In her article “Chilean miracle, atheists stop grumbling,” Suzette Martinez Standring points to their faith in god as an important, if not overriding, factor in the survival of all 33 miners trapped some half-a-mile underground. She goes a step further in criticizing outspoken atheists upset that god, rather than the massive group of talented, dedicated scientists, professionals and volunteers, received too much credit for this “miracle.”
She writes:
They complain that engineers, psychologists and workers have set the bar in global cooperation and shared expertise, so why does God get all the credit? What about God¹s hand (or lack of one) in the Chilean earthquake that killed 500 people earlier this year?
No believer or non-believer can ever answer fully the questions of the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of God. But what has been documented is that the miners held their faith to be a life-saving factor when they were buried alive for 69 days, 2,300 feet under a desert after a mine collapse.
Alright, I’m going to stop her right there for a moment. First, we non-believers don’t have to answer fully the questions of “why” or “how” when it comes to god. We don’t have to answer them at all, in fact. We simply know its bullshit1. Second, the fact that the miners held their own faith to be a life-saving factor is all fine and dandy, but this isn’t the point. Reasonable people are upset that crediting god, who clearly did not contribute in any (measurable, testable, concrete, real, etc) way, detracts from the brilliant and tireless efforts of the many human beings responsible for devising and coordinating this massive rescue, which seems logical to me.
She writes later:
Modern technology achieved success, yet to believe a higher hand doled out the gifts of intellect, ability and perfect timing on those connected with the rescue is not unreasonable. Science and religion are not mutually exclusive in this event. No doubt the men drew comfort from knowing the finest minds and the best machinery worked continuously on their behalf.
But it is also clear that faith played a significant part in their survival. At the request of the miners, Bibles measuring 3 inches by 5 inches were sent down along with magnifying glasses for easier reading. Each book was inscribed, “We are praying for your return.”
Again, I’ll interject. When you discard the notion of god itself as being “unreasonable” (which is the clearest result of weighing the evidence2 at our disposal), it inherently makes the statement “…to believe a higher hand doled out the… is not unreasonable” unreasonable.
Standring may have a point in saying science and religion are not mutually exclusive in this event, but wouldn’t it be fun if we could make it so they were? For instance, if we could replicate this event twice over we could better control the variables of science and religion. In the first replication, we’ll allow for as much religiosity among the trapped, their loved ones, and the general public as possible, but will completely restrict the use of science. In the second, our poor victims and their rescuers will be atheists, completely occluded from God’s miraculous countenance, and there will be no prayers for their survival, but we will allow them the full gamut of scientific options. I don’t know about you, but I only wish I had the resources to make this happen—I so wanna know how things would work out!
Moving on, I quickly want to discuss the bibles the miners requested. I’d like to know, first of all, whether the requests for bibles came before or after the repeated requests for beer, wine, and cigarettes. Second, I wonder, if given the choice between bibles and the above-mentioned contraband items, how many of the 33 men would have chosen bibles? I can’t say for sure, of course, but I know what I would do. After all, nicotine addiction and the intoxicating effects of alcohol are very well documented and real, which is more than I can say for… well, you get the point.
Suzette moves on to discuss the images of miners emerging from their would-be tomb, more than two months of their lives elapsed, wearing t-shirts emblazoned with religious sentiments, and continues:
Chile is an overwhelmingly Christian (89% Roman Catholic) country. A high percentage of Americans also profess to be Christian. But, had the disaster occurred in the United States, would the miners have returned to the surface holding Bibles and wearing scripture-printed T-shirts (given the lawsuits and the controversy that dogs something as simple as singing “O, Holy Night” at a public school concert)?
Suzie, Suzie, Suzie… I don’t know what America you’re living in babe, but it’s not mine. I live in an America where, yes, probably at least some of the men would have emerged adorned with some sort of religious sentiment. (Particularly true given the backwoods-ass places we tend to mine coal in this country and the stupid, bible-thumping rednecks that tend to inhabit those areas). If the miners themselves weren’t repping the G-man, then certainly their family members and the inevitable crowd of hooters-and-hollerers would make up for that. The massive vigil that would undoubtedly have been erected at the site certainly would have had some crosses, at least, and probably a verse of scripture or two as well. The point, Suziekins, is that as a religious person in America today, you have no right to bitch.
I wish Ms. Martinez Standring were right, though. I wish we lived in a country where nobody would credit god for countless men and women’s hard work. Ideally the entire world could get on that page. By allowing ourselves to credit mystical forces for good outcomes, we not only do injustice to the true forces at work—in this case, thousands of people and tireless efforts—but we also lose sense of the beauty and importance of the world and our lives for their own sake, as they are, in the absence of god or any other supernatural myths.
1I’m well aware that this statement can be construed as representing a smug sense of superiority and, well, it does. But I’ve got reason on my side.
2For our religious readers out there, evidence is what we use to make judgments outside the realm of faith, which, of course, has no place in rational decision-making. In this case, I’m referring to the scientific.
