Wednesday, January 04, 2006

It's how you look at a situation

As you may have heard there was a terrible mining incident here a few days where 13 miners were trapped and eventually 12 of them died.

Initial news reports came that said 12 miners had been found alive but shortly after it was corrected that 12 miners were found dead and one survived.

I agree, this is a terrible tragedy but how is it that if 12 miners were found alive it was God's Miracle, but if 12 miners were found dead it was God's Will?!? How can you have it both ways?

8 comments:

Kat said...

God's miracle, God's will.

It's called FREE WILL. We make stupid decisions, and we pay for them. Ruin the environment, die of cancer. Send healthy men down in a big f*&king hole, it's gonna cave in. Our Creator (he or she, or they, depending on your religion) is just there for moral support.

Ok, that was a little drastic of me. Sorry, I'm a little hormonal this week.

CanadianSwiss said...

Whew! That's quite a delicate subject, Michael. But I generally agree with Kat. We shouldn't make anybody else but ourselves responsible for our actions.

Sometimes we take risks willingly and sometimes not; somtimes our decisions are good, sometimes they're bad; sometimes they're just plain lucky and sometimes they're not. I'll spare a tought for those unlucky miners and their families.

Robin said...

It can't be both ways, that's the problem.

I think it's a convenient way to assign an explanation that people can wrap their heads around, to make it easier to deal with the pain.

I feel so badly for all of those families, especially after they had been told the miners were all found alive.

Xmichra said...

This is a sore topic for me. I am from Yellowknife NWT Canada.. and in 1994 we had this happen and I lost two people in that blast. It also happened on my 16th birthday. and they were murdered, unlike this where it was accedental. So I will try and skip to the question.

The reason people assign 'will' and 'miracle' after the word 'god' is for a very ironic reason - vanity. See, if it is Gods actions and not thier own.. well that's all just part of the grand design. And If it is "god's miracle" it is put up on a higher pedistal. If It is 'God's will' , then that is a masking copeing mechanism.

It's really quite silly. Faith is one thing, but assigning 'blame' or 'credit' for acts that we are responcible for is beyond faith. That's almost not having faith in ones self. pretty sure no ones god wants that.

Xmichra said...

1992..no 1994, i hit te wrong button. Not really a big thing, but incase anyone wanted to google it.

Rob7534 said...

It's been my experiance that most Christians (it's West Virginia) don't really contemplate the intricacies of irony, and/or give much thought into many of their sayings.

They tend (since I'm one of them) to mimic sayings that they heard in church... so it's quite common to hear them say this or that was "God's will" and/or this or that was a "miracle of God" in any given situation. And they are not adverse to applying both statements to the same event.

Since it is a fundamental belief that all things are ultimately in God's control, thus all things are his "will" so to speak, and since he is in control he can ussurp his own law and rules of science to make room for a "miracle" every so often. As he see's fit, because in the end, it all distills down to the fact that he can do whatever he wants! :)

And since a Christian can NEVER ascribe fault or unjustice to God, who is incapable of such human failings, the opposite of a miracle is NOT a mistake by God, or a fault to him in anyway, it is simply his will, and it is left at that. Never to be revisited again, because to do so would question his will, which is a big No-No.

So, as you can imagine, I consider myself spiritual, religious, Christian even, but I prefer to give a lot more thought into it, and allow for human failure to be at blame and not ascribe it to an over-reaching policy from the Almighty just to cause us heartache and pain.

Or at least, that what I think :)

Xmichra said...

that's pretty astute of you Rob. I think you're bang on there.

Rob7534 said...

Thanks Xmichra :)