The "Miracle" of the Aurora Shooting

[slickcat79]

My cousin posted this link on FB earlier, along with the message:

This is incredible. MY GOD is bigger than anything that will ever come our way.

I have no idea why she would say that, as she has no connection with the shooting whatsoever. She didn't know any of the victims and lives nowhere near Colorado, so it's really just condescending. But I digress...

The article tells the story of one of the shooting victims, who was very seriously injured but survived. On the one hand, the story is lovely and it's nice to see someone focus on a positive outcome from the shooting instead of making crass jokes or trying to blame the victims. I am relieved for the victim in question, and for her family. It's good to know that her loved ones, especially her cancer-stricken mother, will not have to deal with the trauma of losing someone they care about.

HOWEVER...

How does going out on a casual evening to see a movie with friends and GETTING SHOT IN THE HEAD constitute a miracle? Wouldn't it be more miraculous to have not been shot at all? Or for no one to have been shot? How about the miracle of the shooter not being able to get into the theater, or having his mind changed about going on a murderous rampage in the first place?

The article suggests that the structure of the victim's brain, which has been anomalous from birth, allowed her to survive the shooting without the expected brain damage. Therefore, god must have been preparing to have this woman shot in the head since her birth, since he built her brain in a way that she'd be able to survive it. Of course, had she been born in another time and place, without multiple teams of gifted surgeons available, she would have died just like many other people die from GSWs every day. And where was god's mercy for the other dozen victims in Aurora? What exactly did a 6yo girl do to piss off god, that she deserved to bleed to death on the floor of a random movie theater?

I can understand this victim's family and friends being grateful that she survived with a good prognosis. But I can't understand random strangers finding anything miraculous about the Aurora shooting. The whole thing was a tragedy.

[B5SnowDog]

Yeah, I'm not impressed with a deity who couldn't swing a bigger miracle than this.

[Kitty]

Because genetics had nothing to do with it, not at all. Genes are static and never mutate, and of course if someone is noticeably different from their parents God made them that way. Maybe it's that this woman's parents' brains are the same but it makes no difference, or maybe they have a recessive gene hidden somewhere. And the whole purpose of this woman's life is to show how awesome SOMEONE ELSE is when she gets shot in the head.

What the FUCK is wrong with these people?!

[ElphabaGalinda]

Although it's great that this woman wasn't killed, I don't like the idea of calling it a miracle. The bigger miracle would be if she wasn't shot in the first place, even bigger if no one was shot. It was very lucky, and it's great for her and her family that she survived. But it makes it sound like it was all meant to happen and she was supposed to get shot because of how her brain was. A God who would design people for that kind of purpose while deciding it wasn't important to stop a 6 year old and 12 other people from dying, is not the kind of God I'd want to worship.

[NjoyingNsanity]

You know what I'd consider a miracle he shows up throws the canister it smells like roses, he goes to shoot people and his gun jams before he can fire off a shot, then a bunch of guys in bright white robes with feathery wings and halos stand between him and the audience. His second gun works but the bullets just pass through them and bounce off the audience, so he runs in terror from the building and in his haste accidently jumps into the back of a police cruiser. Now that would be a miracle of Biblica l proportions.

[Bethella]

http://jeubfamily [dot] com/2012/07/22/a-very-special-lady-shot-on-friday-at-batman/

http://jeubfamily [dot] com/2012/07/23/pledge-drive-for-the-andersons/

This family is friends with the Jeubs. Assuming they have at least somewhat similar beliefs, it does explain something about how this "miracle" is being interpreted.

[luckystone]

Although it's great that this woman wasn't killed, I don't like the idea of calling it a miracle. The bigger miracle would be if she wasn't shot in the first place, even bigger if no one was shot. It was very lucky, and it's great for her and her family that she survived. But it makes it sound like it was all meant to happen and she was supposed to get shot because of how her brain was. A God who would design people for that kind of purpose while deciding it wasn't important to stop a 6 year old and 12 other people from dying, is not the kind of God I'd want to worship.

Well said.

I don't understand how these people pick one positive thing out of a bunch of negative, awful ones, and are like "OMG THANKS GOD". It's so cruel to all the people who didn't have "miracle" survivals, and if they think god was behind it it really calls into question why god didn't do more. Did god just randomly decide some people shouldn't die, and that's a miracle? Or could god not stop the rest? I don't get it! How is this possibly a good thing if it's done by god? I'm all in favour of being grateful for little things out of bad ones, but you have to accept it's lucky chance you are being grateful for!

[Glass Cowcatcher]

You know what I'd consider a miracle he shows up throws the canister it smells like roses, he goes to shoot people and his gun jams before he can fire off a shot, then a bunch of guys in bright white robes with feathery wings and halos stand between him and the audience. His second gun works but the bullets just pass through them and bounce off the audience, so he runs in terror from the building and in his haste accidently jumps into the back of a police cruiser. Now that would be a miracle of Biblica l proportions.

:clap:

I get where this women is coming from. It's logical to look for "Why am I still here when others died?" answers. The line of thinking just pisses me off though. The supposedly loving, compassionate god has no problem killing other people, in a horrendous manner, just to make a point to someone else.

[deelaem]

Dang, that's supposed to be a miracle? Today's miracles just aren't as good as they used to be. I ask you, who walks on water these days? Where's the plague of locusts just when you need them? I think God is getting lazy, or maybe he's just run out of ideas. Now if he were to pull off putting a feminist woman in as President, then I'd be impressed.

[bananacat]

I'm pretty sure I posted this before, but it's worth repeating:

[Want More Babies]

I knew who you were posting about before ever clicking on the link. :roll:

Within a few hours of the shooting, one of the moderators (who is a vile bitch) on Above Rubies posted about her friend needing prayer. You have to understand, this female (I will not call her a lady because she is anything but) who believes she is a speshul snowflake, posted for prayer for Petra. This moderator is known for posting her prayers requests whenever she has one and because she is not moderated, it goes through immediately. Others can wait days for her to decide to get on an let their prayer requests go through.

With her being friends of the family I can only image how this girl's family is.

Of course, she is super speshul. God saved her. :roll:

[bionicmlle]

Seems like the miracle, for this girl, is that she never had a brain MRI and had the anomaly corrected. Thanks, God, for saving her from migraine headaches??

[NoMoreBabiesHere]

We live in a society that seems to have to find a silver lining to everything so to a degree I give the people a pass. BUT on the other hand all I read about this lady from family friends is how it is a miracle, blah, blah, blah (and I mean blah in the nicest way possible). There is no talk of praying for the other people still fighting for their lives or the grieving families, etc. There is probably a family out there who is grateful for the "miracle" that their loved one felt no pain and went instantly. Wish the people would acknowledge that this tragedy was bigger and affected more people than just their friend.

[luckystone]

We live in a society that seems to have to find a silver lining to everything so to a degree I give the people a pass. BUT on the other hand all I read about this lady from family friends is how it is a miracle, blah, blah, blah (and I mean blah in the nicest way possible). There is no talk of praying for the other people still fighting for their lives or the grieving families, etc. There is probably a family out there who is grateful for the "miracle" that their loved one felt no pain and went instantly. Wish the people would acknowledge that this tragedy was bigger and affected more people than just their friend.

I guess it must be hard to cope with the enormity of the luck though...I think it would mess with your head, and possibly the heads of your loved ones, that you did survive so miraculously. A lot of survivors of traumatic events feel guilt, and in this case it might be even worse. Maybe this is their way of dealing with it. I do wish they'd be a bit more logical though and yes maybe talk about it a bit less at the moment.

[mockingbird]

I guess I've always thought that God/miracles tend to work more like the Time Turner in Harry Potter or other time-travel stories haha... just the idea that specific things are ordained to happen and there's nothing you can do to change the major events but you can make small changes that might provide some help to some people, which might not be perfect but are at least an improvement. In that sense, I would see her recovery as miraculous. This conflicts with the idea of an omniscient god, though. And I agree that her survival doesn't negate the suffering of others whose love ones did not survive, and that it's best not to "rub it in their faces" so to speak.

[Grace]

It's yet ANOTHER example of these people not knowing (or caring about) the difference between a miracle and providence.

Miracle: An effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.

Providence: the foreseeing care and guidance of God or nature over the creatures of the earth.

In this case, it would have been a miracle if this poor woman got shot in the head and when they go in it looks like there never was any bullet in her head at all and she's just fine. Instead, it was providential that she happened to have this anomaly in her brain that was never discovered and the bullet happened to take that path, keeping her protected from brain damage.

[MrsYoungie]

This all reminds me of a thing I once read about the "Amazing Shrinking God". He once was capable of parting the Red Sea to save the entire Hebrew tribe, but is now reduced to making a blurry image in the damp stain under an old bridge. Shrinking indeed.

[itsnikki05]

Well it's great that anyone survived that... I don't know. I can see both sides of this.

[wtfrenchtoast]

No. This is not a miracle. One of my friends posted about it on FB too, and I was so angry I could hardly breathe for maybe two hours afterwards. Don't get me wrong, I am glad this woman survived. That's great. But it is downright insulting to all the other people who didn't survive. A six year old girl was shot FOUR times. They had to tell her mother that she didn't make it while her mother was still in intensive care. Where was the miracle for Ashley and Veronica Moser? Or for Jon Blunk, who died shielding his girlfriend from bullets? Or for Alex Sullivan, who was days away from his first wedding anniversary? There was nothing miraculous about this shooting. It was horrible, something that never should have happened. If it were me that people were holding up as some miraculous case study, I would hate it.

[Cherokee2000]

It's yet ANOTHER example of these people not knowing (or caring about) the difference between a miracle and providence.

Miracle: An effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.

Providence: the foreseeing care and guidance of God or nature over the creatures of the earth.

In this case, it would have been a miracle if this poor woman got shot in the head and when they go in it looks like there never was any bullet in her head at all and she's just fine. Instead, it was providential that she happened to have this anomaly in her brain that was never discovered and the bullet happened to take that path, keeping her protected from brain damage.

Grace: I never really thought about "providence" as opposed to "miracles," but I think that makes a bit of sense (at least it does if you want to put a higher power into the picture of a tragedy).

I find myself, though, wanting to further demote this situation from "miracle," down through "providence," and have it come to rest at a level of ........ oh, I don't know: how about "happy coincidence"?

Yes, now that I think some more about it, he happy coincidence label seems appropriate.

Don't misunderstand me: it's still something to be joyful about in an otherwise tragic situation. And it still ranks above "benign anomaly." Until last week, the little fluid sac in Petra's brain was an irrelevant non-harmful idiosyncrasy that was just one component of her body that was uniquely hers. A benign anomaly. It's comparable to a benign abnormality discovered in my son's body when he was 15. Doctors discovered a pancreatic rest, which is a little piece of tissue from the pancreas that for some reason migrated to his intestine and settled there. He was born with it and it has never caused any symptoms. If he hadn't had tests for other reasons, he may have lived his whole life without ever knowing about it.

My son has a benign (and irrelevant) anomaly. If he was ever so unlucky to face the violence of being shot, and his misplaced pancreatic tissue managed to stop a bullet from invading a vital organ, I guess his situation would rise up the ladder from benign anomaly to happy coincidence. He would be in the same situation as Petra.

But to go up the holy ladder of Explanations Of Bad Things Happening To Good People, I don't think either my son or Petra would rate the level of providence (although your opinion may differ). Definitely neither would rate the level of miracle.