No miracles for Ecuadorians

After the case of the rescued 33 miners many praises and thanks to God have been chanted along the most religious, especially those who can’t understand how a well developed human-made plan, along with technology could have been successful and end up calling it a miracle. A Colombian newspaper even gets to this:

From "El Espectador"
Question: "The Chilean miners's rescue, to you, is more
- Miracle
-Science

This blog talked about other cases in which miners died without any miracle done in order to spare them from a horrible death.

So, to finish the miners’ issue, here is another piece of news regarding miners who suffered God’s negligence and died, with no prayer that could change that,

Three of four miners in Ecuador found dead

The corpses of other two miners were found on Saturday at 150 meters below the surface, in a gold mine at the Ecuadorian south-east. This makes three dead people and a fourth one that is still missing.

Please don’t tell me that for those miners no one prayed. Don’t tell me that there was not even one who put his faith in God and asked to live. And even if no one had done that, it shouldn’t be necessary if there actually is a “loving father” who knows what is in our hearts.

The only logical conclusion is that prayer is useless. There is no proof that this works better than a placebo that gives energy and hope to whoever believes in it. But when it comes to change something in the real world (not the person’s psique), it fails. The only thing that will decide one’s success is the strength of those who are willing to fight for whatever they want, with our without prayer, and usually helped by technology (like with the Chilean miners)

In other words, if we want something to be successful, our only option is to believe in ourselves, and make use of the best technology we can get. To trust in God is pretty much believe in dumb luck or bet to lose.

Threesome Thursdays: Three cases of dead miners

With the miners’ rescue I had almost forgotten about today’s Threesome Thursday. So, let’s talk about disasters in which miners died despite all the prayers and hopes their loved ones had in God.

Pasta de Conchos, México

On February 19, 2006 a coal mine in Pasta de Conchos, Coahuila in Mexico suffered an explosion and 73 miners got trapped inside the mine. 65 died.

I have the impression that Mexicans are more devout than Chileans (after all, the Virgin Mary never appeared in Chile). Imagine all the prayers, petitions, promises made to God, Jesus and all the saints Mexicans believe in.

And then, death.

There was no miracle for the Mexicans, their bodies still there. If God saved the Chilean miners, why not the Mexicans?

Comfort, West Virginia

Time stopped five days ago for the families of 29 coal miners killed in the devastating explosion at Upper Big Branch mine.

Seven bodies were pulled from Upper Big Branch immediately after Monday's blast, but dangerous gases forced rescue crews out and it took days for them to get back in. They hoped four miners they had not accounted for might somehow have made it to a refuge chamber stocked with food, water and oxygen, but word came early Saturday that all had been found dead.

For these miners there was no miracle either. There was no God who listened to them or the prayers in their honor, to look after them and keep them as a living father should. On the contrary, a horrible dead was reserved for them, either in an explosion, or trapped in the deadly gases.

Shanxi, China

At least 38 miners have been killed in three separate accidents in China's notoriously dangerous coal mines, according to state-run media.

Twenty eight people died after an electrical cable caught fire inside the Xiaonangou mine in Shaanxi province, the Xinhua news agency reports.

According to official figures, 2,631 coal miners died in 1,616 mine accidents in China in 2009, down 18% from the previous year.

For them, there was no divine salvation either. Maybe the loving father only helps those in countries that believe in Him, but still, He left the Mexican and American miners to die. So, what kind of “loving father” are we talking about?

Today many thank God for saving those 33 miners. However, no one complains about all the others dead in different parts of the world ¿Could it be that, no matter the prayers, God only responds to his own whines and desires?

Or maybe, he doesn’t care about this world.

Or maybe, He just doesn’t exist.

Because, if there were a God, what kind of loving God is this one? And what kind of idiots thank him for a few rescued, but forget about the death of many?

And finally, I haven’t forgotten that God might have saved 33 Chileans, but killed at least 500 during the last earthquake.

Rapture day FAIL

According to some fundies the Rapture is taking place today:

WARNING: Will The Rapture take place on Monday-September 21st 2009, at The Last Trump of Rosh Hashanah?

We are commanded to know the signs of the times and to be prepared to meet The Lord in the air at the catching away of the believers. The Bible teaches that the church (Jesus’ bride) will not be here during the 7-year period known as The Tribulation.

Astronomical signs prove 100% that the ending of the

7-year tribulation period is at the end of 2015!

Therefore, the beginning of the 7-year

Tribulation period starts by FALL 2009!

How do they know? They have PROOF!

Like most modern day prophecies, this one fails miserably. It’s 3:45 in California, most eastern countries are already in September 22nd. There was no rapture there, so the possibility that there is a rapture here is very, very small. Not only for today, but for future days, since this event has been predicted lots of times in the past.

I’ll be sincere, I didn’t read the whole page (it’s huge and I have better things to do), but there is no doubt it’s pure nonsense. If this is the kind of intelligence created by an almighty being, I am not amused.

See you tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, until the day we die or nuke the hell out of us. But because of the rapture.

Stairway to deception

Some days ago I received an email with a power point presentation about the “miraculous” staircase of a church in New Mexico. The text that comes in the presentation can be read in Snopes.com, actually the best place to debunk nonsense that predates our inbox. And, yes, the “miracle” this Power Point presentation talks about is (as usual) no miracle.

The text in the presentation talks about how the nuns needed a staircase, they prayed, a man came, built the staircase, disappeared.

Then it says that the staircase has no central support, which has amused “architects, engineers and scientists”. Well, that's not so: “the staircase does have a central support [...] the two wood stringers (or spiral structural members) the inner one is of such small radius that it functions as an almost solid pole.” Besides, the text mentions that the staircase had no nails. But that is only natural, since in the time it was built nails were not often used and carpenters had ways to build without them.

There goes a mystery down the tube.

The third mystery is about the wood, which is said that no one knows where it comes from. That's not totally true, since the piece given to be analyzed was smaller than the usual. The wood has been identified as spruce, which has 10 species in the US. The fact the the exact kind of wood from where it comes from has not yet been recognized does not mean that it's a mystery. If there had been a more adequate sample there would be a better chance to find what kind of wood that it. Of course, that would help debunk the miracle.

There goes down another mystery.

The only mystery remaining is the man who built the staircase. After he finished, he was nowhere to be found. But this does not mean, as the text says, that he was Saint Joseph, Jesus's father.

More information on Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

It is so easy to find evidence that proof that this, once “unexplainable” events, are just as subject to physics laws as is anything in the world. Yet, the people who forward these emails (Christians, who else?) do not hesitate in believing any kind of nonsense if it is attributed to God. If it's for God, their capacity to question goes almost null, while ignorance and belief by “faith” take a privileged place over reason.

But that's not news. Religions have fed on ignorance to survive through the times. This story, spread via email is no more than spreading lies, in the name of god.

Where is the 8th commandment again?

Santa Rosa de Lima, myth busted!

Today, august 30, Peru (and surely many other countries) celebrate the festivity of Santa Rosa de Lima. I remember 10 years ago I was at the sanctuary of Santa Rosa, along with my whole school, to attend a mass in her honor. I don’t remember if I was ok with that or hoped (as most of my classmates) the celebration finished quickly.

That’s one of the memories I have about Santa Rosa, going every year to the sanctuary. Another is an old nun singing a song in her honor in a squeaky voice when I was in elementary school.

As you can notice, children are taught to revere these saint figures since they are very young. No wonder some adults keep revering those figures. I think part of the fascination one feels about it are the miracles that those saints supposedly did.

One of the miracles Santa Rosa is credited for is praying for the corsair Jorge Spilbergen not to attack Lima. Well, thanks to El Utero de Marita and Amautacuna de la Historia, that miracle has been busted.

From Amautacuna de la Historia:

When the corsair Spilbergen, a Calvinist, arrived to Callao (the principal port in Peru, very near Lima, the capital) everywhere in Lima was the rumor that his men would enter the Santo Domingo Convent to desecrate the Sacrament in the Altar. When Santa Rosa heard that, she run to the temple and “climbed up the altar to protect the eucharist with her own body”, eager to die defending it. At the same time she prayed to the Virgen del Rosario to protect the city

Being a corsair, I’m sure Spilbergen had better things to do than going to a church and desecrate whatever was there. His men might have had a good time with 29 year-old Rosa, but that’s just my speculation. After all, they weren’t pirates.

Coincidently, Spilbergen did not disembarked in Callao, neither attacked Lima; he went to Paita and Acapulco and then to Molucas and never came back. The people from Lima attributed their salvation to Santa Rosa de Lima and to this day many remember the episode as one of her principal miracles.

However, checking some books, I found some facts that allow us to understand better why Lima was not attacked that Tuesday, July 21, 1615:

- In the Cerro Azul combat, Spilbergen lost a ship and other 5 were left very damaged
- In that same combat, the corsair lost 25% of his men.
- When Spilbergen arrived to Callao and commanded the disembarkment, his ships were attacked by a canon that protected the port.
- Spilbergen only had 300 men and did not

IN OTHER WORDS, Lima was NOT SAVED because Santa Rosa’s prayers (as if prayer ever worked), but because a particular reason.

On a certain way is understandable that people pray when they have no other options and all hope is lost. But those prayers won’t change anything. Your beloved ones may be dying and you can gather the entire town to pray, but that won’t work. Sorry, that’s how it is. Santa Rosa may have prayed all she wanted, but she doesn’t deserve any credit for Lima no being invaded.