Cause and Effect

So, we have people viewing the Chilean miner rescue in much the same way as these Facebook folks:



Which only raises the question asked in this humorous cartoon:

The Christians will praise their god for anything which happens, incorporating the event into the narrative that their god is always benevolent, even if the events don't immediately show such goodness.  Either the event was a miraculous immediate benefit happening (winning the lottery, unexpectedly recovering from illness, being rescued) or the event has a larger purpose and meaning, intended to teach us something on the other side of it (getting sick in the first place, becoming trapped in a mine).

In this manner, they can keep their unquestioning faith, with no need to trouble themselves to question the nature of the security blanket in which they wrap themselves.

I think some Bukowski is appropriate here:

For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.