# Remind me again why God is to be thanked for the Chilean Miners? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 14, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195 "2010-10-14T23:56:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/21 "2010-10-15T01:15:04Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > > [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > > > So kids with leukemia have it because they’ll one day be wicked. Why don’t I have leukemia? Sure I’m just as wicked as those little bastards (who obviously deserve God’s wrath) in the children’s hospitals, right? > > Woosh. Are you implying that I was wooshed? Because this is **Curtis** we’re dealing with. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/22 "2010-10-15T01:16:57Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > > [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > > > So kids with leukemia have it because they’ll one day be wicked. Why don’t I have leukemia? Sure I’m just as wicked as those little bastards (who obviously deserve God’s wrath) in the children’s hospitals, right? > > Some of them are not direct punishments from God but natural consequences of living in an evil-filled world. In other words the answer is ‘B’. They are being punished indiscriminately for the sins of others that they have no involvement in and no control over. Some god you have there. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/23 "2010-10-15T01:17:41Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > So kids with leukemia have it because they’ll one day be wicked. Why don’t I have leukemia? Sure I’m just as wicked as those little bastards (who obviously deserve God’s wrath) in the children’s hospitals, right? Because God has A Plan[sup]TM[/sup]. … Has a sense of humor. … Would you believe ‘does a great impression of not existing, to the point where the world looks exactly like it would if there were no gods at all and things like disease and misfortune were unpredictable and bore no relation to human concepts like justice?’ ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/24 "2010-10-15T01:19:20Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > > [@pedescribe](#): > > > > Woosh. > > Are you implying that I was wooshed? Because this is **Curtis** we’re dealing with. What. No way. No way Qin is being serious. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/25 "2010-10-15T01:22:29Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > > [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > > > Are you implying that I was wooshed? Because this is **Curtis** we’re dealing with. > > What. No way. No way Qin is being serious. He’s being serious. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/26 "2010-10-15T01:23:55Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > > [@pedescribe](#): > > > > What. No way. No way Qin is being serious. > > He’s being serious. I vote serious. Some people have appallingly silly beliefs. All religious people on Earth, for instance. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/27 "2010-10-15T01:24:29Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Some people theorize it’s basically a sure thing. And that’s just as disconcerting to me as somebody saying that a supreme being is a 1:1 certainty. Without scientific proof of other intelligent life, it’s just a faith based belief that it must be true. Much like religion. Granted, I give the chance of other intelligent life occurring someplace else in the universe at some time during the lifespan of the universe much better odds than a supreme being, without scientific proof of either, they are just as zeroed out as the other in my mind. That’s still not quite right. I do not believe at all in a supreme being. But given that, I still cringe when I hear people say there MUST be other intelligent life. Sorry, without proof, that’s just faith talking. ---
**Author:** ![statsman1982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/28 "2010-10-15T01:27:27Z")
I think thanking God for anything good that comes out of bad is almost a meme. People don’t really think it through; if they really, _really_ thought about it, I don’t see how they could think God is anything but a capricious bully, at best. “God was with us the whole time, and He brought us out of the mine.” Great. So, God loves you and not the thousands of other miners who die in accidents like this all the time? This meme is insidious and won’t go away any time soon. Just tonight, I watched a story of a woman whose son was kidnapped and murdered. For the first 2 weeks of his disappearance, she said she prayed that he would come back. Then, after a while, she started praying that God would give her a body to bury. ---
**Author:** ![statsman1982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/29 "2010-10-15T01:30:28Z")
> [@Duke\_of\_Rat](#): > > > [@Marley23](#): > > > > Some people theorize it’s basically a sure thing. > > And that’s just as disconcerting to me as somebody saying that a supreme being is a 1:1 certainty. > > Without scientific proof of other intelligent life, it’s just a faith based belief that it must be true. Much like religion. > > Granted, I give the chance of other intelligent life occurring someplace else in the universe at some time during the lifespan of the universe much better odds than a supreme being, without scientific proof of either, they are just as zeroed out as the other in my mind. > > That’s still not quite right. > > I do not believe at all in a supreme being. But given that, I still cringe when I hear people say there MUST be other intelligent life. Sorry, without proof, that’s just faith talking. I think it comes down to an argument from the “Law” of Very Large Numbers, which states that given a large number of opportunities for something to happen (practically an infinite number, in our universe), even the most unlikely things occur. I think that’s the idea behind the Drake Equation, for example. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/30 "2010-10-15T01:31:39Z")
> [@Duke\_of\_Rat](#): > > > [@Marley23](#): > > > > Some people theorize it’s basically a sure thing. > > And that’s just as disconcerting to me as somebody saying that a supreme being is a 1:1 certainty. I hope that if someone asks you if your father is an alien you’ll respond “There’s no way I can know for certain. I don’t know.” I hope that when someone asks you if you believe in the Tooth Fairy you’ll respond “There’s no way I can know for certain. I don’t know.” And I hope that if someone asks if you’ve committed murder in the past you’ll respond “There’s no way I can know for certain. I don’t know.” You would respond in the negative with certainty for all those questions and yet when it comes to God you feel the need to pussyfoot and spare the theists hurt feelings. God doesn’t exist. I say that with as close to absolute certainty as you can say that _anything_ doesn’t exist- including Jason Vorhees, Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/31 "2010-10-15T01:41:18Z")
> [@Duke\_of\_Rat](#): > > > [@Marley23](#): > > > > Some people theorize it’s basically a sure thing. > > And that’s just as disconcerting to me as somebody saying that a supreme being is a 1:1 certainty. Of course the _implications_ of the two ideas are just a bit different. 😉 I agree we can’t know for sure if there is other intelligent life in the universe. If it’s true that there are limits on the number of possible configurations of the elements and such, it could be highly likely. On the other hand I think it’s very unlikely that there is other intelligent life in our observable universe that exists within humanity’s time frame. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/32 "2010-10-15T01:43:27Z")
I completely misinterpreted **Duke**. Brain fart. Please disregard my last post. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/33 "2010-10-15T01:45:57Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > > [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > > > Are you implying that I was wooshed? Because this is **Curtis** we’re dealing with. > > What. No way. No way Qin is being serious. I am being serious. For that matter this is what many millions of people think including some of the greatest minds in History. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/34 "2010-10-15T01:49:40Z")
And then you try to separate yourself from those loony fundamentalists. Classic. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/35 "2010-10-15T01:52:17Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > > [@pedescribe](#): > > > > What. No way. No way Qin is being serious. > > I am being serious. For that matter this is what many millions of people think including some of the greatest minds in History. If millions of the greatest minds in history thought fucking a chicken was a good thing, that wouldn’t make it so. Religious thinking is inherently silly. But it fills an emotional need. Even great thinkers are afraid of death or yearn for meaning. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/36 "2010-10-15T02:10:57Z")
Because it was god who saved them. Of course it was god that trapped them underground too. God likes to put spin on the ball. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/37 "2010-10-15T13:07:21Z")
> [@Valteron](#): > > As the final Chilean miners are brought to the surface, once again we hear a chorus of praise for “God” for delivering them. Not the devoted people and scientific equipment that got them out, but the invisible magic guy in the sky. Please provide a cite for this claim. > [@](#): > > So, although I am certain that debates along these lines have been held 10 million times on SDMB, let’s make it 10,000,001. Perhaps by the time we reach number 20,000,000, you’ll finally figure out why this line of argument isn’t as clever as you think it is. > [@](#): > > 1)If God is to be thanked for delivering them, is he not equally to be blamed for allowing them to get into that fix in the first place? Suppose my neighbor gives me a loaf of banana bread on Tuesday. Should I immediately blame her for the fact that I didn’t receive of loaf of banana bread on Monday. If not, then it seems you understand the notion that when we receive a gift, getting mad about not receiving more gifts earlier is not a good wya to respond. > [@](#): > > 1. Why is it that when something good happens, theists are soooo certain they can discern God’s loving kindness in the event. But when something bad happens, it’s time for theists to roll their eyes, shrug their shoulders, and quote you some passage about how the ways of God are mysterious and we cannot understand his purposes. Please either provide cites to prove that your characterization of theists in this question is accurate or else admit that the question is invalid. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/38 "2010-10-15T13:16:41Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > God’s a self-loathing passive aggressive in a codependent relationship with the faithful. He trapped the miners so that people would beg for him to free them and hail him as an almighty and ever-merciful savior when he eventually capitulated. Maybe it’s just because he’s an incompetent who couldn’t finish the job the first time. “Thanks you God” (for being such a fuckup you couldn’t kill 33 guys a mile underground despite your omnipotence). -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/39 "2010-10-15T13:18:29Z")
There ain’t no Devil, there’s only God when he’s drunk. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195/40 "2010-10-15T13:22:40Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Suppose my neighbor gives me a loaf of banana bread on Tuesday. Should I immediately blame her for the fact that I didn’t receive of loaf of banana bread on Monday. If not, then it seems you understand the notion that when we receive a gift, getting mad about not receiving more gifts earlier is not a good wya to respond. Suppose your neighbor locks you in his cellar and leaves you there alone for two weeks, then comes back to provide you with food and medicine and promises to let you out, but it’ll take a few more months to do so. Finally, after all this time in this rather uncomfortable situation, he releases you. Would you thank and praise him? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remind-me-again-why-god-is-to-be-thanked-for-the-chilean-miners/557195.md?page=3)