Reimagined and Revamped. Fighting the spread of nonsense often feels like a Sisyphean task. However, the joy is in making the information available, not the hope of conversion.

Never ceases to amaze me

It truly never does.

A supremely skilled and well trained pilot lands an aircraft on water. This aircraft is the product of rigorous engineering practices, safety guidelines, intense simulation, and decades of design evolution. The 40 thousand pound aircraft freaking floats because it was designed that way! The engines are specifically designed and tested to not explode from a birdstrikes and have been for years.

But instead of thanking people, what do we hear?

"God was certainly looking out for all of us."

God flings two birds at your plane, and you say he is looking out for you?

Remarkable.

7 comments:

On 1/18/09, 9:55 AM , mikespeir said...

So I guess every time some Iraqi ne'er-do-well misses we ought to thank him for saving a soldier's life? Not the way I think; but who am I, anyway?

 
On 1/18/09, 11:03 AM , Techskeptic said...

Let me get this straight, when a terrorist misses, then its because God has intervened and was looking out for someone or some people.

And when a terrorist hits, and kills or maims...God is where exactly?

When a terrorist plot is foiled, its because we have acted with counterterrorism activities, we have infiltrated, we have intercepted. If a bullet misses it could be luck, but its more likely due to superior training on our part (or poorer training on theirs), good defenses, and so forth. If someone survives a hit, then you can thank people for the development of good first aid and triage, good training, good hospitals. Tons of work and sweat goes into the great things that we have today. The supernatural...well, I'm not sure what you can point to that provides anything useful.

 
On 1/18/09, 1:21 PM , mikespeir said...

Clearly, I made myself a little too opaque. (Clearly opaque? Hmm....) I was saying the very thing you are, Techskeptic.

 
On 1/19/09, 7:44 AM , Techskeptic said...

Hmm. clearly I misunderstood you then. My apologies.

 
On 1/19/09, 8:55 AM , PersonalFailure said...

i always liked that comic who said that if athletes are going to thank god for winning, they should also blame god for losing:

"I was doing fine until Jesus made me fumble!"

 
On 2/19/09, 5:24 PM , ValorPhoenix said...

...or as the Brits say

Jeseu Saves! Beckham gets it on the rebound!

 
On 2/15/11, 10:47 PM , anaglyph said...

Yeah - that always annoys the crap out of me too. And yet they never say - 'Oh well, that day those planes flew into the buildings... God was really pissed with us.'