actively saved the kid really pisses me off.

And apparently us athiests can’t mention that we feel you should thank the people who actually helped you.

Clam down. Sheesh it’s not like you have to deal with people walking away from you in disgust and acting like you aren’t a human being when you admit you are christian. Try admitting your an athiest in texas.

30

But when something happens to me, how do I know that it’s God’s work and not Satan’s work? Perhaps God’s plan was for me to die in an accident at a young age, instead of surviving to grow up, become an atheist, and reject the idea of his existence.
When I survived the anesthesia at the operation I had when I was a young man, should I thank God or curse Satan?

31

Come on Bricker, do you really mean that? Are you suggesting that people who die in surgery do so because God is not looking out for them? 'cause that’s pretty much how that sentence reads to me, that death while under medical treatment is because of a lack of God.

32

WASHINGTON DC (AP)-Thirteen Sniper Victims: Hey God! Where The Heck Were You When We Were Getting Shot?

In a press conference held Thursday the thirteen confirmed victims of sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad wondered aloud why God didn’t intervene on their behalf while publicly interviening to save the life of 13 year-old Iran Brown.

“I don’t quite understand it” said the late Kenneth Bridges “I went to church. I was a good person. I was just pumping gas, and ‘pow’. Wasn’t I cute enough to save?”

Another victim was quoted as saying “And while we’re at it, where the hell was Batman!?”

A spokesman for God responded via burning bush afterward claiming that God “Worked im mysterious ways” and that he couldn’t comment any further citing ‘pending litagation’.

33

Please provide the cite where the kid didn’t thank the doctors that helped him. In fact, wait a second, there’s not ONE QUOTE AT ALL from the child in the article, so we don’t know what he said at all.

What if he said “I thank God I’m alive, and thank you to all these doctors and nurses who helped me through this hard time”.

Would that be ok?

In short, you have NO IDEA what the kid said, you only know what the reporter reported, so you naturally assume he’s some bizarre fundie who believes in faith healing.

Insulting to theists? You bet.

34

jar, I think you misunderstand me. My point was that I feel it’s an all or nothing proposition when assigning responsibility to God. Either he’s responsibility for the good and the bad, or responsible for none of it. So, if a person is going to thank God for the good, I don’t see how that same person can also not be angry with God for the bad.

35

This is more like atheist hand stabbing.

36

Actually, I think we’re talking about the larger principle as well as the specific case.

Plus, I believe the medicsl charts would show that it was demonstrably NOT God who saved the kid. Unless, of course, God’s Mighty Hand intubated the kid in the ambulance, held the IV bag, etc.

And if that’s the case, if I were an EMT, I’d sure as hell be asking God, “Why didn’t you prevent this?” between chest compressions.

Come to think of it, I can see why God might want to remain incognito.

37

Eonwe, my point is you can be thankful to GOD and the DOCTORS and we have no indication that this child was both…so the naysayers are assuming he basically gave the surgeon the high hard one and said it was all God’s doing. We have no proof of that, so I choose to cut the THIRTEEN YEAR OLD SHOOTING VICTIM AT A PRESS CONFERENCE just a little bit of slack.

38

The kids name is IRAN???
Just which god was he thanking?

39

Or to restate my point, based on Bricker’s sentence - you should never thank God if something happens to make you happy, because it might be Satan’s work; or alternatively you should thank God for anything that happens, because it’s all part of God’s plan.

40

Dammit, this is getting interesting . . . Wish I hadn’t started it on a friday afternoon; I’m gonna have to wait till Monday to see where this led . . .