I hate the word "miracle".

[Brian37]

RationalPoet..............Every time I hear a story of survival and a reporter uses the word "miracle" it makes me want to puke as if there is some government mandated law to turn the mundane into magic and if you don't use that word you will get fired. It makes me want to go on a (metaphorical killing spree(strangle the bad logic)..........

A 7 year old girl managed to survive a plane crash on a small turbo prop plane. Everyone else on that small plane died but she managed to crawl out of the plane and walk almost a mile to get help. Fine, and great, but the word "miracle" is a bullshit word. How about the family members who did not make it? There was no magic to her survival anymore than there was magic to those who died. It was a result of the countless factors and conditions and physics. Magic and god do not explain shit. She lost family members so if one wants to claim a god, then that god is a fucking dick because she on top of suffering the trauma of the accident will live the rest of her life with the pain of the loss of her loved ones.

http://news.yahoo.com/-brave-little-girl...44849.html

[robvalue]

I hate that word too. It speaks of total ignorance, gullibility and a desperation to see "God" everywhere, even in the midst of horrible disasters.

It's a fucking stupid word, an unfalsifiable and pointless claim made by people not grounded in reality.

[IATIA]

"It speaks of total ignorance, gullibility and a desperation to see "God" everywhere, even in cheese sandwiches."

Fixed that for you.

[Aoi Magi]

Yeh but put "miracle" on anything and it sells faster, and "little girl survives due to probabilities" won't have the same ring to it.

[Brian37]

It really is a word stemming from nothing more than our species flawed perceptions in selection bias and sample rate error.

[Radco]

Seems to be a crutch word for journalists when they need to describe an unlikely event or outcome. But it smacks of sensationalism.

I would think that describing the number of times this has ever happened or the odds of it happening would be more compelling, but that would require work on their part.

Surely they were taught to report the facts and leave it up to the reader to attribute divine intervention? Maybe they weren't...

[Exian]

Why don't they make the entire plane out of that kid?

[Brian37]

Seems to be a crutch word for journalists when they need to describe an unlikely event or outcome. But it smacks of sensationalism.

I would think that describing the number of times this has ever happened or the odds of it happening would be more compelling, but that would require work on their part.

Surely they were taught to report the facts and leave it up to the reader to attribute divine intervention? Maybe they weren't...

I can understand the emotion of wanting someone to survive. It is within our species to have empathy for others. I simply hate the idea that because you survived that magic was involved.

I am happy for that 7 year old that she did not die. But everyone else on the plane died.

[Minimalist]

Stupid people need "miracles."

[Brian37]

Stupid people need "miracles."

Exactly. If air travel is to become safer for small planes like this, you don't chalk it up to luck. You insist on better pilot training and better technology. God is a term with the same placebo value as a rabbit's foot.

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Yeh but put "miracle" on anything and it sells faster, and "little girl survives due to probabilities" won't have the same ring to it.

BINGO. Humans have a very selfish need to sex up reality with fantasy and delusion. Yes, for that individual girl any compassionate person would be happy she survived, but there was no magic or divine hand involved.