When my son survived a serious accident, I didn’t thank God. I thanked Honda.

[cleanhippie]

Last Friday night, a semi-trailer pushed the car my son was driving into a Jersey barrier. The trailer’s back wheel landed on the hood of the car, less than six inches from my son’s head. Every window shattered, throwing glass inches from his face.

But my son has not a scratch on him.

I was so overwhelmed with gratitude that I wrote a letter to Honda praising the expertly engineered safety features that saved his life. I explained that I had been in an equally serious accident 18 years earlier and had suffered a serious brain injury and broken bones all over the right side of my body, requiring countless surgeries.

I posted the letter on Facebook, and closed it with this:

I want to extend my thanks to the engineers who used their intelligence and skill to create a car that safe, to the crash test dummies who have died a thousand horrible deaths and to your executives who did not scrimp on safety.

Thank you, Honda.

That last line rubbed some people the wrong way. While many who left comments on my post were just glad that my son was alive and well, others wanted to know why I had thanked Honda for that outcome. The entity that deserved my thanks, they said, was God. One commenter wrote: “I am thankful that God held your son in His embrace and I am curious why you thanked Honda rather than Him.”

--snip--

However, over many years of thinking about religion and faith, I have noticed that something sad and somewhat strange happens when we thank God: We tend to stop there. We simply overlook the decisions, the science, the policies and the people who contributed to the “miracle.” To put it another way: When we focus on supernatural deliverance from harm, we often ignore all of the human ways we can improve our own safety. I am concerned that we may associate survival of serious accidents with the unpredictable hand of Providence, not with airbags, safety testing and the regulations that have put them in place.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/12/when-my-son-survived-a-serious-accident-i-didnt-thank-god-i-thanked-honda/

[rug]

1. Oh, it's about facebook wars.

TL;DR

Son survives car crash.

Mother thanks Honda on facebook.

Theological discussion ensues.

She posts about it in the Washington Post.

cleanhippie posts it here.

Posts condemning fundies, followed by posts condemning religious people in general, ensues.

SS;DD.

[Cartoonist]

4. Theological discussion ensues.

No, theological idiocy ensues. The mother thanked the right people. Those who tried to make it about God are way off base and deserved to be picked off. This kind of idiocy needs to be pointed out again and again until those idiots learn that we are not going to put up with their idiocy.

[rug]

5. I was being euphemistic.

But you're skipping a couple of steps there.

Get with the program.

[YarnAddict]

8. Those people are hurting nobody.

Why mess with them? You have your beliefs, and they have theirs. Big deal.

[Fumesucker]

10. I got the impression those people were "messing" with the author of the article

They were unhappy with who the writer chose to thank and told them so.

I've had a couple of family members saved from death or severe injury by well engineered cars, I can definitely sympathize with the author.

[YarnAddict]

11. Fair enough

Maybe some of those think there was a higher power who gave the engineers, designers, auto co. execs, etc. the wisdom to invent and bring to fruition those life-saving innovations.

You know, there are people who are still killed in the best-engineered cars. Maybe there is a higher power involved in the timing, or the placement of the vehicles, or the proximity of EMTS, or whatever, that intervened to save this young person's life. Fact is, I don't know. If someone wants to believe that a god, or the fickle finger of fate, or something else entirely should get credit for serendipitous acts, it doesn't bother me in the least.

Irrefutable truth: evangelical atheists are just as bad as evangelical Christians.

Wish everyone could just mind their own business, and let dissenting opinions roll off their backs.

[edhopper]

12. Hmm

What discriminatory laws in have these bad, bad atheists passed?

since they are"just as bad".

[YarnAddict]

15. What I mean by

"just as bad" is people badgering others with differing opinions. People who need to be right no matter how big a pain in the ass they become.

Did that answer your question?

[edhopper]

17. Yes

But I thought badgering other people is what the internet is for.

I think it depends if it's in a discussion forum like this, or uninvited on a post like the one in the OP.

[YarnAddict]

20. Uninvited . . .

Sometimes you just do what feels natural to you, or even what you know another person wants to hear.

A friend told me this afternoon that her d-i-l is seriously ill. I said I'd pray for her. It meant a lot to her. If I say a prayer, or send up good vibes, or wish healing white light upon her, or do the Super Secret Knitters' Dance in her honor, well--all's good. I think all of those things are ways of tapping into a power that we can't understand, and it all means the same thing. JMHO.

[Fumesucker]

14. You mean like Wolf Blitzer and the atheist woman whose home had just been destroyed?

He kept badgering her about whether she "thanked God" until she finally and reluctantly said she was an atheist.

I hope that didn't lead to any negative repercussions in her life although it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

[YarnAddict]

16. Never saw that

Can't imagine why he would think she should "thank God" when her home had been destroyed.

[Fumesucker]

19. I misremembered, it was actually "Thank the Lord"..

[Fumesucker]

9. Says the poster who drags as much inane crap into this group as anyone..

SS;DD indeed.

[rug]

13. That is true. Dawkins has been getting a lot of press lately.

If it offends you, you know what to do.

[Fumesucker]

18. Actually I kind of like you

Your sense of humor is sharp although your rhetorical dodges are not always up to snuff.

If I'm offended I'll let you know.

[pinto]

2. Makes sense for dad to thank Honda for their safety engineering. And cherish his son's survival.

[edhopper]

3. But that means

if we take another car maker, say GM.
And you survive a crash because your Buick LaCross was well designed with good airbags, we must also blame them for crashes due to something like a defective ignition switch.


Hmmm?

[hrmjustin]

6. I would thank Honda as well! having been in a accident in a Honda years ago I was thankful

they made a strong car. We all survived and the airbags and seat belts saved the driver and myself.

And I was also thankful to God. Not that I believe God decides who makes it but I was thankful to be alive.

[edhopper]

7. There is a difference

between someone who thanks God, in just a general way.

And those who say God had a direct effect on the events.

There are incidences where people say someone's survival was miraculous and attribute it to divine interaction.

I think for those instances it is right to ask questions about the implications.

When I am getting over the flu and my neighbor asks about me and I say I am feeling better, I don't think her saying "Thank God" is anything other than wishing me well.

[Prophet 451]

21. It's just people being obnoxious on Facebook

The mother is, of course, perfectly free to thank whomever she likes for her son's survival and it's no-one else's business. Spending most of my time on FB (I'm disabled and crazy, it's my only window on the world), I have to say that this isn't even the most abrasive thing posted on there.