Apropos your first encounter - is there a name for that specific psychological phenomena?
This is something we encounter quite often when a tragic event us juxtaposed with a silver lining. Recently, a close friend of mine and his parents were in a car accident. While the parents escaped with relatively minor injuries (broken arm and a concussion), my friend's condition was quite serious for a bit. He had a broken femur and jaw, underwent a few surgeries and has been confined to bed for the past few months. He is, however, expected to make a full recovery. Now, none of them are particularly religious, and yet, during my last visit, they made the grating statement "Thank God it wasn't worse". I was tempted to ask if they blamed him for the accident as well.
However, these kind of pithy comforting statements, which if you think about it, should not be all that comforting - are made all the time. "Thank god he survived". "Thank god he didn't suffer". "Thank God they found the cancer in time". And so on. Essentially, you are not blaming god for the terrible thing that has happened and yet you are crediting him for not making it even worse? There should be a name for this phenomenon, right?
This is something we encounter quite often when a tragic event us juxtaposed with a silver lining. Recently, a close friend of mine and his parents were in a car accident. While the parents escaped with relatively minor injuries (broken arm and a concussion), my friend's condition was quite serious for a bit. He had a broken femur and jaw, underwent a few surgeries and has been confined to bed for the past few months. He is, however, expected to make a full recovery. Now, none of them are particularly religious, and yet, during my last visit, they made the grating statement "Thank God it wasn't worse". I was tempted to ask if they blamed him for the accident as well.
However, these kind of pithy comforting statements, which if you think about it, should not be all that comforting - are made all the time. "Thank god he survived". "Thank god he didn't suffer". "Thank God they found the cancer in time". And so on. Essentially, you are not blaming god for the terrible thing that has happened and yet you are crediting him for not making it even worse? There should be a name for this phenomenon, right?
