Selective thanks

[Rapscallion]

People like to thank higher powers/their delusions - take your pick of definition, since that's what this board is all about. I'll admit that this one was sparked by a comment on CS, but I've noticed that there is quite a trend to look for things happening and claiming it was the work of the supernatural.

Things that really get me are the sort where a soldier will be saved by the bible in his inside coat pocket that takes the bullet that would have otherwise killed him. Of course, this was god's will, right?

A plane crashes and there's one survivor. The media or commentators say that god was looking out for them. What about the rest of the crew? Did that person's god just think "Sod them"?

Twenty thousand soldiers died per day on the Somme. They must have pissed off their gods something rotten, yeah?

All part of the divine plan? Nah - sheer blind fortune and misfortune at work.

Rapscallion

[Greenday]

Not quite something so horrible, but:

A football players scores a touchdown or a baseball player hits a home run and immediately thanks God because it was God who let them hit that home run or score a touchdown. But someone gets sacked, or someone strikes out, there's no way that was God's choice, right?

[AFPheonix]

Oh, and if someone like Kathy Griffin dare say that her achievement is in fact NOT due to supernatural assistance, the comment gets censored.

[Pedersen]

Slightly dissenting viewpoint, but not entirely. Sometimes, I get the feeling that there is some sort of higher power which prods our lives slightly. For instance, me and my wife? We should not be together, by all rights.

The number of coincidences it took for us to meet, separate, and then get back together over 5 years later is simply staggering to me. I don't think it's what I would call God, but I do think some higher power had a hand in it, somehow. It certainly feels that way.

It's not a daily, or even yearly, thing, to be sure. But, sometimes, it does feel like something took a hand in events that played out.

[Seshat]

But, sometimes, it does feel like something took a hand in events that played out.

But do you blame that same something when things go wrong that also took a number of coincidences to go wrong?

[Rapscallion]

How about all the people who separate and - astoundingly enough - don't get back together again?

Rapscallion

[Pedersen]

But do you blame that same something when things go wrong that also took a number of coincidences to go wrong?

I'll admit that I've never given it much thought, but to my mind it seems like I do. There are days when I swear that I've pissed off something, and it's out to get me. Call it karma, call it god, call it fate, I don't care. I do feel like there's something, I just have no idea what that something is.

I hate being so vague about it, but it comes from one simple thing: I believe there is something out there, and I have no idea what that something is. And yes, I do believe that that something can influence us in both positive and negative ways.

I just don't believe it's what many Judeo-Christian types would call God.

[Dreamstalker]

a soldier will be saved by the bible in his inside coat pocket that takes the bullet that would have otherwise killed him.

The Mythbusters tested something similar (paperback book stopping a bullet). According to the episode guide:

A hardcover book of at least 400 pages can potentially stop a .22 rifle shot, but anything stronger would shoot completely through.

And that's your Mythbusters Moment for the week ^_^

I believe there is something out there, and I have no idea what that something is. And yes, I do believe that that something can influence us in both positive and negative ways.

I also think there's something out there, but I don't believe it controls all. Influence, possibly,. Outright control, no.

[Rapscallion]

The Mythbusters tested something similar (paperback book stopping a bullet). According to the episode guide:

And that's your Mythbusters Moment for the week ^_^

That's a modern bullet, I would assume - how about one from a WW1 rifle?

Rapscallion

[Boozy]

That's a modern bullet, I would assume - how about one from a WW1 rifle?

Those things couldn't cut butter half the time.

[rahmota]

Originally Posted by Rapscallion
That's a modern bullet, I would assume - how about one from a WW1 rifle?

Those things couldn't cut butter half the time.

I dont know about that. I've seen a civil war era minie ball cut a melon in half before. A .303 enfield can be quite effective. And yeah most things larger than .22lr or short is goign to punch through a typical romance novel and some calibers will punch throuh quite a bit more.

Me and a friend took a .45-70 krag (high powered elk rifle) and shot a stack of 25cincinnati white pages we had duct taped together from about a hundred yards away. The round penetrated all of them the 1/2 inch plywood we had stacked them in front of and buried itself in the dirt berm behind the whole shebang. the .45-70 round was developed back in the late 1870s and was used in the spanish american war and never really left the military until after WW1.

To use a british round The .303 as used by the enfield it had the follwoign stats:174 gr
2496 ft/s (~761 m/s) Muzzle velocity
2408 ft·lbf (~3275 J of Impact Force.

I think that would cut a bit more than hot butter........

And i think the term you are looking for Pederson is called the Force......

But I'll agree with you more closely pederson in that the universe does seem to have some sort of power if you will. But that it is not aware or if so about as aware of our lives and petty concerns as a dog is aware of the fleas it has.

[Greenday]

If I didn't completely botch my math, that's about 220,000 kJ of kinetic energy. That is a lot.

[Misanthropical]

I always wondered about giving thanks to God too. I can't believe God really cares about football. I mean shouldn't God be more worried about world hunger than who wins a football game?

If someone is the only person left alive after a horrible event, why is that person the only one God was willing to save? What makes that person so much more deserving than the others?

I try not to think about it.

[powerboy]

When i had my accident with my pick-up. By all rights I should be dead. It rolled 3 times. I banged my head each time. Yes I had my seatbelt on. All I got from it was a little tiny bruise, that was about 1/4 inch long. I was fine otherwise. I know that it was God that saved me & and for that I honestly thanked him for that.

[CancelMyService]

Not to discount your faith, but the construction of the truck probably had a little to do with it too.

Just today, one of my co-workers told us the news that her husband was officially declared in remission from the cancer that he's been battling for a while. She gave all the credit to the prayers that have been said, and while it certainly wasn't the time to mention it, I could only think of my father's cancer that returned after prayer allegedly sent him into remission too. I mean, I'm certainly happy that the man's getting some good news, but to think it's all because of people talking to themselves and not the hard work of doctors and modern medicine just makes me shake my head a little. It's like setting yourself up for a huge letdown.