This was the subject of a recent email I received from a well-meaning member of my church. The email contained pictures of a car wreck that a younger member of our church had been involved in. The gist was that not only had he and his friend walked away from a rolled vehicle with only minor injuries but that a preacher was the first one on the scene to help. Ergo - there is a God!
Both as a non-believer and now as a Christian, I have serious issues with these kinds of statements. The logical followup is that everytime someone doesn't walk away from a wreck, it proves there is no God.
(Don't misunderstand me - I've had God intervene miraculously on my life on a few occassions. And there was no denying that it was God - for me and the other believers involved. But how does this prove God exists? He showed Himself to me - but I already believe.)
How many people died in Cuba and elsewhere this week due to the hurricane? Yet I gurantee that if hits the US as hard as it has Cuba, there will be the "God saved me" stories.
Perhaps I'm too cynical this week. But all this seems far too self-centered. Does the (well-meaning) lady who sent this email believe the young man's life was that much more important than the half-dozen or so people who died violently in this area over the last few days? God loved the boy in the accident, so He made sure he survived. But the gang-banger that was stabbed to death near downtown yesterday - he must not have been as well loved....
I see the same thing with medical 'miracles'. I have some wonderful friends who have survived cancer against all odds - and I have others who have slowly and painfully died from cancer. Can we really call one of these cases a miracle? Was God not at work in the other?
(http://jimmie.compassionatechristianity.org/?p=320)
